C

Cisco

Makes networking gear and security software

Software Engineer

Full-TimePosted on 10/25/2026
$103.2k - $203.1k+ Annual bonus + Restricted stock unit grants
Mid
Bachelor's
Research Triangle Park, Durham, NC, USA
In Person
Software EngineeringAI Application Engineering, Backend Engineering

About the job

Requirements
  • A bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field and at least 3 years of professional software development experience are required.
  • Hands-on experience integrating AI capabilities such as large language model APIs, AWS Bedrock, prompt engineering, embeddings, or retrieval-based workflows is required.
  • Experience with AWS services including Lambda, S3, API Gateway, EventBridge, Step Functions, SQS, SNS, RDS, DynamoDB, IAM, and CloudWatch is required.
  • Experience with Python and/or Node.js backend development for cloud, AI-integrated, or automation-focused applications is required.
  • Experience building automation workflows, background jobs, or event-driven processing pipelines is required.
  • Familiarity with Git, continuous integration and continuous delivery practices, and cloud deployment processes is required.
Responsibilities
  • Develop software using secure coding practices, protecting user privacy and following software development best practices, with a focus on simplification and user experience.
  • Partner with design, product management, and other teams to create solutions for customers.
  • Create technical design documentation for the team and contribute to user documentation for end users.
  • Debug and address software issues during development and in production to support customers.
  • Bring forward product innovation ideas and help improve software development processes.
  • Integrate AI capabilities into production applications using large language model APIs, AWS Bedrock, prompt workflows, embeddings, document intelligence, and semantic search.
  • Design and implement RESTful APIs and backend services for automation, orchestration, and AI-driven workflows.
  • Design, develop, and support cloud-native applications and automation services on AWS.
  • Build backend services and intelligent automation workflows using Python and/or Node.js.
  • Design and implement event-driven and serverless architectures using AWS Lambda, API Gateway, EventBridge, Step Functions, SQS, and SNS.
  • Develop secure and scalable data pipelines and service integrations across AWS and third-party platforms.
  • Work with PostgreSQL, RDS, DynamoDB, and S3 data stores to support application and workflow needs.
  • Automate deployments and infrastructure management using continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines and infrastructure-as-code practices.
  • Monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize applications using CloudWatch, logging, metrics, and alerting tools.
  • Collaborate with Product, Security, UX, and cross-functional engineering teams to deliver features and operational improvements.
  • Participate in code reviews, testing, debugging, and production support.
  • Maintain technical documentation, architecture notes, and deployment procedures.
Desired Qualifications
  • Experience with AWS Bedrock, Amazon Textract, Amazon Comprehend, OpenAI APIs, LangChain, LlamaIndex, or similar AI tooling.
  • Experience designing and building RESTful APIs and integrating internal or external services.
  • Experience building workflow orchestration, agentic systems, or AI-powered automation platforms.
  • Hands-on experience with Docker, ECS, EKS, or containerized deployments on AWS.
  • Experience with infrastructure as code using Terraform, AWS CDK, or CloudFormation.
  • Familiarity with vector search, pgvector, OpenSearch, Pinecone, or similar retrieval technologies.
  • Knowledge of secure coding practices, IAM design, secrets management, and audit logging.
  • Exposure to compliance, GRC, risk, audit, or evidence management domains.

About the company

Cisco makes the switches and routers that connect offices, data centers, and cloud services, and it also sells cybersecurity tools and Webex video meetings to businesses and governments. It was one of the first companies to sell routers that let different kinds of computer networks exchange data, and in 2000 it briefly became the world's most valuable company. Customers run its network gear, from Wi-Fi access points to AI data center systems, with Cisco software that sets up and secures the network, while its Splunk unit searches computer logs to catch outages and attacks. Cisco earns money from hardware sales, software subscriptions, and support contracts. It was founded in 1984 and is based in San Jose, California.

Company Size

10,001+

Company Stage

IPO

Headquarters

San Jose, California

Founded

1984

Get referred to Cisco

See people who can refer or advise you

Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Cloud giants fuel growth: they ordered $9.3 billion of Cisco's AI gear in the year to July 2026, up 4.5-fold.
  • Stock awards gained value: Cisco shares rose 63% in the year to October 2026, four times the S&P 500's 15%.
  • Signed deals steady the business: Cisco had $46.7 billion of contracted sales still to deliver in July 2026, up 7%.

What critics are saying

  • Record sales didn't stop layoffs: Cisco cut nearly 4,000 jobs, just under 5% of staff, in May 2026.
  • Rivals lead in data center switches: in the June 2026 quarter, Nvidia held 20.4%, Arista 18.7% and Cisco 18.2%.
  • Hardware-heavy AI growth squeezes profit: Cisco's gross margin fell to 66.3% from 68.4% in the July 2026 quarter.

