Principal Machine Learning Developer

Cisco

About The Position

The Cisco CTO Organization is shaping the future of networking and security through AI-native, cloud-delivered, and autonomous operations platforms. We are investing in agentic AI to make network and security operations more observable, proactive, intelligent, and efficient at scale. Your Impact As a Principal Machine Learning Engineer Developer you will define how AI, LLMs, and autonomous operations transform network and security management across Cisco’s wireless, wired, cloud, enterprise networking, and security platforms! You will work at the intersection of networking, security operations, machine learning, large-scale telemetry, and agentic systems to enable faster diagnosis, proactive assurance, intelligent threat analysis, and safe automated remediation.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree with 12+ years of related experience, Master's degree with 7+ years of related experience, or PhD with 5+ years of related experience.
12+ years in AI/ML, platform engineering, distributed systems, agentic applications in networking, security operations, or related fields
Experience working with large-scale operational data, including metrics, logs, events, alerts, traces, topology, configurations, and unstructured data
Experience with programming languages in C++, Go, Java, and/or Python

Nice To Haves

Experience applying agentic AI to network operations, security operations, or autonomous infrastructure
Deep knowledge of intent-based networking, closed-loop automation, self-driving networks, NaaS, SD-WAN, network observability, or SecOps platforms
Experience with security analytics, SIEM/SOAR workflows, identity and access signals, vulnerability intelligence, or cloud security operations
Experience with multimodal learning, world models, graph ML, causal inference, RAG, or time-series modeling
Strong product mindset, connecting network and security operations innovation to customer outcomes and business value
Experience driving cross-functional initiatives from research and concept through production
Published research, patents, or demonstrated technical leadership in AI, networking, security, or distributed systems
Experience with real-time inference, anomaly detection, root-cause analysis, threat analysis, or intelligent automation
Experience designing cloud-native distributed systems, including Kubernetes, microservices, and multi-cloud platforms
Experience with network and security operations, observability, telemetry, incident management, and automation

Responsibilities

Define architectures for AI-native network and security operations platforms, spanning observability, assurance, incident intelligence, threat analysis, optimization, and automation
Integrate LLMs and agentic workflows with network telemetry, topology, configurations, events, alerts, logs, and operational knowledge
Build intelligent capabilities for anomaly detection, root-cause analysis, performance prediction, incident triage, threat investigation, and guided remediation
Develop network and security world models that infer operational state across devices, users, services, applications, and dependencies
Design closed-loop automation for proactive detection, intelligent investigation, policy recommendations, and safe remediation
Build large-scale telemetry, time-series, graph, log, and event-processing pipelines to support real-time inference
Apply RAG, domain adaptation, evaluation, and grounding techniques to create reliable AI assistants for network and security operators
Develop cloud-native platform capabilities using Kubernetes, microservices, and multi-cloud architectures
Drive end-to-end execution from architecture and experimentation through production deployment, reliability, and scale
Partner with product and engineering teams to translate AI innovation into customer-facing networking and security operations products
Lead and mentor engineers and researchers across AI, networking, security operations, cloud platforms, and distributed systems

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
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
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
performance-based incentive pay
grants of Cisco restricted stock units