Electrical Engineering Technical Leader

Cisco•San Jose, NC

About The Position

Join Cisco’s renowned Electrical Engineering team, responsible for shaping the future of networking, compute, and systems platforms. This team delivers technical vision and architectural leadership that influence both Cisco’s internal product direction and the broader industry landscape. Operating globally, the team collaborates across multiple business units and technical domains, creating a culture of innovation, mentorship, and engineering excellence. What’s exciting about this team is its direct impact on setting new standards, driving advanced research, and influencing the next generation of technology worldwide. As an Electrical Engineer Technical Leader, you will drive the technical vision, architectural leadership, and industry influence for next-generation Cisco platforms. You will have a pivotal role in shaping product strategies, solving complex engineering challenges, and representing Cisco at the highest levels of the industry. Technical Strategy & Architecture Define multi-generation Electrical Engineering strategies spanning board, power, signal integrity, packaging, and system-level architectures, aligned with evolving product and business needs. Influence end-to-end hardware architectures, from component selection and power delivery networks to high-speed interfaces, thermal constraints, and system integration. Provide deep technical guidance to senior leaders, translating complex engineering trade-offs into clear architectural and business implications. Represent Cisco in technical forums, standards bodies, and industry consortia; influence emerging standards, ecosystems, and technology directions. Advanced Engineering & Innovation Lead the resolution of ambiguous, high-impact technical challenges involving signal integrity, power integrity, EMI/EMC, reliability, and high-speed design. Initiate and guide advanced lab experimentation, modeling, and simulation to validate novel architectures, materials, and design approaches. Drive design decisions across the full product lifecycle, from concept and architecture through NPI, production ramp, and sustainment. Lead technically driven value engineering initiatives that balance performance, cost, reliability, and manufacturability at scale. Manufacturing, Quality & Reliability Define and champion Design for Manufacturing (DFM), Design for Test (DFT), and Design for Reliability (DFR) standards across global manufacturing partners. Guide root-cause analysis and corrective actions for complex field, factory, and reliability issues, ensuring robust, scalable solutions. Partner with component suppliers, ODMs, and manufacturing teams to co-develop next-generation technologies and processes. Technical Leadership & Mentorship Serve as a go-to technical expert and reviewer for critical architecture and design decisions across the organization. Mentor senior engineers and architects, raising the overall technical bar and fostering a culture of engineering excellence. Work closely with silicon, mechanical, thermal, firmware, manufacturing, and system teams to deliver cohesive, optimized solutions.

Requirements

Good understanding of high speed signal design, PCB materials, and associated components; DFM/DFT for PCBA and risk assessment of new technologies; manufacturing processes and industry standards
Excellent debug experience of PCBAs
Proven experience with statistical process control
Experience with cost reduction activities for existing designs

Nice To Haves

Track record of influencing technical direction across large engineering organizations and external partners
Ability to clearly communicate complex engineering concepts to technical and non-technical audiences
Publications, patents, standards contributions, or visible leadership within the engineering community
Strong mentorship and knowledge sharing capabilities
Experience collaborating across silicon, mechanical, thermal, firmware, manufacturing, and system teams

Responsibilities

Define multi-generation Electrical Engineering strategies spanning board, power, signal integrity, packaging, and system-level architectures, aligned with evolving product and business needs.
Influence end-to-end hardware architectures, from component selection and power delivery networks to high-speed interfaces, thermal constraints, and system integration.
Provide deep technical guidance to senior leaders, translating complex engineering trade-offs into clear architectural and business implications.
Represent Cisco in technical forums, standards bodies, and industry consortia; influence emerging standards, ecosystems, and technology directions.
Lead the resolution of ambiguous, high-impact technical challenges involving signal integrity, power integrity, EMI/EMC, reliability, and high-speed design.
Initiate and guide advanced lab experimentation, modeling, and simulation to validate novel architectures, materials, and design approaches.
Drive design decisions across the full product lifecycle, from concept and architecture through NPI, production ramp, and sustainment.
Lead technically driven value engineering initiatives that balance performance, cost, reliability, and manufacturability at scale.
Define and champion Design for Manufacturing (DFM), Design for Test (DFT), and Design for Reliability (DFR) standards across global manufacturing partners.
Guide root-cause analysis and corrective actions for complex field, factory, and reliability issues, ensuring robust, scalable solutions.
Partner with component suppliers, ODMs, and manufacturing teams to co-develop next-generation technologies and processes.
Serve as a go-to technical expert and reviewer for critical architecture and design decisions across the organization.
Mentor senior engineers and architects, raising the overall technical bar and fostering a culture of engineering excellence.
Work closely with silicon, mechanical, thermal, firmware, manufacturing, and system teams to deliver cohesive, optimized solutions.

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.