Cisco
Principal Software Engineer
$241K–$417K
Milpitas, California, US · Onsite Only · Principal · Full-time · Posted Sep 23, 2026
- Experience
- 15+ years with a bachelor’s degree, or 12+ years with a master’s degree.
- Education
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related field, or Master’s degree.
About the job
Architects and develops embedded BIOS, board support, diagnostics, and device-driver software for Cisco core and edge routing products, including testing and prototype validation.
What you'll do
- Develop BIOS, BSP, diagnostics, and FPGA and networking-peripheral drivers.
- Create and execute software test plans; debug prototypes and validate software with cross-functional teams.
- Provide technical expertise and help shape technology solutions and trends for Cisco products.
What they ask for
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related field with 15+ years experience, or Master’s degree with 12+ years experience.
- Experience with C, C++, and Python programming for embedded systems.
- Experience in hardware and device-driver development, including Linux hardware bring-up, multi-threading, event handling, and state-machine implementation.
- Experience with Sonic, ONIE, BMC, IPMI, and/or Redfish, and embedded-system protocols such as I2C, SPI, UART, PCIe, or GPIO.
Nice to have
- Proficiency with kernel debugging tools such as GDB and KGDB.
- Experience leading board bring-up, validation, and embedded-system debugging.
Pay
$250,600.00 to $362,600.00 USD base salary; $250,600.00 - $416,900.00 USD base salary; $241,400.00 - $371,000.00 USD base salary
Tools
C, C++, Python, Linux, Sonic, ONIE, BMC, IPMI
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