Distinguished Engineer – Chief Architect

Jobtailor; California (MO); On-site; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco is seeking an experienced Senior Enterprise AI Architect to define the long-term architecture for its AI platform and lead the design of complex technical challenges. You will set architectural principles and collaborate across Platform Engineering and Product Management to align innovations with CIRCUIT’s roadmap.

The role demands deep expertise in AI/ML, distributed systems, and cloud-native infrastructure, with a track record of taking research concepts to production-ready offerings.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience in CS/Engineering.
• 17+ years of software engineering, architecture, distributed systems, AI/ML, or platform engineering.
• Experience as principal engineer, architect, or senior technical leader in large-scale enterprises.

Responsibilities

• Define the long-term architecture for the enterprise AI platform.
• Lead design and resolution of the organization’s most complex technical challenges.
• Set architectural principles and reference patterns to reduce fragmentation.
• Create a path turning advanced invention into production-grade capabilities.
• Partner with Platform Engineering to ensure production-ready designs.
• Collaborate with Product Management to align tech innovation with roadmaps.
• Act as the primary architectural bridge across units.
• Lead rapid exploration of agent collaboration, autonomous planning, proactive workflows, and new interaction models.
• Stay connected to AI advances and enterprise AI frameworks.
• Represent Cisco as a technical authority in enterprise AI.

Skills

AI/ML systems

Distributed systems

Cloud-native infrastructure

Multi-cloud & hybrid

Architectural leadership

Production-ready platform

Model orchestration

LLM integration

RAG

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Engineering

Tools

GCP

AWS

Azure

Job description

Responsibilities

• Define the long‑term architecture for Cisco’s enterprise AI platform
• Lead the design and resolution of the organization’s most complex technical challenges
• Set architectural principles and reference patterns that reduce fragmentation
• Create and drive a clear path that converts advanced technical invention into production‑grade platform capabilities
• Partner closely with Platform Engineering to ensure new ideas are designed for production
• Collaborate with Product Management to align technical innovation with CIRCUIT’s long‑term roadmap
• Act as the primary architectural bridge across various engineering and business units
• Lead rapid exploration of emerging areas such as agent collaboration, autonomous planning, proactive workflows, and new interaction models
• Stay closely connected to advances in AI research, open‑source ecosystems, model providers, cloud platforms, and enterprise AI frameworks
• Represent Cisco as a recognized technical authority in enterprise AI

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience
• 17+ years of experience in software engineering, technical architecture, distributed systems, AI/ML, or platform engineering; advanced degree may substitute for some experience
• Demonstrated experience as a principal engineer, architect, or senior technical leader in large‑scale enterprise environments
• Proven ability to define technical strategy and drive architectural direction across multiple organizations and business domains
• Strong background of leading complex, multi‑functional technical initiatives from concept through production
• Experience with AI/ML systems, distributed systems, cloud‑native infrastructure, or large‑scale data platforms
• Demonstrated history of architectural influence through standards, patents, publications, technical papers, or comparable contributions
• Deep expertise in generative AI, LLM integration, multi‑agent systems, RAG, evaluation frameworks, and enterprise AI architecture (preferred)
• Experience taking research concepts or early prototypes through productization into secure, scalable, production‑ready offerings (preferred)
• Strong familiarity with model orchestration, memory systems, tool invocation, agent reliability, and enterprise trust controls (preferred)
• Experience in multi‑cloud and hybrid environments, including GCP, AWS, Azure, and on‑prem infrastructure (preferred)