Data Engineering Technical Leader - CX AI

Cisco Systems, Inc.; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 187,000 - 308,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Life insurance

Vision insurance

Parental leave

Paid holidays

Sick time

401(k)

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. is seeking a Data Engineering Technical Leader for CX AI to own the next-generation cloud-native data platform and real-time analytics. You will lead distributed data pipelines, lakehouse architectures, and backend services end-to-end, mentoring engineering pods and setting data modeling standards.

Hybrid role onsite Tue-Thu in California. The role emphasizes architecture, API design, and governance to align engineering with business priorities and AI-ready data foundations.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with 8+ years of related experience, or a Masters degree with 6+ years of related experience.
• Experience in Python and SQL for data engineering, automation, and transformation, along with backend development experience in languages such as Go, Java, Node.js, or Rust.
• Experience designing REST or GraphQL APIs, with experience in relational PostgreSQL, MySQL and/or NoSQL databases.
• Experience implementing distributed messaging and streaming systems using Apache Kafka, AWS SQS/SNS, or comparable technologies.
• Experience building and optimizing data platforms using modern lakehouse/warehouse technologies such as Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, or AWS Redshift or similar.
• Experience building, maintaining, and troubleshooting automated CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, GitHub Actions or similar and containerized deployments.

Responsibilities

• Data Platform Architecture: Architect, build, and optimize scalable cloud-native backend services and data platforms supporting high-throughput ingestion, real-time analytics, and downstream AI/ML consumption.
• Pipeline & Lakehouse Engineering: Design batch and streaming ETL/ELT pipelines, implementing event-driven data flows, Change Data Capture (CDC), and modern lakehouse architectures (e.g., Snowflake, Databricks).
• Data Quality & Observability: Establish enterprise-grade standards for data modeling, semantic layers, schema governance, distributed tracing, and real-time telemetry/alerting to ensure high data integrity and reliability.
• API & Service Integration: Define high-performance API contracts (REST, GraphQL) and backend microservices that expose trusted datasets and metrics for self-service reporting and AI applications.
• Technical Leadership & Governance: Drive CI/CD automation, conduct code and design reviews, mentor senior and mid-level data engineers, and coordinate cross-team technical dependencies across platform, security, and product stakeholders.

Skills

Python

SQL

Go

Java

Node.js

Rust

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

Tools

Snowflake

Databricks

BigQuery

AWS Redshift

PostgreSQL

MySQL

Jenkins

GitHub Actions

OpenTelemetry

Datadog

Prometheus

Copilot

Cursor

Job description

Data Engineering Technical Leader - CX AI

life insurance, vision insurance, parental leave, paid holidays, sick time, 401(k)

The application window is expected to close on: 12/10/2026

This is a Hybrid role requiring work onsite Tuesday-Thursday.

Meet the Team

Cisco's Customer Experience (CX) organization is a high-growth, innovation-driven team focused on delivering a unified digital experience for customers and partners. The CX Platform enables diverse CX use cases through modern cloud-native architecture and emerging AI capabilities, including predictive and generative AI. Our team builds scalable, reliable platforms that accelerate customer outcomes, with a strong focus on quality, urgency, ownership, and data-driven decision making.

Your Impact

You will be the architectural and technical authority driving our next-generation cloud-native data platform. Operating as a hands-on builder and leader, you will own distributed data pipelines, lakehouse architectures, and backend services end-to-end-powering real-time CX analytics and AI-ready data foundations. You will establish organizational standards for data modeling, streaming, and observability while mentoring engineering pods and aligning technical execution with strategic business priorities.

Key Responsibilities

• Data Platform Architecture: Architect, build, and optimize scalable cloud-native backend services and data platforms supporting high-throughput ingestion, real-time analytics, and downstream AI/ML consumption.
• Pipeline & Lakehouse Engineering: Design robust batch and streaming ETL/ELT pipelines, implementing event-driven data flows, Change Data Capture (CDC), and modern lakehouse architectures (e.g., Snowflake, Databricks).
• Data Quality & Observability: Establish enterprise-grade standards for data modeling, semantic layers, schema governance, distributed tracing, and real-time telemetry/alerting to ensure high data integrity and reliability.
• API & Service Integration: Define high-performance API contracts (REST, GraphQL) and backend microservices that expose trusted datasets and metrics for self-service reporting and AI applications.
• Technical Leadership & Governance: Drive CI/CD automation, conduct code and design reviews, mentor senior and mid-level data engineers, and coordinate cross-team technical dependencies across platform, security, and product stakeholders.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with 8+ years of related experience, or a Masters degree with 6+ years of related experience.
• Experience in Python and SQL for data engineering, automation, and transformation, along with backend development experience in languages such as Go, Java, Node.js, or Rust.
• Experience designing REST or GraphQL APIs, with experience in relational PostgreSQL, MySQL and/or NoSQL databases.
• Experience implementing distributed messaging and streaming systems using Apache Kafka, AWS SQS/SNS, or comparable technologies.
• Experience building and optimizing data platforms using modern lakehouse/warehouse technologies such as Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, or AWS Redshift or similar.
• Experience building, maintaining, and troubleshooting automated CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, GitHub Actions or similar and containerized deployments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Expertise in large-scale data ingestion architectures, Change Data Capture (CDC), and multi-source ETL/ELT across APIs, databases, event streams, and object storage (S3/GCS).
• Experience structuring semantic models and feature stores to support data science, predictive modeling, and generative AI/LLM applications.
• Experience implementing end-to-end data observability, lineage tracking, and monitoring frameworks (e.g., OpenTelemetry, Datadog, Prometheus).
• Familiarity leveraging AI-assisted development tools (Copilot, Cursor) and AIOps practices to accelerate development velocity and reliability.
• Demonstrated track record of technical mentorship, driving architectural consensus across matrixed teams, and translating business goals into robust engineering roadmaps.

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.

Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada: The starting salary range posted for this position is $186,900.00 to $267,700.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits.

Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training. The full salary range for certain locations is listed below. For locations not listed below, the recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.

U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco's plan eligibility rules, which include medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability coverage, and basic life insurance. Please see the Cisco careers site to discover more benefits and perks. Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.

U.S. employees are eligible for paid time away as described below, subject to Cisco's policies:

• 10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees

• 1 paid day off for employee's birthday, paid year-end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco

• Non-exempt employees** receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees

• Exempt employees participate in Cisco's flexible vacation time off program, which has no defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use (subject to availability and some business limitations)

• 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, and up to 80 hours ofunused sick timecarried forwardfrom one calendar yearto the next

• Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members

• Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer

For non-sales roles, employees are also eligible to earn annual bonuses subject to Cisco's policies.

Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non-quota components, subject to the applicable Cisco plan. For quota-based incentive pay, Cisco typically pays as follows:

• .75% of incentive target for each 1% of revenue attainment up to 50% of quota;

• 1.5% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 50% and 75%;

• 1% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 75% and 100%; and

• Once performance exceeds 100% attainment, incentive rates are at or above 1% for each 1% of attainment with no cap on incentive compensation.

For non-quota-based sales performance elements such as strategic sales objectives, Cisco may pay 0% up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.

The applicable full salary ranges for this position, by specific state, are listed below:

New York City Metro Area:

$186,900.00 - $307,800.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$166,300.00 - $274,100.00

* For quota-based sales roles on Cisco's sales plan, the ranges provided in this posting include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.

** Employees in Illinois, whether exempt or non-exempt, will participate in a unique time off program to meet local requirements.