Cisco
Distinguished Software Engineer, AI Software & Platform (Hybrid)
$286K–$468K
Milpitas, California, US · Hybrid · Principal · Full-time · Posted Sep 10, 2026
- Experience
- 17+ years with a Bachelor’s, 14+ with a Master’s, or 10+ with a PhD; 10+ years in distributed systems, cloud platforms, or data architectures; 5+ years at Principal level or equivalent.
- Education
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field; Master’s or PhD alternatives are stated.
About the job
Sets Cisco’s enterprise technical strategy for production-grade agentic AI systems, connecting emerging research to reliable, secure implementations across its product portfolio.
What you'll do
- Define technical strategy and reference architectures for agentic systems, including orchestration, planning, and durable execution.
- Influence executive build-versus-buy and investment decisions, and promote interoperable interfaces across Cisco products.
- Lead complex technical investigations and establish security practices for autonomous systems; mentor senior engineers.
What they ask for
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field with 17+ years of software engineering experience; Master’s with 14+ years; or PhD with 10+ years.
- 10+ years designing and scaling distributed systems, hyperscale cloud platforms, or high-throughput data architectures.
- 5+ years in a Principal-level role or equivalent, with technical influence across multiple engineering organizations.
- Experience operating production LLM-based systems and delivering production-grade multi-agent systems.
Nice to have
- Expertise in AIOps or inference optimization techniques.
- External technical thought leadership, AI governance knowledge, or experience influencing executive-level stakeholders.
Pay
$293,900.00 to $406,800.00 USD base salary; $293,900.00 - $467,900.00 USD base salary (New York City Metro Area); $285,600.00 - $432,300.00 USD base salary (Non-Metro New York state & Washington state)
Tools
Model Context Protocol (MCP), LLM, NIST AI RMF, EU AI Act, ISO 42001
AI focus
Enterprise agentic systems, multi-agent orchestration, LLM production systems, AI security, AIOps, and inference optimization.
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