Software Engineering Technical Leader – Routing, C, Linux

123 Cisco Systems (India) Private Limited; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 2,500,000 - 3,500,000; Full time

Job summary

123 Cisco Systems (India) Private Limited is seeking a Technical Leader to develop software for SD-WAN and edge routing solutions. In this role, you will work closely with ASIC, hardware, and cross-functional teams to define architectures and deliver robust features.

The ideal candidate will have over 12 years of experience in software development, strong skills in C/C++, and a solid understanding of networking hardware-software integration. This position offers opportunities for mentorship and leadership within the organization.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of industry experience in networking software development.
• Strong proficiency in C/C++ and systems programming.
• Experience with hardware bring-up and device drivers.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with hardware teams for platform integration.
• Design and maintain bootloader software.
• Optimize high-performance forwarding plane software.
• Mentor engineers and lead technical initiatives.

Skills

C/C++ proficiency

End-to-end software development

Performance tuning

Debugging skills

Networking knowledge

Job description

Your Impact

As a Technical Leader, you will develop and evolve the forwarding and platform software that powers our SD‑WAN and edge routing solutions. You will collaborate with ASIC, hardware, and cross‑functional engineering teams to define new architectures, implement high‑performance packet forwarding, and deliver robust, production‑ready features.

Key Responsibilities

• Hardware‑Software Integration: Collaborate with hardware engineering teams to bring up new platforms, develop low‑level drivers, and integrate Network Interface Modules (NIMs).
• Firmware Development: Design, implement, and maintain ROMMON and bootloader software to ensure secure and reliable system initialization.
• Forwarding Plane Optimization: Develop and tune high‑performance forwarding plane software to meet the rigorous demands of modern secure routing environments.
• Performance Debugging: Perform deep‑dive analysis into performance bottlenecks at the kernel and hardware‑abstraction layers, including the control plane.
• Modern Development Practices: Utilize AI‑assisted coding tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Claude) and IDEs like VSCode to accelerate the development lifecycle.
• Cross‑Functional Collaboration: Partner with hardware, manufacturing, diagnostics, product management, QA, release operations, and customer support.
• Mentorship: Mentor engineers and foster the development of technical leadership within the organization.

Minimum Qualifications

• 12+ years of industry experience with end‑to‑end software development in networking.
• Experience across platforms, system software, kernel/user‑space drivers, boot loaders, BIOS, and performance tuning spanning control‑plane and data‑plane.
• Strong proficiency in C/C++ with a focus on systems programming and Linux environments.
• Proven experience in developing device drivers and working with RTOS/Linux kernels.
• Solid understanding of routing architectures and hardware‑software interfaces.
• Experience with boot loaders (ROMMON), hardware bring‑up, and board support packages (BSP).
• Demonstrated ability to debug complex issues spanning hardware, firmware, and software layers.
• Experience with LAN/WAN communication interfaces.
• Familiarity with AI/ML techniques and tools for development (e.g., code assistants, static analysis tools, test automation).

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of high‑speed interfaces (PHY, MAC, MACSEC) and DPDK.
• Deep platform/system expertise, such as kernel bring‑up, driver development, platform/network management software, and cloud networking.
• Debugging experience with i2c, i2c trace analyzers, and PCIe.
• Knowledge of x86 or ARM assembly code, instruction sets, and ABIs.
• Experience with hardware and software debuggers (e.g., GDB, Arium, BDI).