Distinguished Hardware Engineer

Cisco • San Jose, CA

5d

About The Position

The Silicon & Optics (SaO) QUAD Quality team, part of Cisco’s Common Hardware Group (CHG), operates at the critical intersection of field performance, customer trust, and continuous product improvement. We are seeking a Distinguished Engineer to lead our most complex root cause investigations, translate technical findings into durable defensive design improvements, and serve as the primary technical authority representing Cisco’s quality standards to our executive-level customers.
Your Impact
This is a senior-level technical leadership position for someone passionate about defining and advancing hardware quality standards across Cisco’s high-performance portfolio, including switching, routing, and AI data center compute products.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree with 15+ years of experience; Master’s degree with 14+ years; or PhD with 10+ years of related experience.
• Established depth across board and system failure domains, with a proven track record of influencing hardware design decisions upstream at the portfolio level.
• Extensive experience resolving critical, systemic quality issues across high-performance hardware programs at scale.
• Expert-level skills in leading investigations for the highest-severity customer and field issues.
• Experience applying data analysis at scale—leveraging field datasets, telemetry, and reliability databases—to execute proactive corrective actions.

Nice To Haves

• Experience leading executive-level technical briefings on root cause, corrective action, and reliability commitments for hyperscaler and large enterprise clients.
• Deep understanding of defensive design principles at the component, board, and system levels.
• Proficiency in physical failure analysis, including non-destructive methods (CT scanning, X-ray, TDR, thermal imaging) and destructive methods (SEM, EDS, cross-sectioning, IC decapsulation).
• Familiarity with industry frameworks governing hardware qualification, accelerated life testing, and failure rate modeling.
• Knowledge of quality/reliability engineering for high-speed interfaces, power delivery systems, and advanced packaging (liquid cooling, copper cables, connectors).
• A track record of industry recognition through patents, publications, or active participation in standards bodies.

Responsibilities

• Define and govern comprehensive hardware quality strategies and validation standards, ensuring long-term reliability for hyperscaler, enterprise, and AI data center markets.
• Lead high-stakes root cause analysis and corrective action programs, addressing critical failures across design, manufacturing, and supply chain to ensure both immediate remediation and long-term architectural robustness.
• Institutionalize lessons learned from field and manufacturing failures by championing "defensive design" principles—such as enhanced fault tolerance and design margins—to prevent recurring issues in future generations.
• Utilize large-scale data analysis and AI-driven pattern recognition on field telemetry to proactively identify systemic trends and mitigate emerging risks before they impact customers.
• Advise executive leadership on product roadmaps, represent Cisco’s quality commitments to key customers, and elevate the engineering community through mentorship and industry-wide influence.

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.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior