Principal GenAI Data Engineer

Bellevue, Washington, USA; Dallas, Texas, USA; San Jose, California, USAPosted 8 days ago

Role Overview

Zscaler is hiring a Principal GenAI Data Engineer. This is a full-time hybrid role, based in Bellevue, Washington, USA; Dallas, Texas, USA; San Jose, California. Part of Zscaler's Security hiring, posted last week. Full responsibilities, required qualifications, and the apply link are listed in the description below.

Salary Context

Salary is not disclosed in this posting. Market median for Principal-level Security roles is $152k-$240k (based on 40 comparable listings). Many employers share specifics during the interview process or after an initial screen.

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PythonAgileSaaSORBenefitsEEOCPrivacyZscaler

Job description

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 GenAI Data 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, Enterprise AI Data Platform in the IT Data Strategy department. We are seeking an experienced technical leader to drive the design and implementation of enterprise-grade Generative AI data ingestion, knowledge preparation, and platform architectures that enable scalable, production-ready GenAI applications. This role focuses on architecting robust pipelines and platforms for ingesting, processing, governing, and serving structured and unstructured enterprise data for AI/LLM workloads. The ideal candidate combines deep expertise in enterprise data architecture, unstructured data pipelines, GenAI platform engineering, and strong software engineering skills in Python.

What you’ll do (Role Expectations)

Architect enterprise-scale GenAI data platforms for ingestion, transformation, enrichment, and serving of structured and unstructured data
Design scalable pipelines for enterprise knowledge ingestion from diverse data sources including documents, SaaS platforms, knowledge bases, collaboration tools, and databases
Define architecture for metadata extraction, chunking, enrichment, embeddings generation, and knowledge preparation workflows
Design AI-ready data models and storage strategies for vector, graph, and hybrid knowledge systems
Architect scalable unstructured data processing pipelines for text, images, PDFs, tables, and multimodal content

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. True ownership involves leveraging dynamic range: the ability to navigate seamlessly between high-level strategy and hands-on execution.
You are a problem-solver. You love running towards the challenges because you are laser-focused on finding the solution, 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 are obsessed with your own development, 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)

Foundational understanding of AI/ML technologies and experience leveraging, securing, or positioning AI-driven solutions to optimize outcomes within your functional domain
Expert-level Python programming and software engineering capabilities
Experience building distributed/scalable data pipelines for AI workloads
Strong understanding of unstructured data extraction and processing pipelines
Experience with vector databases, graph databases, and metadata/knowledge storage systems
Hands-on experience with clustering, entity recognition algorithms, and modern retrieval strategies (including RAG, search, and agentic AI workflows)

What Will Make You Stand Out (Preferred Qualifications)

Advanced experience architecting real-time distributed vector search infrastructure and multi-modal knowledge graph pipelines for enterprise-grade Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) applications
Experience with LLMOps / GenAIOps frameworks such as LangSmith, Evaluation Framework like Arize Phoenix, Weights & Biases, or MLflow
Familiarity with Agent Frameworks like LangGraph, CrewAI, or Google ADK

#LI-Remote #LI-YC2

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

$182,000—$260,000 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 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.

Pay Transparency

Zscaler complies with all applicable federal, state, and local pay transparency rules.

Zscaler is committed to providing reasonable support (called accommodations or adjustments) in our recruiting processes for candidates who are differently abled, have long term conditions, mental health conditions or sincerely held religious beliefs, or who are neurodivergent or require pregnancy-related support.

About Zscaler

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do I apply for the Principal GenAI Data Engineer position at Zscaler?

Use the Apply button above to submit your application directly to Zscaler. Most applications take less than 5 minutes if your resume and contact details are ready, and you'll be routed to the employer's official application system to finish.

Is the Principal GenAI Data Engineer role at Zscaler remote or in-office?

This is a hybrid role based in Bellevue, Washington, USA; Dallas, Texas, USA; San Jose, California. Expect a mix of in-office and remote days, with the specific cadence set by the hiring manager.

What does a Principal GenAI Data Engineer at Zscaler earn?

Zscaler has not disclosed a salary range in this posting. Many employers share specifics later in the interview process; you can also ask during a recruiter screen if compensation transparency is important to you.

When was the Principal GenAI Data Engineer role at Zscaler posted?

This role was posted on July 14, 2026 (8 days ago). It's still listed as actively hiring; we re-confirm openings against the source system multiple times per day and remove closed roles.

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