Leader, Machine Learning Engineering

Cisco•Milpitas, CA

3d•Remote

About The Position

The application window is expected to close on: 05/29/2026. Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received. Who We Are The Cisco’s AI team consists of AI researchers, and software developers who collaborate to build innovative products and platforms for Cisco. We are motivated by tackling unique challenges that arise when connecting people and devices at a world-wide scale. Who You’ll Work With You will join a newly formed, dynamic AI team as one of the core members, and have the opportunity to influence the culture and direction of the growing team. Our team includes AI experts and distributed system experts who work together with our partners in products management, and engineers across a wide variety of other Cisco teams. We are seeking a Software Engineer Technical Leader to join our AI Assistants Team, where you will play a vital role in integrating AI services for our Generative AI Assistant products. Your skills in understanding service operations and architecting/building effective interfaces between service boundaries with the right instrumentation will be essential for the success of our product. Your role will involve understanding the operations of each AI service, designing and building interfaces that seamlessly connect these services, and ensuring the appropriate instrumentation is in place. Your work will be instrumental in delivering a powerful and effective solution to our customers.

Requirements

8+ years experience as a Backend Engineer with expertise in integrating complex services.
8+ years experience writing code in Python, Java, or Go.
BA / BS degree with 10+ years of experience (or) MS degree with 8+ years of experience as a software development engineer

Nice To Haves

Experience in AI service operations, including Generative AI, and the ability to design and build interfaces between them.
Understanding of GenAI frameworks and orchestrators like LangChain, Llamalndex, Semantic Kernel or AutoGen.
Foundation in data structures and algorithms.
Experience with instrumentation and monitoring tools for measuring service performance.
Knowledge of compliance standards.

Responsibilities

Provide technical leadership to all members of the team to guide designs and implementations towards optimal results with regard to reusability, security, reliability, and performance.
Collaborate with various stakeholders to design complex systems comprised of multiple ML and non-ML services which meet the highest levels of security, performance, reliability, and scalability while satisfying requirements from within our own team plus those of external integrating teams.
Collaborate with disparate teams to understand the operations of AI services and integrate them into our Generative AI products.
Design and build effective interfaces between AI services, ensuring smooth communication and data exchange while adhering to security and performance requirements.
Implement the right types of instrumentation to monitor and measure the performance, reliability, and security of integrated AI services.
Debug integration issues, identifying bottlenecks or errors and implementing solutions to optimize service interactions.
Work on performance tuning and optimization of the integrated AI services to ensure efficient and responsive operation.
Develop clear and comprehensive documentation for integration processes, interfaces, and instrumentation, facilitating teamwork and knowledge transfer within the team.
Collaborate closely with AI engineers, data scientists, and security experts to ensure smooth integration of AI services into the products.
Ensure that integrated AI services meet security and compliance standards, working closely with the security team to implement necessary measures.

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
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 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)