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Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.

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Note: Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applicants are received.

Meet the Team

The Cisco AI Research team is composed of AI research scientists, data scientists, and network engineers with deep subject matter expertise. This diverse group collaborates on both foundational and applied research projects, driven by the challenge of connecting people and devices at a global scale. The team is newly formed and dynamic, blending AI and networking domain experts who work closely with engineers, product managers, and strategists experienced in AI and distributed systems. Members have the opportunity to shape the culture and direction of this growing team.

Your Impact

We are seeking a Data Engineer to build and scale LLM training data pipelines, including human-in-the-loop labeling, synthetic data generation, and dataset quality systems. This role sits at the intersection of data engineering, machine learning systems, and data quality, and is critical to enabling scalable, high-quality training data for ML products.

• Design, build, and maintain data pipelines for labeling, validation, and continuous dataset improvement.

• Develop systems for synthetic data generation and enhance dataset quality and diversity.

• Build scalable processes for data ingestion, transformation, cleansing, and auditing of unstructured data.

• Collaborate with ML researchers and data annotation teams to define data requirements and quality metrics.

• Implement automation and ML-assisted labeling workflows, including quality monitoring.

Minimum Qualifications:

• 5–7 years of experience in data engineering, machine learning engineering, or related roles.

• Proven experience building large-scale data pipelines for unstructured or semi-structured data.

• Hands-on expertise with ML data workflows, including dataset creation, labeling, and evaluation.

• Proficiency in Python and data processing frameworks (e.g., Spark, Beam, Ray).

• Experience with ML systems and tools, such as training pipelines and model evaluation frameworks.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with human-in-the-loop ML systems, active learning, or weak supervision.

• Exposure to large language models, computer vision, or speech datasets.

• Experience building internal tools or platforms used by annotation or operations teams.

• Background in distributed systems or ML infrastructure.

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 $155,900.00 to $214,100.00 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:

$155,900.00 - $246,200.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$149,600.00 - $218,500.00

• 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.