Technical Project Manager – AI Research

Cisco•San Francisco, CA

11d•$138,100 - $196,500•Hybrid

About The Position

Cisco Foundation AI is a frontier AI research team advancing foundational model development, evaluation, and engineering innovation. Based in Cisco’s San Francisco hub, the team works in a collaborative hybrid model, onsite Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, partnering with research, engineering, infrastructure, product, and legal teams to turn cutting-edge AI research into enterprise-grade capabilities. The Technical Project Manager leads end-to-end execution across complex AI research and engineering tracks, aligning cross-functional teams on scope, technical requirements, dependencies, and release milestones. The role coordinates the readiness and launch of AI models, evaluation benchmarks, research papers, and open-source contributions, including compliance reviews and documentation. It also provides executive visibility through operational dashboards and status reporting, and uses AI-assisted developer and workflow tools to automate documentation, reporting, and operational processes.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business, Project Management, or a related field and at least 4 years of technical project management experience, or a master’s degree and at least 2 years of relevant experience.
Prior experience managing technical projects within software engineering, AI/ML, cloud infrastructure, or advanced research organizations.
Applied background in end-to-end project planning, dependency management, milestone tracking, and cross-functional coordination across matrixed teams.
Hands-on experience using AI-assisted developer and productivity tools, such as GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude Code, or Codex, to automate project workflows.

Nice To Haves

Previous experience supporting frontier AI research, Large Language Models (LLMs), foundation model training, or high-performance compute clusters.
Practical background with Agile, Scrum, Kanban, or Lean delivery frameworks in R&D environments.
Experience assisting with technical procurement, cloud resource budgeting, or vendor management.
Background developing executive dashboards and data-driven operational metrics.

Responsibilities

Lead project scheduling, dependency mapping, milestone delivery, and risk mitigation across complex AI research and engineering tracks.
Partner with AI researchers, Engineering, Infrastructure, and Product teams to define project scope, technical requirements, and release milestones.
Oversee launch readiness for AI models, evaluation benchmarks, research papers, and open-source contributions, including compliance reviews and documentation.
Build dashboards and status reports that provide executive transparency into project health, resource allocation, and timeline dependencies.
Integrate AI-assisted developer and workflow tools to automate documentation, reporting, and operational processes.

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
Cisco restricted stock unit grants may be available, subject to eligibility and continued employment.
10 paid holidays per full calendar year and, for non-exempt employees, one floating holiday
One paid day off for the employee’s birthday
Paid year-end holiday shutdown
Four paid personal wellness days
Non-exempt employees receive 16 days of paid vacation per full calendar year, accrued at 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees.
Exempt employees participate in a flexible vacation time-off program with no defined limit, subject to availability and business limitations.
80 hours of sick time off on hire and each January 1, with up to 80 unused hours carried forward.
Additional paid time away may be requested for critical or emergency family-member issues.
Optional 10 paid volunteer days per full calendar year
Employees in non-sales roles may be eligible for annual bonuses, subject to Cisco policies.