The application window is expected to close on: 03/31/2026
Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.

This position requires that you commute to the San Jose, CA office 5 days a week. While the team may have hybrid days, this is at the discretion of the team and is subject to change at any time.

MEET THE TEAM:

The Cisco SIPHASE Center of Excellence Team is seeking a Software Engineer. As a member of the SIPHASE Center of Excellence Team, you will help develop software consistent with Cisco ‘Design Thinking Principles’ with a focus on simplification and UX (User Experience) at its core! You will be working in a larger team working closely with system architects, logic designers, ASIC engineers, package engineers, and versatile and knowledgeable SI/PI engineers in the creation of next-generation networking products!

YOUR IMPACT

In this role you will develop partners with other teams including design and product management to create the right solution for the customers. Create technical design documentation to be used by the team as well as contributing to user documentation to be used by end users. Debug and address software issues during development and in production systems to support customers. Bring new ideas for product innovation and help improve software development processes.

• Design, develop, and maintain internal team tools.

• Manage and maintain backend systems hosted on company servers, ensuring high availability, reliability, and scalability.

• Be a software-capable engineer responsible for driving all SI/PI tool development, leveraging Cisco AI tools and frameworks to automate and optimize workflows.

• Serve as the point of contact (POC) between Ser Des IP characterization and the SDK team, providing critical feedback on register requirements for operation, debug, and validation purposes.

• Design, develop, and maintain web interfaces for all SI/PI tools, and manage hosting of backend systems on Cisco servers to ensure availability and scalability.

• Work independently but receive minimal guidance and direction from leader then determine the best approach to accomplish work.

• Establish relationships with cross-functional stakeholders to understand project or department needs, gather input, collect information, and coordinate work steps.

• Identify and recommend improvements to the software development lifecycle and agile engineering best practices.

• Lead the delivery and high-quality design of features and deliverables, ensuring alignment with product vision and customer value.

• Integrate product sense into design decisions, considering market awareness, product adoption, competition, and tracking related metrics.

• Write clean, functional code and unit tests independently; maintain and enhance solutions by fixing complex errors, raising risks, and escalating issues as needed.

• Conduct thorough code reviews and testing to identify problems, optimize scale, velocity, and reliability, and contribute to threat modeling.

• Monitor production environments, identify and resolve issues, lead postmortems, and write root cause analyses.

• Be an expert on multiple functional components and share knowledge across teams through formal and informal channels (e.g., presentations, documentation, blogs).

• Coordinate and estimate project timelines across teams, track milestones and progress, and provide updates and remediation plans to stakeholders.

• Mentor peers and junior team members, assisting with code reviews, documentation, and technical guidance.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelors + 7 years of related software engineering experience OR Masters + 4 years of related software engineering experience OR PhD + 1 year of related software engineering experience.

• Strong ability to write clean, maintainable code and comprehensive unit tests with minimal supervision.

• Proficiency in software development for both Linux and Windows environments.

• Proven experience designing and implementing scalable backend systems using Golang, Java, or Python.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Solid understanding of embedded systems, operating system kernels, and device drivers.

• Expertise in low-level programming (C/C++).

• Hands-on experience in SDK development, memory management, concurrency, multithreading, and performance optimization.

• Extensive background in building automation testing systems and regression testing pipelines.

• Strong architectural skills in distributed systems, microservices, REST/gRPC APIs, and cloud-native infrastructure

• Experience in developing web interfaces for engineering tools and managing backend deployment on enterprise servers.

• Familiarity with SI/PI toolchains and experience leveraging AI-powered solutions within engineering workflows.

• Demonstrated ability to collaborate cross-functionally, especially as a liaison between hardware characterization and software development teams.

• Self-motivated, strong sense of ownership, collaborative teammate.

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 $165,000.00 to $241,400.00 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:

$165,000.00 - $277,600.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$146,700.00 - $247,000.00

• 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.