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Sr. Staff Platform Engineer- Kubernetes

Bellevue, Washington, USA; San Jose, California, USA

About Zscaler

Zscaler accelerates digital transformation so our customers can be more agile, efficient, resilient, and secure. Our cloud native Zero Trust Exchange platform protects thousands of customers from cyberattacks and data loss by securely connecting users, devices, and applications in any location.

Here, impact in your role matters more than title and trust is built on results. We believe in transparency and value constructive, honest debate—we’re focused on getting to the best ideas, faster. We build high-performing teams that can make an impact quickly and with high quality. To do this, we are building a culture of execution centered on customer obsession, collaboration, ownership and accountability. 

We value high-impact, high-accountability with a sense of urgency where you’re enabled to do your best work and embrace your potential. If you’re driven by purpose, thrive on solving complex challenges and want to make a positive difference on a global scale, we invite you to bring your talents to Zscaler and help shape the future of cybersecurity.

We are looking for a Sr. Staff Platform Engineer to join our team. This is a Hybrid role based in San Jose, CA or Bellevue, WA (3 days in office), reporting to the Senior Manager, Software Development Engineering within the Zero Trust Exchange department.

As a Sr. Staff Platform Engineer, you’ll lead our multi-tenant Kubernetes platform across regions and sovereign environments—owning design, reliability, and security. You’ll set technical standards, ensure critical uptime and performance, and build automation that helps teams ship quickly and confidently at global scale.

What you’ll do (Role Expectations)

  • Own architecture and lifecycle of multi-tenant Kubernetes clusters across public and sovereign environments, delivering 99.999% uptime with multi-region HA, failover, DR, scaling, and security hardening
  • Build and automate platform capabilities using Go operators, GitOps, Helm, and Terraform while defining standards for networking, RBAC, policies, quotas, and multi-tenancy isolation
  • Lead observability and performance initiatives using Prometheus, Grafana, and OpenTelemetry to drive cost efficiency and manage SLOs
  • Drive supply chain and runtime security through Sigstore, SBOMs, and OPA while operating safe CI/CD rollouts with automated change management
  • Troubleshoot complex production issues across control and data planes, lead incident postmortems, mentor engineers, and evaluate emerging technologies like Cilium and eBPF

Who You Are (Success Profile)

  • You thrive in ambiguity. You're comfortable building the path as you walk it. You thrive in a dynamic environment, seeing ambiguity not as a hindrance, but as the raw material to build something meaningful.
  • You act like an owner. Your passion for the mission fuels your bias for action. You operate with integrity because you genuinely care about the outcome. You adapt to what’s needed, navigating seamlessly between high-level strategy and hands-on execution.
  • You are a problem-solver. You seek out challenges because you are energized by finding solutions, knowing that solving the hard problems delivers the biggest impact.
  • You are customer-obsessed. You build deep empathy for the customer—both internal and external—and anchor your decisions in solving their real-world problems. You champion their needs from start to finish, knowing their success is our success.
  • You operate with urgency. You understand that in a high-growth environment, speed and quality are not mutually exclusive. You have a relentless focus on execution and a bias for action, delivering high-impact results quickly to win for the customer and the team.

What We’re Looking for (Minimum Qualifications)

  • 8+ years in platform/infra engineering with 5+ years operating Kubernetes in production at multi-cluster, multi-region scale
  • Deep hands-on knowledge of Kubernetes internals and operations, including control plane components, etcd health, scheduling, HPA/VPA, Cluster Autoscaler, and upgrade strategies
  • Strong proficiency in Go and Python for building operators, controllers, CLI tools, and automation
  • Expertise in cloud networking and service connectivity, including CNI, Ingress/Gateway API, Istio, and observability stacks like Prometheus and Grafana
  • Proven leadership of complex platform initiatives with rigorous IaC/GitOps practices, security-first architecture, and a Bachelor’s in CS/Engineering or related field

What Will Make You Stand Out (Preferred Qualifications)

  • Multi-cloud operations across AWS/GCP/Azure including EKS/GKE/AKS, hybrid/on‑prem setups, and experience in sovereign or regulated environments
  • Experience with performance, storage, and networking at scale, including kernel tuning, backup/restore/DR, eBPF/Cilium, and zero trust implementation
  • Contributions to CNCF/open source projects or published technical talks and papers

#LI-YC2 

#LI-Hybrid

Zscaler’s salary ranges are benchmarked and are determined by role and level. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations and could be higher or lower based on a multitude of factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

The base salary range listed for this full-time position excludes commission/ bonus/ equity (if applicable) + benefits.

Base Pay Range

$154,000 - $220,000 USD

At Zscaler, we are committed to building a team that reflects the communities we serve and the customers we work with. We foster an inclusive environment that values all backgrounds and perspectives, emphasizing collaboration and belonging. Join us in our mission to make doing business seamless and secure.

Our Benefits program is one of the most important ways we support our employees. Zscaler proudly offers comprehensive and inclusive benefits to meet the diverse needs of our employees and their families throughout their life stages, including:

  • Various health plans
  • Time off plans for vacation and sick time
  • Parental leave options
  • Retirement options
  • Education reimbursement
  • In-office perks, and more!

Learn more about Zscaler’s Future of Work strategy, hybrid working model, and benefits here.

By applying for this role, you adhere to applicable laws, regulations, and Zscaler policies, including those related to security and privacy standards and guidelines.

Zscaler is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all individuals. We strive to create a workplace where employees are treated with respect and have the chance to succeed. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy or related medical conditions), age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. See more information by clicking on the Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal link.

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