Director, Software Engineering | Email Security, SaaS | 15+ years, Bangalore

Cisco Systems, Inc.; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 9,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. in Bengaluru seeks a senior engineering leader for Email Threat Defense with a focus on gen AI improvements to the SDLC and AI adoption across Threat Detection products.

You will mentor managers, guide cross-functional teams, and drive recruiting strategy to build a diverse, world-class team; contribute to security and product strategy while shaping the future of threat detection.

Qualifications

• At least 10 years of software engineering experience building cloud-based and on-prem applications.
• At least 7 years leading multiple, high-performing software teams.
• Demonstrated collaboration with Design, Data Science, Security, SRE, or Product Management.
• Proven track record leading AI-driven changes in the SDLC and product integration.
• Experience leading teams focused on observability.

Responsibilities

• Deliver innovative threat detection software solutions including AI security and product security.
• Set the technical vision for Threat Detection with Product Management and Design.
• Define short, medium, and long-term engineering goals to achieve the vision.
• Lead recruiting strategy to build a diverse and inclusive team and partner with recruiters.
• Mentor and coach managers and senior engineers through challenges.
• Develop career plans for team members and help them grow.
• Recognize achievement and drive engineering-wide initiatives.

Skills

Technical Expertise

Leadership

Collaboration

AI Expertise

Observability

Job description

Meet the Team

You will lead engineering for industry leading software in security space. We invite you to join our Email Threat Defense with a focus on driving gen AI based improvements to the SDLC as well as AI Adoption with the teams. You will also work to add customer facing AI/LLM Functionality to our established suite of Threat Detection products. You will also work to apply our threat detection and security offerings to secure AI Agents. You will also have some SRE/observability responsibilities outside of threat detection.

Your Impact

Our Email Threat Detection teams offer a suite of on-prem and cloud-based threat detection solutions for enterprise customers. The team is globally distributed and provides critical functionality for Cisco Security.

• Deliver innovative, differentiated software solutions in threat detection, agentic AI security, and product security spaces.
• Work with Product Management, Design, and other Engineering Directors to set the technical vision for the future of Threat Detection.
• Work with Product Management and Design to set the vision for the future of Threat Detection.
• Guide engineering teams through defining short, medium, and long-term goals to achieve the vision
• Lead the recruiting strategy to build a diverse and inclusive team: driving decisions on whom the team needs to hire, partnering with our recruiters to define requirements, and talking to candidates
• Mentor and coach managers and senior engineers through technical and non-technical challenges
• Develop career plans for people on your team and help them do the same for theirs
• Encourage thoughtful and creative ways to recognize achievement
• Provide counsel as a member of senior engineering leadership
• Assist with engineering-wide initiatives such as offsites, training, and process evolution

Minimum Qualifications

• Technical Expertise: at least 10 years of experience in software engineering, building cloud-based and on-prem applications.
• Leadership and Team Management: At least 7 years of experience leading multiple, high performing software engineering teams working on cloud and on-prem applications. Experience managing through managers and managing teams through change.
• Collaboration: Demonstrated prior experience partnering closely with Design, Data Science, Security, SRE, or Product Management to deliver usable and secure software solutions to customers.
• AI Expertise: a demonstrated track record of leading teams through AI driven changes in the SDLC. Experience driving AI adoption and product integration.
• Observability: Prior experience leading teams working on observability.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proven experience in leading cross-functional teams, architecting scalable infrastructure, implementing secure software design principles, and delivering high-quality software products under tight deadlines and tight resources.
• Experience leading organizations of 50+ engineers with global distribution.
• Passion about growing as a leader
• Experience building a team, making decisions on recruiting, and organizational design
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, enabling them to effectively convey complex technical ideas to both technical and non-technical stakeholders

Why Cisco?

At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint.

Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere.

We are Cisco, and our power starts with you.