AI Researcher, Technical Leader

Cisco•San Jose, CA

20d

About The Position

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. As a Lead AI Researcher you will be advancing research in Generative AI to enhance models and agents for networking automation, human-computer interaction, model safety, and other key AI-driven networking areas. Develop domain-specific foundational representations relevant to networking that provide unique value across diverse applications. Serve as a thought leader in the global research community by publishing papers, delivering technical talks, and organizing workshops. Collaborate with cross-functional teams including engineers, product managers, and strategists to integrate research outcomes into practical solutions. Stay current with cutting-edge developments in generative AI, large language models (LLMs), and multi-modal models, applying these innovations to emerging business challenges.

Requirements

PhD in Computer Science or a related technical field with experience in an industry or academic research lab, or a Master’s degree with 5+ years of relevant experience .
Experience working with machine learning models and familiarity with frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch, Hugging Face, or equivalent platforms.
Experience building and fine-tuning foundation models, including LLMs, multi-modal models, or domain-specific models.
Ability to maintain and apply up-to-date knowledge in generative AI, LLMs, and multi-modal models to innovative business use cases.

Nice To Haves

Have publications in top AI conferences such as ACL, EMNLP, ICLR, ICML, NAACL, or NeurIPS.
Experience leading research projects in industry or university labs.
Interest and expertise in combining representation learning with problem-specific properties.

Responsibilities

Advancing research in Generative AI to enhance models and agents for networking automation, human-computer interaction, model safety, and other key AI-driven networking areas.
Develop domain-specific foundational representations relevant to networking that provide unique value across diverse applications.
Serve as a thought leader in the global research community by publishing papers, delivering technical talks, and organizing workshops.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams including engineers, product managers, and strategists to integrate research outcomes into practical solutions.
Stay current with cutting-edge developments in generative AI, large language models (LLMs), and multi-modal models, applying these innovations to emerging business challenges.

Benefits

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.
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.

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