Software Engineering Technical Leader

Cisco•Milpitas, MI

About The Position

The Cisco Distributed System Engineering (DSE) group is at the forefront of developing products that power the largest networks in the world. The networking industry is going through a massive transformation to build the next generation infrastructure to meet the needs of AI/ML workloads and continuously increasing internet users and applications. We are uniquely positioned to capture that market transition. This team builds products by harnessing the potential of open-source technologies while pushing the boundaries on Systems and Silicon Architecture.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree plus 12 years of related experience, or Master’s degree plus 8 years of related experience, or PhD plus 5 years of related experience.
Experience with network operating systems.
Experience with routing and switching software like BGP, SONiC, SRv6, or large-scale data-center networking.
8 + years of software development experience using C, C++, or Python

Nice To Haves

Advanced technical acumen with the ability to serve as a technical advisor to engineering and business leadership.
Hands-on experience with SONiC, SRv6/uSID, MRC, IPM, BGP, EVPN, VXLAN, VPN, MPLS, and Ethernet fabrics.
Experience with FRR, SAI, Linux networking, Broadcom Tomahawk, merchant silicon, or Cisco Silicon One.
Experience with AI infrastructure, hyperscale networks, leaf-spine fabrics, scale-up/scale-out architectures, or GPU networking.
Experience with IOS XR interoperability, Secure Boot, HSM/PKCS#11 signing, platform integration, and trusted software workflows.
Contributions to SONiC or other open-source projects, technical publications, patents, standards bodies, or industry forums.

Responsibilities

Lead the design and implementation of advanced SONiC networking capabilities across SRv6, uSID, MRC, IPM, BGP, EVPN, VXLAN, and AI-scale data-center fabrics.
Partner with architecture, product management, hardware, platform, and customer teams to deliver production-ready solutions across SONiC, FRR, SAI, Linux, and merchant-silicon platforms.
Create technical design and user documentation.
Debug complex issues across development and production environments.
Drive upstream open-source contributions.
Bring new ideas that improve Cisco’s competitiveness in data-center and AI networking.
Lead the architecture and development of complex features across SONiC, FRR, SAI, Linux, and merchant-silicon platforms.
Drive SRv6/uSID, MRC, and IPM capabilities from technical design through implementation, validation, and production readiness.
Develop solutions for traffic engineering, packet spraying, multipath resiliency, failure recovery, telemetry, performance measurement, and large-scale network fabrics.
Lead integration and validation on Broadcom Tomahawk and Cisco Silicon One platforms.
Drive interoperability between SONiC, IOS XR, and other industry routing platforms.
Proactively identify and resolve complex software, protocol, performance, scale, and hardware-integration issues.
Develop and deliver innovative technical strategies for AI backend, scale-up, scale-out, cloud, and hyperscale data-center networks.
Lead major projects that influence Cisco’s SONiC product direction and open networking strategy.
Contribute to SONiC, SAI, FRR, OCP, IETF, and other open-source and industry initiatives.
Define and drive unit, system, scale, interoperability, regression, and fault-injection testing strategies.
Build long-term relationships with internal teams, customers, partners, and industry stakeholders.
Represent Cisco in technical forums, working groups, customer engagements, and external industry events.
Lead features from technical design through completion while negotiating trade-offs in architecture, performance, schedule, and product requirements.
Lead, mentor, and influence senior engineers while improving technical knowledge sharing across the organization.

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
performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary (sales roles)