Principal Software Engineer

Cisco•Denver, DE

About The Position

The Collaboration organization at Cisco builds platforms and experiences that help engineering teams deliver software safely, consistently, and at enterprise scale. Our developer experience and GitOps platform work sits at the intersection of application engineering, cloud-native delivery, security, and operational excellence. This team develops the internal tools, services, workflows, and governance patterns that enable engineering groups to release and operate software through a unified, Git-driven model. We work across Java backend services, modern web experiences, Kubernetes and VM-based delivery, GitHub Actions, Argo CD, Vault, and related platform capabilities. In this role, you will be expected to operate as a strategic technical leader: shaping multi-year platform direction, advising senior leaders, influencing teams across functions, and solving complex problems that affect the direction and performance of the business. This role serves as a strategic leader for developer experience and GitOps within Cisco Collaboration, tasked with aligning platform architecture with critical business, security, and operational goals. You will spearhead enterprise-scale initiatives to modernize the engineering lifecycle, optimizing how teams build, deploy, and secure services across Kubernetes and VM-based environments. By defining robust reference architectures and governance models, you will standardize CI/CD automation, secrets management, and deployment visibility to drive engineering excellence. Beyond technical design, you will act as a key advisor to senior leadership, resolving complex organizational blockers and influencing teams through mentorship and cross-functional decision-making. This position is particularly exciting because it offers the opportunity to build the future of developer efficiency by driving the adoption of AI-assisted workflows and modern delivery models. Ultimately, you will represent the platform strategy to stakeholders, ensuring that these investments deliver measurable business outcomes and improved release velocity.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree with 15+ years of relevant experience, Master’s degree with 12+ years, or PhD with 8+ years of experience in software engineering.
10+ years in full-stack development, including backend systems using Java or Spring Boot and frontend interfaces using React, Angular, or Vue.js.
Production experience crafting and delivering APIs, services, and platform workflows for large-scale enterprise environments.
Previous enterprise implementation of CI/CD pipelines and Git-based release automation using tools such as GitHub Actions.
Ownership of architecting and handling containerized, cloud-native applications within Kubernetes and distributed system environments.

Nice To Haves

Production experience with GitOps-based delivery using Argo CD or equivalent platforms.
Experience with HashiCorp Vault or comparable secrets-management technologies.
Experience with Helm, Kustomize, Terraform, Ansible, or other infrastructure and deployment automation tools.
Experience supporting both Kubernetes-based and VM-based deployment models at enterprise scale.
Breadth across platform engineering, developer experience, release engineering, security, observability, and operational readiness.
Experience defining technical standards, reference architectures, adoption plans, and success metrics for internal developer platforms.
Ability to anticipate business and industry changes, connect technical strategy to product outcomes, and develop innovative approaches beyond existing solutions.
Practical experience with AI-assisted development, agentic workflows, or automation patterns that improve engineering productivity while maintaining governance and security standards.
Strong mentoring presence and demonstrated ability to raise engineering quality across teams through influence, review, and technical guidance.

Responsibilities

Operate as a strategic technical leader: shaping multi-year platform direction, advising senior leaders, influencing teams across functions, and solving complex problems that affect the direction and performance of the business.
Align platform architecture with critical business, security, and operational goals.
Spearhead enterprise-scale initiatives to modernize the engineering lifecycle, optimizing how teams build, deploy, and secure services across Kubernetes and VM-based environments.
Define robust reference architectures and governance models to standardize CI/CD automation, secrets management, and deployment visibility.
Act as a key advisor to senior leadership, resolving complex organizational blockers and influencing teams through mentorship and cross-functional decision-making.
Build the future of developer efficiency by driving the adoption of AI-assisted workflows and modern delivery models.
Represent the platform strategy to stakeholders, ensuring that these investments deliver measurable business outcomes and improved release velocity.

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 (for non-sales roles)
performance-based incentive pay (for sales roles)