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

123 Cisco Systems (India) Private Limited; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 9,000,000 - 15,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco Systems (India) Private Limited seeks a senior engineering leader to drive the development of security software, including AI-based SDLC enhancements and customer-facing AI/LLM features. You will guide global engineering teams, set technical vision, and partner with product management to advance threat detection solutions.

The role emphasizes hands-on leadership, cross-functional collaboration across Design, Data Science, Security, and SRE, and mentorship of managers and senior engineers.

Qualifications

• Technical Expertise: at least 10 years of experience in software engineering, building cloud-based and on-prem applications.
• Leadership experience: 7+ years leading multiple software teams including managers.
• Collaboration: partner with Design, Data Science, Security, SRE, or PM to deliver secure software.
• AI: track record of leading AI-driven changes in SDLC and product integration.

Responsibilities

• Lead engineering to deliver secure, scalable threat detection software.
• Define short, medium, and long-term goals with product leadership.
• Drive recruiting strategy and build a diverse, inclusive team.

Skills

Software leadership

AI adoption

Observability

Cloud & on-prem

Mentoring managers

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.

Cisconians power the future.

We make impact as a team, innovating fast and fearlessly to create meaningful solutions on a large scale. The depth and breadth of our technology doesn't just benefit our customers – it also means limitless opportunities for us to experiment and learn. We understand the power each of our unique backgrounds bring when we work together. Because of that, we have a global network of thinkers, doers, experts, and curious creators who help one another do their life’s best work.