Software Engineering Technical Leader (Hybrid)

Cisco•San Jose, CA

1d•$186,900 - $267,700•Hybrid

About The Position

Join Cisco’s team responsible for validating and ensuring technical readiness of network solutions for Scale Data Center Infrastructure customers. The team bridges lab environments and real-world customer deployments, supporting the reliability and performance of cloud-scale networks. This is a hybrid role requiring three days per week at Cisco’s San Jose office. The role leads customer escalations and end-to-end technical validation of network solutions. It reproduces customer environments and verifies operational workflows, while driving proactive issue discovery and resolution through structured test plans, hands-on lab testing, and root-cause analysis with engineering teams. The role defines and maintains qualification matrices for platforms, optics, and software to ensure readiness and reliability before production use. It also communicates technical findings and risks to customers and Cisco stakeholders, and develops evidence-driven processes to prevent customer-impacting issues.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, computer science, or a related field.
12+ years of experience in network engineering, systems validation, customer engineering, or network operations.
Experience with scalable data center architectures, including leaf-spine topologies, routing underlays, network overlays, redundancy, high availability, convergence, capacity planning, and failure-domain design.
Applied experience leading solution-level validation, design qualification, or deployment-readiness initiatives for complex data center environments.
Experience with network automation, including automated provisioning, configuration validation, test execution, telemetry collection, and operational workflow integration.
Experience with lab instrumentation, traffic generators, packet-capture tools, network test platforms, and performance-analysis tools.

Nice To Haves

Ability to solve complex, multi-layer issues spanning hardware, software, protocols, optics, automation, and system-level interactions.
Strong technical leadership, cross-functional collaboration, and communication skills, including the ability to translate complex technical findings into clear risks and actionable recommendations.
Experience supporting cloud infrastructure or hyperscale cloud customers, with proficiency in IPv4/IPv6, Layer 2 switching/design, Layer 3 routing protocols, and network optics.
Familiarity with Cisco network platforms, automation, and telemetry systems, as well as strong technical writing and customer-facing presentation skills.
Ability to lead across organizational boundaries and global time zones, with a proactive approach to problem-solving and operational clarity.

Responsibilities

Lead customer escalations and end-to-end technical validation of network solutions.
Reproduce customer environments and verify operational workflows.
Drive proactive issue discovery and resolution by designing structured test plans and performing hands-on lab testing.
Coordinate root-cause analysis with engineering teams.
Define and maintain qualification matrices for platforms, optics, and software.
Communicate technical findings and risks to customer teams and Cisco stakeholders.
Develop evidence-driven processes that prevent customer-impacting issues.

Benefits

Medical insurance
Dental insurance
Vision insurance
401(k) plan with Cisco matching contribution
Paid parental leave
Short- and long-term disability coverage
Basic life insurance
Paid holidays
Floating holiday for non-exempt employees
Paid birthday day off
Paid year-end holiday shutdown
Personal wellness days
Vacation time or flexible vacation time off, depending on employee classification
Sick time off
Additional paid time away may be requested for critical or emergency family issues
Optional paid volunteer days
Annual bonuses for eligible non-sales employees
Potential Cisco restricted stock unit grants