Principal Software Engineer (Product Validation and Support)

About Zscaler Zscaler accelerates digital transformation to ensure our customers can be more agile, efficient, resilient, and secure. As an AI-forward enterprise , we are constantly pushing the envelope, leveraging the world’s largest security data lake to power our cloud-native Zero Trust Exchange platform. This innovation protects our 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 say, impact over activity. We seek innovators who actively use AI to amplify their impact and who thrive in an environment where we leverage intelligent systems to stay ahead of evolving threats. 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 be part of the team that’s helping to secure the AI age, we invite you to bring your talents to Zscaler and help shape the future of cybersecurity. Role We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer (Product Validation and Support) to join our Engineering team. This is a hybrid role based in San Jose, CA (3 days a week in office), reporting to the Senior Director, Software Development Engineering. You will be the bridge between customer support and engineering for the Zero Trust for Workloads (Cloud Connector) and Zscaler Microsegmentation products, providing a deep understanding of end-to-end product features. You’ll be responsible for addressing and driving all customer-facing issues and cloud incidents to resolution while ensuring product enablement is seamless. What you’ll do (Role Expectations) Triage and resolve critical customer issues to ensure high levels of satisfaction and technical stability Be the ‘Power User’ of the products and help qualify product features and configurations end-to-end to mirror real-world customer environments Partner with product managers to define, validate, and expand new and existing features Maintain continuous cloud service and take accountability for addressing any cloud incidences or performance degradations Design and implement robust test automation flows and pipelines 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 a high-trust collaborator. You are ambitious for the team, not just yourself. You embrace our challenge culture by giving and receiving ongoing feedback—knowing that candor delivered with clarity and respect is the truest form of teamwork and the fastest way to earn trust. You are a learner. You have a true growth mindset and never stop developing yourself, actively seeking feedback to become a better partner and a stronger teammate. You love what you do and you do it with purpose. What We’re Looking for (Minimum Qualifications) US Citizenship is required (due to the nature of assigned customers) Extensive experience in firewall security, network security for workloads, and multi-cloud deployments Proven