Staff Detection Engineer at Zscaler

Zscaler (NASDAQ: ZS) accelerates digital transformation so customers can be more agile, efficient, resilient, and secure. The Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange platform protects thousands of customers from cyberattacks and data loss by securely connecting users, devices, and applications in any location. Distributed across 200+ public data centers globally and thousands of private sites at the edge, the SASE-based Zero Trust Exchange is the world’s largest in-line cloud security platform.

We believe the future of work is Human + AI and are building an AI-native enterprise where human potential is amplified by machine intelligence to solve the world’s hardest security challenges. Driven by deep customer obsession, we are committed to the mission, outcome, and to each other. We bring these commitments to life through three core behaviors: ownership and collaboration, trust through outcomes and impact, and a challenge culture with ongoing feedback. Ready to make an impact at the company pioneering security transformation in the AI era? Join us at Zscaler.

Role

We are looking for a Staff Detection Engineer to join our team. This is a Hybrid role, reporting to the Senior Manager in the Threat Hunting department. You will analyze emerging threats, adversarial behaviors, and tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) to understand attacker methodologies and improve detection capabilities across our global ecosystem. This role requires conducting proactive and retroactive threat hunting using Zscaler telemetry while working flexible schedules, including weekend night shifts, to meet global operational demands.

What you’ll do (Role Expectations)

Pick the handful of numbers that tell you the area is healthy (fidelity, false-positive and false-negative rates, ATT&CK coverage, detector regressions) and do the work to move them in the right direction

Take what threat intel, hunts, and the analysts consuming your alerts tell you and turn it into what gets fixed and built next

Lead detection quality reviews for their coverage area, driving root-cause analysis, coordinating corrective actions, and setting the quality bar for reducing misses and false positives over time

Independently hunt and respond to customers while managing flexible operational schedules and on-call support

Identify and translate adversary behavior into actionable hunt hypotheses and detection logic

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

Deep detection experience in at least one of Endpoint (MDR), Cloud/SaaS, Identity, Email, or SIEM, and the judgment to own that area

A track record of owning technical work end-to-end and being answerable for its quality without much oversight

A strong grasp of how attackers operate, and fluent use of ATT&CK to decide where coverage should go

Detector-as-code, version control, code review, and controlled deployment as the way you already work (Git, CI/CD)

A habit of judging detector quality by concrete numbers rather than gut feel

What Will Make You Stand Out (Preferred Qualifications)

• Experience implementing AIOps, AI-driven predictive scaling, or automated anomaly detection to optimize cloud infrastructure performance and reliability
• Programming/scripting (Python, Go, Ruby, etc.) to build detection tooling and automation beyond rule content

Reverse engineering or deeper malware analysis, where it's relevant to your domain (valued, not required)

Previous red team or offensive security experience

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 .

Read the full description on the employer’s site →