Staff Detection Engineer

About the Position

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.

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.

Responsibilities

• 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

Requirements

• 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

Nice to Have

• 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

We Offer

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

About the Company

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.

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.

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.