Senior Software Engineer, Platform Infrastructure & BSP, Cygnus team

Cisco • Milpitas, CA

2d

About The Position

Cisco's Cygnus team is building the next-generation Board Support Package (BSP) platform for high-performance routing products powered by Silicon One.
We're seeking a Senior Software Engineer to build the software infrastructure that enables rapid platform onboarding: Data model compilation, Automated device access generation, Observability, and AI-driven tooling. Your work will directly determine how quickly Cisco can bring new hardware platforms to market.
Your Impact
As a Senior Software Engineer on the Cygnus team, you will develop software consistent with Cisco's Design Thinking Principles with a focus on simplification and reliability at its core. You will partner with hardware, platform, and NOS teams to build scalable infrastructure that absorbs complexity and accelerates engineering velocity.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree + 7 years of related experience, OR Master’s degree + 4 years of related experience, OR PhD + 1 year of related experience.
• Experience in C and Python programming.
• Experience with Linux system administration, shell scripting, and system-level programming.
• Experience with CI/CD platforms (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions, or GitLab CI), Docker and containerized development environments.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with software infrastructure for network operating systems (e.g., SONiC, IOS-XR, or NX-OS) or embedded platforms.
• Familiarity with Board Support Package (BSP) development or hardware abstraction layers or platform bring-up.
• Experience with observability infrastructure (e.g., tracing, metrics, or logging systems like OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, or Grafana)
• Expert on multiple functional components with ability to lead projects spanning multiple teams. Superb communication skills for cross-team collaboration and stakeholder management.
• Experience applying AI/ML or LLM-based approaches to software development or artifact analysis
• Experience collaborating with silicon or hardware vendors to build partner ecosystems
• Active participation in open-source communities (e.g., SONiC, OCP). Contributions to knowledge sharing among the wider professional community, including technical blogs or publications

Responsibilities

• Build platform infrastructure—automated device access generation, observability, test infrastructure and automated UIT generation, and AI-powered tooling
• Design compiler and code-generation systems that transform hardware specifications into software-consumable data models and device drivers, enabling rapid PID onboarding at scale
• Design and build observability infrastructure—tracing APIs, metrics pipelines, and monitoring systems that provide deep visibility into platform behavior
• Apply AI/ML and LLM-based approaches to accelerate platform development—synthesizing hardware models, automating artifact analysis, intelligent failure triage, and generative tooling
• Lead medium-to-large features from technical design through delivery, often spanning hardware, platform, and NOS teams
• Advise on architectural decisions with a focus on scalability, reliability, and developer experience
• Set the engineering quality bar through code, design reviews, and technical documentation
• Coordinate with peers and mentor engineers, facilitate knowledge sharing, and raise the technical capability of the team
• Communicate delivery trade-offs, negotiate with cross-functional partners, and align on outcomes

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