Senior Software Engineer- Networking Technologies

Cisco • Milpitas, CA

3d • $165,000 - $241,400

About The Position

The Cisco Distributed System Engineering (DSE) group owns the development of products that power the world’s largest networks, driving the industry’s transformation to support the growing demands of AI/ML workloads and increasing internet usage. By using open-source technologies and advancing Systems and Silicon Architecture, the team builds large-scale distributed systems and delivers end-to-end product development and production support in a fast-paced environment.
As a passionate software engineer, you bring expertise in developing scalable systems, designing robust platforms, and building infrastructure to support modern cloud and distributed computing initiatives. Your strong background in programming, distributed systems, and cloud platforms enables you to solve complex challenges with innovation and precision. You will be involved in working on the Cisco 8000 series of routers and involved in delivering multiple software features for the Silicon One ASIC in the area of NPU management and health monitoring, Fabric data path and security protocols. Your contributions ensure high-quality, reliable platforms that support Cisco’s leadership in intelligent, scalable technology solutions.

Requirements

• Bachelors + 6 years of related experience OR Masters + 4 years of related experience OR PhD + 1 year of related experience.
• Programming experience in C/C++.
• Experience using Python to build automated test suites for kernel module validation, including experience with frameworks like Pytest.
• Experience with Linux Operating Sytems and debugging tools.
• Experience with core networking technologies, including TCP/IP, routers, switches, and Network Processing Units (NPUs).

Nice To Haves

• Understanding of Linux operating systems, development/debugging tools, and memory management.
• Experience designing and implementing multi-threaded applications and architectures.
• Ability to troubleshoot and resolve complex, system-level issues across multiple integrated components.
• Experience with industry-standard debugging tools (e.g., GDB) and memory analysis tools (e.g., Valgrind).
• Experience leveraging AI-powered tools to enhance coding, code reviews, and testing workflows.
• Experience developing and maintaining unit test (UT) automation frameworks.
• Knowledge of MACsec, PCIe, or DMA is considered a plus.
• Understanding of tools such as GIT, Bitbake, Jira, Jenkins and CI/CD pipeline tools.

Responsibilities

• Develop and improve software modules within IOS-XR to support NPU or fabric sub-systems
• Contribute to XR platform software that interfaces with the ASICs for platform enablement, interrupt management, health monitoring of the fabric subsystem including performance qualification and resolving issues on the fabric datapath
• Contribute to platform software for security protocols such as MACSec
• Participate in debugging and resolving system-level issues across software and hardware boundaries.
• Contribute to the design of scalable and maintainable software components for NPU management
• Participate in unit testing, system testing, and automation efforts to ensure high-quality work.
• Conduct code reviews and mentor junior engineers

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: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees