Sr AI/ML Software Engineer
About The Position
Our team delivers end‑to‑end engineering across the software stack, specializing in Linux kernel development, Yocto‑based open‑source systems, and platform security. We maintain and evolve the core kernel, integrate and optimize Yocto layers, and drive security hardening with a strong focus on CVE triage, patching, and compliance. We are also building the next generation of intelligent engineering tools through Agentic AI applications that accelerate developer productivity, automate debugging workflows, and enhance system observability. In parallel, we develop machine learning solutions for hardware failure prediction, enabling proactive reliability management and data‑driven product quality improvements. Together, we combine deep systems expertise with advanced AI capabilities to deliver a secure, reliable, and intelligent software platform. Senior AI/ML Engineer to architect and build agentic AI systems and the MCP (Model Context Protocol) server layer that securely exposes enterprise tools, knowledge, and actions to LLM agents. You’ll lead the end-to-end lifecycle of ML applications from data and modeling to deployment, observability, and safety while setting platform standards for reliability, security, and developer experience.
Requirements
- BS/MS in Computer Science, Data Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, or related technical field.
- 7+ years of industry experience delivering production AI/ML systems or developer platforms at scale.
- Experience with Python, plus one of the following: Go/Java/C++/Rust.
- Experience building agentic AI systems (tool-using agents, autonomous workflows, decision/action pipelines).
- Hands-on experience designing, implementing, and operating MCP servers (capabilities, sessions, schemas, secure integrations).
- Knowledge of LLMs & GenAI: prompting, RAG, vector search, fine-tuning/LoRA, safety/guardrails, evaluation.
- Production experience with cloud (Azure/AWS/GCP), Docker/Kubernetes, CI/CD, and observability (metrics, tracing, logging).
Nice To Haves
- Shipped enterprise-grade MCP servers integrating internal tools and external SaaS.
- Experience with LangChain, Semantic Kernel, or agent frameworks; Hugging Face Transformers, PyTorch/TensorFlow/JAX.
- Retrieval systems & vector DBs (FAISS, Milvus, Weaviate, Pinecone); hybrid search and embedding strategies.
- Strong data engineering background: streaming/batch (Kafka/Kinesis/Pub/Sub; Spark/Beam), SQL/NoSQL, data lakes/warehouses.
- Security & governance: OAuth/OIDC, secrets management, KMS, RBAC/ABAC, SOC 2/ISO 27001, GDPR/CCPA familiarity.
- Contributions to open-source in LLM tooling, agent frameworks, or retrieval/search.
Responsibilities
- Architect and build agentic AI systems
- Build the MCP (Model Context Protocol) server layer that securely exposes enterprise tools, knowledge, and actions to LLM agents
- Lead the end-to-end lifecycle of ML applications from data and modeling to deployment, observability, and safety
- Setting platform standards for reliability, security, and developer experience.
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.
- 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.
Stand Out From the Crowd
Upload your resume and get instant feedback on how well it matches this job.
What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
Number of Employees
5,001-10,000 employees
