Distinguished Engineer – Secure Private Access (SPA) / Zero Trust

Role Overview

SonicWall is seeking a Distinguished Engineer to define and drive the long-term technical vision, architecture, and evolution of its Secure Private Access (SPA) platform and Zero Trust access technologies. This role serves as the highest level of individual contributor leadership, influencing architecture, engineering strategy, and innovation across multiple product and engineering organizations. The role builds upon SonicWall's current cloud-native SSE, ZTNA, and secure access initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and drive the long-term technical vision and architecture strategy for SonicWall's Secure Private Access (SPA) platform and Zero Trust access technologies.
• Lead the design and evolution of highly scalable, secure, resilient, cloud-native distributed systems.
• Influence technical direction, architectural decisions, and engineering standards across multiple product and engineering organizations.
• Provide technical leadership during critical production incidents, customer escalations, and security events, driving root cause analysis and long-term architectural improvements.
• Serve as a trusted technical advisor to engineering and executive leadership.
• Mentor Principal Engineers and cultivate technical leadership across the organization.
• Champion AI-first engineering practices to improve productivity, quality, and innovation.

Required Qualifications

• 15 -18+ years of software engineering experience, including significant technical leadership in large-scale infrastructure, networking, or security platforms.
• Proven track record of hands-on contributions to complex distributed systems and cloud-scale services.
• Deep expertise in networking and traffic processing technologies, including data plane architectures, TCP/IP, DNS, WireGuard, and cloud-oriented Layer 3/4/7 access enforcement strategies.
• Strong programming experience in Go, C++, Rust, or similar systems languages.
• Deep understanding of networking and security fundamentals, including authentication, authorization, encryption, and identity systems.
• Expertise in one or more domains: Secure Private Access (SPA), Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), Secure Service Edge (SSE), SASE, VPN/secure connectivity, and enterprise access security platforms.
• Demonstrated ability to influence engineering strategy across organizations without direct authority.
• Strong track record of mentoring senior engineers and driving impactful technology decisions.
• Expertise in AI-enabled software engineering and platform modernization.
• Strong customer obsession with the ability to translate customer requirements, operational learnings, and market needs into platform and architectural investments.
• Extensive experience leading the response and resolution of large-scale production incidents, customer escalations, and security events, including executive communication, root cause analysis, and implementation of long-term corrective action

Success Measures

• Establish and drive adoption of a clear architectural vision for SonicWall's Secure Private Access platform.
• Deliver the next generation of SPA capabilities and technical differentiation.
• Influence the evolution of SonicWall's Zero Trust and secure access portfolio.
• Improve platform scalability, reliability, performance, and operational efficiency.
• Reduce customer-impacting incidents through proactive architectural improvements, operational rigor, and continuous learning from production events.
• Elevate technical leadership through mentorship, engineering standards, and architectural excellence.

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