AI Researcher Hybrid

Cisco•San Jose, NC

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Join Cisco’s Enterprise AI team, the core group enabling Generative AI powered experiences across Cisco. Our mission is to build secure, scalable AI platforms that empower teams to safely develop, deploy, and operationalize AI-powered solutions. We operate at the intersection of applied AI, cloud infrastructure and security —partnering across engineering, security, compliance, and product teams to bring trusted AI to life at enterprise scale. We are a fast-growing, highly collaborative team of platform engineers, AI engineers, and data scientists who value technical depth, ownership, and pragmatic execution. What makes this team exciting is the opportunity to define how secure Generative AI is built and governed inside a global technology leader.

Requirements

Bachelor’s and 5 years of related experience, or Masters + 4 years of related experience
Experience designing, executing, and leading end-to-end AI research initiatives, including the development of research roadmaps and experimental prototypes
Experience with AI/ML frameworks and experience in Python for building, training, and evaluating models
Experience leading cross-functional projects to translate business problems into technical research goals
Demonstrated ability to independently structure and deliver technical presentations to diverse audiences, including executive stakeholders and technical peers.

Nice To Haves

Deep understanding of network protocols, cybersecurity architectures, or cloud-native infrastructure, and the ability to apply AI/ML to solve problems within these specific domains.
Experience in designing AI-driven interfaces or conducting user-centric research to improve the usability and adoption of complex technical solutions.
Experience in fine-tuning, evaluating, and deploying Large Language Models (LLMs) or generative architectures for enterprise-scale applications.
Experience in MLOps pipelines (e.g., Kubeflow, MLflow) and experience deploying AI models into production environments at scale.
Ability to proactively identify and mitigate risks associated with AI deployment, including bias, data privacy, and security vulnerabilities.
Track record of leadership in industry research forums, including serving as a program committee member or reviewer for top-tier AI conferences.

Responsibilities

Plans, conducts, analyzes, and shares research that advances the field of AI, as it relates to networking, security, programming, human-computer interaction, or other strategic areas in computer science.
Utilizes expertise in AI and research methodologies to develop research plans, build models, run experiments, and provide models and solutions to relevant teams.
Serves as research strategy liaison to engineers and product managers and works collaboratively with product management, engineering, and design teams to identify business and AI research goals.
Summarizes and communicates results to all relevant partners and stakeholders to influence decisions.
Lead and execute end-to-end AI research initiatives, from long-term planning and proposal development to the design and implementation of experiments and prototypes.
Define and manage research roadmaps, ensuring alignment with business objectives and project complexity.
Utilize advanced AI tools, models, and data structures to build, train, and iterate on solutions.
Identify and evaluate emerging AI technologies and methodologies to optimize research processes and solve novel business problems.
Apply rigorous ethical standards to all research approaches and technical deployments.
Synthesize complex data across multiple studies and customer journeys to uncover actionable themes and insights.
Conduct meta-analyses to identify broader connections, providing data-driven recommendations that directly influence product decisions and strategy.
Partner with cross-functional teams to understand business challenges, develop hypotheses, and manage risk.
Lead collaboration sessions and communicate research outcomes through structured presentations, scientific papers, and patent filings.
Serve as a subject matter expert, mentoring peers and interns while providing guidance to less-experienced colleagues.
Represent Cisco by sharing research perspectives and industry breakthroughs in internal forums and at top-tier AI conferences.

Benefits

medical, dental and vision insurance
a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution
paid parental leave
short and long-term disability coverage
basic life insurance
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
16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees (non-exempt)
flexible vacation time off program (exempt)
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
annual bonuses (for non-sales roles)
performance-based incentive pay (for sales roles)