Meet Sebastian Gust: What It Takes to Thrive as a Sales Engineer at Zscaler

Sebastian Gust, Senior Sales Engineering Manager, leads a team working with Germany’s largest enterprise accounts during a pivotal shift in cloud and security architecture. In this Q&A, he shares what drew him to Zscaler, how he thinks about leadership, and what prospective candidates can expect from his team.

What does your team focus on, and what does day-to-day work look like for an SE on your team?

Our focus is direct customer impact. A typical week involves multiple customer touchpoints every day—ranging from discovery calls with new stakeholders and technical workshops to detailed Proofs of Value (POVs), architecture reviews, and long-term strategic alignment. The goal is always to solve concrete business pain and help customers reach their goals.

Technically, our "bread and butter" is anchored in networking and security fundamentals—specifically building a strong Zero Trust foundation using Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) and Zscaler Private Access (ZPA).

Do candidates need to be AI Security experts to join your team?

You need a solid baseline in networking and security first, and AI skills are built on top of that foundation.

Most major enterprises already use ZIA and ZPA, so our conversations are evolving toward helping them use AI safely. Because Zero Trust manages user-to-application communication, it naturally becomes the foundation for securing AI—whether that’s user-to-application, autonomous agent-to-application, or agent-to-agent (A2A) interactions. Core SEs handle these foundational AI discussions daily, but we are also building a dedicated overlay AI Security SE team—our in-house subject matter experts—who step in when deep specialization is required.

Internally, we also practice what we preach by equipping our team with advanced AI tools, including self-built AI agents, to streamline workflows and boost productivity.

What drew you to Zscaler, and what makes it such an exciting place to work right now?

I was drawn to Zscaler for the opportunity to combine my background in networking, infrastructure, and security with direct, technical customer interaction—especially as we tackle complex security challenges around AI.

What makes it so exciting right now is our unique position in the market. If you love technology, it’s an incredible environment to learn alongside exceptionally smart colleagues across Germany and globally. We are in a sweet spot: large enough to have strong processes and clear direction, but agile enough that you can have a real impact. As an SE, you can reach out directly to Product Management, bring customer needs straight to decision-makers, and truly shape the product.

What kind of person thrives on your team?

We work with major enterprise accounts, so success comes down to dynamic range—engineers who can think strategically about long-term account goals while getting hands-on technically to solve complex problems.

In our EMEA Majors structure, every SE is paired 1-to-1 with an Account Executive (AE). This close partnership means you operate as a dedicated unit, taking total ownership of the account strategy. I look for people with customer obsession, initiative, and a willingness to collaborate beyond standard job boundaries.

How would you describe your leadership style?

My style is grounded in autonomy and collaboration. I set clear outcomes and give skilled professionals full ownership to execute. My role is to remove roadblocks, provide continuous feedback, elevate impact, and ensure we succeed together.

How do you support career development on your team?

Career growth is a regular topic in my one-on-ones. Engineers get busy, so part of my job is keeping their long-term trajectory top-of-mind.It can be something simple like encouraging someone to work on communication or identify a development area and take a first step. My role is to help people move forward in ways that matter for them.

There are also clear pathways to advance into management, progress into Principal-level SE roles within our core ZIA/ZPA solutions, or transition into specialized overlay teams like AI Security.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received in your career?

You own your career. You can’t expect your manager to own your development or make sure everything happens for you. You have to take responsibility for it yourself.

What’s something personal that helps people get to know you beyond your title?

I do a lot of sports. I enjoy biking and hiking, and I try to be outdoors every day. I live in southeast Bavaria, close to the mountains, so that helps. I also used to work as a snowboard instructor on weekends.