Distinguished Software Engineer - AI Software & Platform

The application window is expected to close on: 10/29/2026

This is a hybrid role based out of Cisco's San Jose office.

Meet the Team

Cisco’s AI Software & Platform (AISWP) team is the engine driving our transformation into an AI-native company. We are a central organization of researchers, ML engineers, and distributed systems experts dedicated to building the models, platforms, and products that integrate AI into every facet of the Cisco portfolio. Our platform—including Cisco Cloud Control, Canvas, and Studio—is already live, providing a unified agentic surface for our global customer base. We aren't just adopting AI; we are defining how enterprise networking and security infrastructure evolve to handle the unique challenges of agentic workflows at a worldwide scale.

Your Impact

As a Distinguished Software Engineer, you will serve as a primary technical architect and strategic advisor, shaping the future of Cisco’s AI-first engineering roadmap. Your work will transcend individual projects, requiring you to navigate high-ambiguity environments to establish the long-term technical vision for Cisco’s agentic systems. You will bridge the gap between emerging research and practical, reliable production implementation, ensuring that Cisco remains at the forefront of the industry's most critical market transitions.

• Define and champion the enterprise-wide technical strategy for agentic systems, including multi-agent orchestration, planning/reflection loops, and durable execution patterns that operate with hyperscale reliability.

• Negotiate critical build-versus-buy trade-offs at the executive level, influencing corporate-wide investment decisions regarding model frameworks, infrastructure roadmaps, and capability ceilings.

• Drive the adoption of industry-standard interfaces, such as the Model Context Protocol (MCP), across Cisco’s broad product portfolio to create a seamless, interoperable ecosystem for AI agents that can communicate across tools and across vendors

• Establish and enforce rigorous engineering standards and reference architectures for AI, mentoring Principal and Senior staff to elevate the technical bar across the entire AI organization.

• Personally lead the technical resolution of the most complex, high-risk "black box" challenges, prototyping and proving out breakthrough methodologies before company-wide commitment.

• Own the security posture of agentic systems, including defenses against prompt injection, scoped tool-permissioning, and sandboxing for autonomous actions that carry write access to production systems.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field with 17+ years of total software engineering experience; Master's with 14+ years; or PhD with 10+ years.

• 10+ years of specialized experience in designing and scaling distributed systems, hyperscale cloud platforms, or high-throughput data architectures.

• 5+ years in a Principal-level role (or equivalent) demonstrating sustained technical influence across multiple engineering organizations.

• Experience building and operating LLM-based production systems, including managing model lifecycle, evaluation infrastructure and security commitments. 

• Prior experience designing and delivering production-grade multi-agent system. 

Preferred Qualifications

• Expertise in AIOps domains, specifically event correlation, root cause analysis, and closed-loop remediation at scale.

• Deep knowledge of inference optimization techniques, including speculative decoding, KV/prefix caching, and model distillation/routing strategies.

• Recognized thought leadership in the external technical community (e.g., patents, published research in top-tier journals/conferences, or significant open-source contributions).

• Comprehensive understanding of global AI governance frameworks (e.g., NIST AI RMF, EU AI Act, ISO 42001) and experience operationalizing compliance in enterprise software.

• Demonstrated ability to negotiate technical strategy and influence outcomes with executive-level stakeholders (VP/SVP level) and external industry partners.

Why Cisco? 

At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint.

Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere. 

We are Cisco, and our power starts with you. 

Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:

The starting salary range posted for this position is $293,900.00 to $406,800.00 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:

$293,900.00 - $467,900.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$285,600.00 - $432,300.00

* 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.