Senior Staff Data Scientist

Cisco Systems, Inc.•San Francisco, CA

32d

About The Position

Join the engineering team building the intelligent backbone of Splunk Observability Cloud. We are committed to leveraging the latest advancements in data science and machine learning to unlock unprecedented value from massive volumes of telemetry-metrics, traces, and logs-at petabyte scale. This role involves researching, developing, and deploying core analytical components focused on streaming anomaly detection, predictive intelligence, and automated root-cause analysis. If you thrive on the challenge of building enterprise-grade, scalable ML systems and applying sophisticated techniques to complex, high-impact problems, you will be instrumental in delivering the full-stack, real-time answers and automation required for our customers to achieve true digital resilience across any cloud-native or hybrid environment.

Requirements

PhD degree in Computer Science or related field and 6+ years of software engineering experience, or master's degree with 10+ years of experience.
Experience designing and building scalable cloud-based systems (AWS, Azure, or GCP), including container orchestration (e.g. Kubernetes, Docker).
Proven experience in technical leadership, architecture design, and end-to-end feature ownership in AI/ML or platform domains.
Experience with API design and frameworks (e.g. OpenAPI, GraphQL, gRPC, REST, etc.)
Prior working experience in delivering RAG and Agentic products into production
Expert at using vibe coding tools (Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, Windsurf, Cursor) is a must
Up To Date knowledge on the latest Agentic and Generative AI research papers

Nice To Haves

Exceptional problem-solving skills, with the ability to analyze complex requirements and propose effective solutions.
Experience developing, deploying, and maintaining applications in AWS environment with cloud native solutions.
Experience monitoring and analyzing metrics, trace, span, and log content
Background in observability, generative AI, or model robustness

Responsibilities

Lead the design, development, and evolution of Agentic platforms and machine learning algorithms for anomaly detection, prediction
Apply the latest Generative AI and Agentic AI to enable AI features in Splunk Observability
Collaborate across engineering and product teams to establish robust frameworks for evaluating AI systems' trustworthiness and resilience.
Provide technical leadership and mentorship within the team, establishing leading practices for development, testing, and artifact management.

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, 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