Distinguished Engineer - Chief Architect

Cisco•San Jose, CA

5d•$337,100 - $490,700•Hybrid

About The Position

The AI Platforms and Enablement team is the engine behind Cisco’s internal AI transformation. Our mission is to build and scale CIRCUIT, Cisco’s universal enterprise AI platform designed to collapse information silos and amplify productivity through intelligent, agentic experiences. CIRCUIT is more than a platform—it is the foundation for how Cisco will reimagine work through secure, scalable AI. Our team combines platform development with enterprise enablement, ensuring that business units can adopt AI capabilities, integrate proprietary data, and transform legacy workflows into intelligent, autonomous experiences. The organization operates through an Eight-Pillar CIRCUIT model spanning Platform Engineering, Solutions Engineering, Process Engineering, Product Management, UX Design, Technical Program Management, Innovation & Advanced Architecture, and Strategy & Operations. Together, these pillars balance specialized execution with multi-functional collaboration to move from invention to production at enterprise scale. Within this model, Innovation & Advanced Architecture serve as the Invention Lab. This team works on solving Cisco’s most complex AI architecture challenges, incubating breakthrough capabilities, and establishing the path from invention to production-ready platform features.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
17+ years of experience in software engineering, technical architecture, distributed systems, AI/ML, or platform engineering; advanced degree may substitute for some experience.
Demonstrated experience as a principal engineer, architect, or senior technical leader in large-scale enterprise environments
Proven ability to define technical strategy and drive architectural direction across multiple organizations and business domains
Strong background of leading complex, multi-functional technical initiatives from concept through production
Experience with AI/ML systems, distributed systems, cloud-native infrastructure, or large-scale data platforms
Demonstrated history of architectural influence through standards, patents, publications, technical papers, or comparable contributions

Nice To Haves

Deep expertise in generative AI, LLM integration, multi-agent systems, RAG, evaluation frameworks, and enterprise AI architecture.
Experience taking research concepts or early prototypes through productization into secure, scalable, production-ready offerings
Strong familiarity with model orchestration, memory systems, tool invocation, agent reliability, and enterprise trust controls
Experience in multi-cloud and hybrid environments, including GCP, AWS, Azure, and on-prem infrastructure
Strong network within AI research, open-source, or partner ecosystems.
Experience mentoring engineering teams in high-velocity, experimental environment
Prior customer-facing or partner-facing experience providing technical strategy, architecture guidance, or executive-level AI advisory support
Experience with enterprise search, data integration, developer platforms, or large-scale internal productivity systems

Responsibilities

Define the long-term architecture for Cisco’s enterprise AI platform, encompassing agentic systems, multi-agent orchestration, LLM integration, search and AI convergence, retrieval and memory frameworks, evaluation and reliability systems, human‑in‑the‑loop controls, and scalable data pipelines. Your work will ensure the platform remains modular, secure, resilient, interoperable, and future‑ready.
Lead the design and resolution of the organization’s most complex technical challenges, including multi‑agent system reliability, orchestration frameworks, long‑term context retention, model routing, retrieval patterns, trust mechanisms, and enterprise‑scale AI performance. You will set architectural principles and reference patterns that reduce fragmentation and enable consistent execution across the eight‑pillar operating model.
Create and drive a clear path that converts advanced technical invention into production‑grade platform capabilities. Partnering closely with Platform Engineering, you will ensure new ideas are designed for production from the outset and hardened into operationally ready services. In collaboration with Product Management, you will align technical innovation with CIRCUIT’s long‑term roadmap and value proposition.
Act as the primary architectural bridge across Platform Engineering, Solutions Engineering, Process Engineering, Product, and other Cisco business units, driving alignment on standards, frameworks, and reference architectures. You will work across corporate functions to ensure internal AI efforts build on CIRCUIT in a way that is secure, interoperable, and extensible.
Lead rapid exploration of emerging areas such as agent collaboration, autonomous planning, practive workflows, tool use, long‑term memory, and new interaction models, evaluating technical feasibility, scalability, and enterprise readiness. You will stay closely connected to advances in AI research, open‑source ecosystems, model providers, cloud platforms, and enterprise AI frameworks, guiding adoption where it creates durable advantage for Cisco.
Represent Cisco as a recognized technical authority in enterprise AI, engaging with research communities, partners, customers, and industry ecosystems. You will translate complex technical strategy into clear direction for executives, senior engineering leaders, and strategic stakeholders, and support high‑level customer and partner conversations by articulating Cisco’s AI architecture approach and lessons learned from operating CIRCUIT at scale.
Elevate the technical maturity of the organization through mentorship, architectural reviews, standards setting, and guidance. You will coach senior engineers and technical leaders, build a strong bench of architectural talent, develop a culture of high‑velocity experimentation and rigorous engineering quality, and contribute to Cisco’s technical reputation through patents, white papers, architectural standards, and thought leadership.

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
grants of Cisco restricted stock units
10 paid holidays per full calendar year
1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
1 paid day off for employee’s birthday
paid year-end holiday shutdown
4 paid days off for personal wellness
16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year (non-exempt)
flexible vacation time off program (exempt)
80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter
up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward
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)