What makes Cisco unique

  • Cisco still sells the most network switches: it took 28.7% of worldwide switch sales in the June 2026 quarter.
  • Cisco designs its own networking chips: Microsoft and Alibaba signed on early for its Silicon One P200, launched October 2025.
  • Cisco trains future network engineers: its Networking Academy has taught over 28 million learners in 195 countries since 1997.

Help us improve and share your feedback! Did you find this helpful?

Benefits

  • Paid Vacation
  • Hybrid Work Options
  • Flexible Work Hours
  • Professional Development Budget

Growth & Insights and Company News

6 month growth

-1%

1 year growth

0%

2 year growth

0%
Associated Press
Oct 26th, 2026
Presidio integrates Cisco IQ with Presidio Advisor for AI-powered lifecycle management

Presidio, a global digital services and AI solutions provider, has integrated Cisco IQ with its Presidio Advisor platform. The move combines Cisco's AI-powered operational intelligence with Presidio's multi-vendor approach to IT lifecycle management. It was announced on October 26, 2026. Using new Cisco IQ open APIs and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), Presidio Advisor pulls real-time Cisco telemetry, lifecycle milestones, and support data into its platform. This removes manual data extraction. Presidio Advisor merges customer, reseller, and manufacturer data into a single source of truth. Configurable business rules help organisations spot risk, anticipate renewals, forecast spend, and plan technology refreshes. "Our clients are not looking for another asset-management tool," said Kevin Corace, senior vice president, Software and Services Lifecycle, at Presidio. They want a unified view that turns data into action.

PR Newswire
Oct 20th, 2026
Splunk report: 55% of firms can't control AI costs as agents outpace monitoring

Cisco released its Splunk State of Observability 2026 report on October 20, 2026, finding that the rush to deploy AI agents is outpacing the ability to monitor them. The survey covered 2,050 IT operations and engineering professionals across 10 countries. Some 87% say monitoring AI is a priority, yet 56% cannot measure AI workload metrics such as large language model response quality. Also, 55% say they cannot control AI costs, and 60% say unexpected billing spikes strain operations more than high baseline costs. Security collaboration is growing: 81% say monitoring AI has increased cooperation between observability and security teams. Among leading organizations, 91% can accurately attribute AI costs, against 69% of non-leaders.

Yahoo Finance
Oct 15th, 2026
Cisco and NVIDIA back 400G USFP optical standard to quadruple AI data centre bandwidth density

Cisco Systems and NVIDIA have announced a collaboration to bring 400G optical technology to AI data centres. The partners plan to commercialise a new ultra small form factor pluggable (USFP) standard designed to quadruple bandwidth density. The companies aim to build an open hardware ecosystem with other optical and networking vendors, including TE Connectivity and Amphenol, to support large AI workloads. The move targets the wiring bottleneck that could cap AI infrastructure spending. Cisco, which has a market capitalisation of about $453.7b, faces competition from Arista and Juniper in AI networking, and analysts flag hardware mix and memory costs as a margin risk.

Yahoo Finance
Oct 14th, 2026
Cisco, General Mills and Coca-Cola: three value stocks for a market at 237% of GDP

With the Buffett indicator near 237%, a Simply Wall St screen points to three large companies it considers high-quality value stocks: Cisco Systems, General Mills, and Coca-Cola. Cisco generates about $63.3 billion from networking products and has a market value of roughly $454.7 billion. Its AI infrastructure orders outlook for fiscal 2026 has risen to about $9 billion, driven by demand from cloud providers. General Mills has a market value near $17.5 billion, with $10.4 billion of sales from North America Retail. It plans $750 million of cost savings in fiscal 2027 as part of a $3 billion programme through fiscal 2030. Coca-Cola generates about $50.1 billion from nonalcoholic drinks and is valued near $386.3 billion. Its zero-sugar variants grew by double digits. The screen found 28 more companies with similar traits.

Yahoo Finance
Oct 12th, 2026
Cisco shares fall 3.3% to $114.52 as Webex AI agents keep working after calls end

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) has added AI agents to Webex that keep working on tasks after a conversation ends. Its shares traded at $114.52 on October 12, down about 3.3%. The agents use a tool called Dialog, which links customer history, company data, and backend systems so they can pursue unresolved requests. Claude integration is planned. Splunk tracks agent activity, and Cisco AI Defense provides safeguards. Shares sit 52.15% above the $75.27 GF Value estimate from GuruFocus. Cisco must turn the agents into higher recurring revenue without letting implementation costs and human supervision erode the gains.