Software Engineer - Customer Experience - SDK - L2/L3

Cisco Systems, Inc.; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 1,400,000 - 2,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. is looking for a Software Engineering Technical Leader to drive software integration and optimization across Silicon One solutions. This senior role involves collaborating with multiple teams to enhance software quality for cloud and AI networking environments.

Applicants should have a strong background in C++ and Python, with extensive experience in software development and debugging within complex networking systems. Join Cisco's innovation-driven environment to tackle significant challenges today.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software development experience for Bachelor's; 8+ for Master's.
• Strong debugging and performance analysis skills in networking environments.
• Experience developing networking software on SDKs and abstraction layers.

Responsibilities

• Triage and optimize customer issues in software features.
• Collaborate with architecture, SDK, and software teams to deliver high-performance solutions.
• Troubleshoot and resolve software and networking issues across environments.

Skills

C++

Python

Linux-based systems

Layer 2 and Layer 3 networking technologies

Quality of Service (QoS)

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or related field

Tools

Networking SDKs

Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI)

Job description

Meet the Team

Cisco Silicon One™ is Cisco’s dynamic silicon architecture powering the next generation of web‑scale, cloud, service provider, enterprise, and AI networking infrastructure. The Silicon One Software Customer Engineering team works closely with Silicon One architecture, SDK, platform software and Network Operating System (NOS) teams, as well as strategic customers and ecosystem partners, to enable, integrate, optimize, support and deploy Silicon One software solutions across a broad range of networking environments.

Our team serves as a critical extension to silicon development, software engineering and real‑world deployments, helping accelerate feature adoption, optimize system performance, resolve complex customer challenges and ensure successful integration of Silicon One technologies in production networks ranging from hyperscale cloud environments to large‑scale AI/ML infrastructure.

We are seeking an expert Software Engineering Technical Leader to help drive software integration, feature enablement, performance optimization, customer support and customer adoption of Silicon One solutions across Cisco and open‑source networking ecosystems.

Your Impact

As a Software Engineer on the Silicon One software team, you will supply to the design, development, integration and optimisation of software solutions across Cisco and open‑source Network Operating Systems.

You will:

• Triage customer issues, optimise software features supporting modern cloud, data centre and AI/ML networking deployments.
• Collaborate with Silicon One architecture, SDK, platform software and NOS teams to deliver scalable, high‑performance networking solutions.
• Participate in software integration efforts involving L2/L3 forwarding, ACL, QoS, traffic management, congestion management and load‑balancing technologies.
• Troubleshoot, analyse and resolve software and networking issues in development, qualification and production environments.
• Support solution validation, deployment planning, performance tuning and feature adoption activities.
• Supply to automation, validation, testing and continuous integration frameworks to improve software quality and deployment efficiency.
• Participate in design reviews and technical planning activities.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or related technical field with 10+ years of software development experience; OR
• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or related technical field with 8+ years of software development experience.
• Strong software development expertise in C++ and Python.
• Experience developing software on Linux‑based systems.
• Experience developing, integrating or debugging networking software using SDKs and abstraction layers.
• Experience with Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI) or similar networking abstraction frameworks.
• Strong understanding of Layer 2 and Layer 3 networking technologies and protocols.
• Experience with Network Operating Systems and software integration across networking platforms.
• Strong understanding of Quality of Service (QoS), traffic management, congestion management and load‑balancing technologies.
• Hands‑on experience with software debugging, performance analysis and solving in complex networking environments.
• Experience working with networking ASICs, switching platforms or network infrastructure software.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience developing or integrating networking SDKs for switching, routing or programmable networking silicon.
• Experience with Cisco and open‑source Network Operating Systems, including SONiC or similar platforms.
• Deep understanding of data centre networking architectures and large‑scale distributed systems.
• Experience optimizing networking performance, scalability and reliability in hyperscale cloud or AI environments.
• Familiarity with Silicon One architecture, SDKs and software ecosystem.
• Experience with Linux kernel interfaces, device drivers and low‑level hardware programming.
• Experience developing automation, diagnostics, validation and test infrastructure using Python.
• Experience supporting customers, partners or field engineering organisations in diagnosing and resolving software and networking issues.
• Experience with deployment, validation and operational support of networking solutions in cloud, data centre or AI infrastructure environments.
• Strong understanding of switch/router architectures and high‑performance networking systems.
• Excellent communication, teamwork and mentoring skills.