Sr Software Engineer - BackEnd

Cisco•Richardson, NC

1d•$139,300 - $203,600

About The Position

As a Sr. Software Engineer in Cisco’s CX Engineering organization, you will play a critical role in shaping the future of AI-driven solutions across our product and services portfolio. Leveraging your expertise in software engineering and AI/ML technologies, you will build robust, scalable systems that solve real-world business challenges and deliver exceptional value for Cisco’s customers and partners.

Requirements

Bachelor's degrees with 7+ years of related experience or Master’s with 4+ related years of related experience.
Experience in Python development as well as an additional language such as Golang or TypeScript.
Experience with modern backend frameworks such as FastAPI or Django or similar.
Experience with microservices, Kubernetes as well as cloud-native architectures such as AWS, Azure, GCP or similar.
Experience leveraging AI-assisted development environments, such as GitHub, or CoPilot or Cursor to accelerate the SDLC while maintaining code quality standards.
Experience designing and maintaining production grade APIs and data pipelines.

Nice To Haves

Demonstrated experience collaborating closely with product managers and front-end teams to translate product requirements into scalable backend microservices and APIs within an Agile environment.
Experience with MLOps tools, model monitoring, and utilizing ML models at scale.
Experience with Apache Kafka, real-time compute frameworks, and high-performance data modeling. Expertise in hybrid/vector search architectures and large-scale data pipeline management.
Experience with secrets management (HashiCorp Vault), performance tuning, and advanced debugging/root cause analysis.
Experience setting technical standards, defining best practices, and driving the adoption of new technologies across teams.
Demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguity, drive technical consensus, and communicate complex architectural concepts to diverse stakeholders.
Cisco Networking knowledge is a strong plus.

Responsibilities

Lead projects end-to-end by architecting highly available, concurrent distributed systems.
Define and enforce standards for high-performance APIs (gRPC/REST), caching strategies, and sophisticated data modeling across relational and NoSQL environments.
Design and implement comprehensive MLOps pipelines—spanning data preprocessing, feature engineering, and model deployment—and lead the integration of LLMs and generative AI solutions.
Implement event-driven architectures using Apache Kafka for real-time data streaming.
Monitor production environments to proactively identify systemic risks and drive continuous improvement.
Elevate the team’s overall coding standards by actively mentoring peers and junior engineers, conducting rigorous code reviews, and providing technical guidance.
Partner with product management and other stakeholders to translate business needs into technical roadmaps and innovative engineering solutions.

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
grants of Cisco restricted stock units
10 paid holidays per full calendar year
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
16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year (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
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 (for non-sales roles)
performance-based incentive pay (for sales roles)