The application window is expected to close on: 10/29/2026
This is a Hybrid role located in San Jose CA. Requiring 2-3 days in office per week.
Your ImpactIn this role, you will define the technical trajectory for a platform that serves as the backbone of Cisco's most critical customer and business challenges. You will move beyond building features to designing high-performing, scalable systems that define how other engineers develop, deploy, and maintain software across the organization. By bridging the gap between cutting-edge AI/ML research and production-grade software, you will ensure our platform remains secure, cohesive, and ready to meet the evolving demands of our global users. This is an opportunity where your technical authority will be the primary driver for architectural excellence, team mentorship, and the successful delivery of multi-quarter engineering roadmaps.
- Define Technical Strategy: Lead the architectural vision for the CX Platform, ensuring that AI/ML capabilities are integrated coherently across all services rather than siloed, directly supporting our long-term FY27 scalability goals.
- Architectural Stewardship: Partner with product and design leadership to translate complex requirements into reliable, high-performing system designs that serve as the foundation for the entire engineering organization.
- Mentorship: Serve as a technical sounding board and mentor for senior engineers, using your deep code fluency to challenge decisions, conduct rigorous design reviews, and cultivate a culture of engineering excellence through consensus and collaboration.
- Operational Excellence: Standardize CI/CD practices and security protocols across the stack, ensuring that our development velocity is matched by meticulous quality standards and a seamless developer experience.
Minimum Qualifications:- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or an equivalent technical degree (e.g., Mathematics, Physics)
- 8 years of related professional engineering experience (with a Bachelor's); 6 years (with a Master's); 3 years (with a PhD).
- Experience designing and delivering full-stack applications in production environments.
- Experience integrating AI/ML models or API-driven services into customer-facing products.
- Experience setting technical standards or architectural requirements for systems used by multiple engineering teams.
- Experience implementing CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions) and applying secure development lifecycles (e.g., SAST/DAST).
- Experience leading technical design reviews and influencing architectural decisions through consensus across engineering groups.
Preferred Qualifications:- Experience leading architecture reviews and driving consensus among senior or principal engineers
- Experience shaping technical strategy at an organizational level, not just within a single team
- Experience in one or more of: distributed systems, AI/ML platform integration, secure system design, developer experience/tooling
- Experience partnering with product and design leadership on multi-quarter roadmaps
The starting salary range posted for this position is $186,900.00 to $267,700.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits.
Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training. The full salary range for certain locations is listed below. For locations not listed below, the recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.
U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco's plan eligibility rules, which include medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability coverage, and basic life insurance. Please see the Cisco careers site to discover more benefits and perks. Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.
U.S. employees are eligible for paid time away as described below, subject to Cisco's policies:
- 10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
- 1 paid day off for employee's birthday, paid year-end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco
- Non-exempt employees** receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees
- Exempt employees participate in Cisco's flexible vacation time off program, which has no defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use (subject to availability and some business limitations)
- 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, and up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward from one calendar year to the next
- Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members
- Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer
For non-sales roles, employees are also eligible to earn annual bonuses subject to Cisco's policies.
Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non-quota components, subject to the applicable Cisco plan. For quota-based incentive pay, Cisco typically pays as follows:
- .75% of incentive target for each 1% of revenue attainment up to 50% of quota;
- 1.5% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 50% and 75%;
- 1% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 75% and 100%; and
- Once performance exceeds 100% attainment, incentive rates are at or above 1% for each 1% of attainment with no cap on incentive compensation.
For non-quota-based sales performance elements such as strategic sales objectives, Cisco may pay 0% up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.
The applicable full salary ranges for this position, by specific state, are listed below:
New York City Metro Area:
$186,900.00 - $307,800.00
Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:
$166,300.00 - $274,100.00
* For quota-based sales roles on Cisco's sales plan, the ranges provided in this posting include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.
** Employees in Illinois, whether exempt or non-exempt, will participate in a unique time off program to meet local requirements.
