Gen AI Senior Software Engineer

Cisco Systems, Inc; Durham (NC); On-site; USD 170,000 - 215,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401(k) with Cisco matching

Paid parental leave

Short and long-term disability

Basic life insurance

Restricted stock units (RSUs)

Paid time off

Volunteer days

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. is seeking a Senior Software Engineer with Gen AI expertise to lead the development, deployment, and management of Gen AI based applications, focusing on Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) and Agentic AI across on-premise and cloud environments.

The role demands experience with responsible AI practices, toxicity screening, regulatory compliance, and building scalable, secure AI infrastructure in production, with collaboration across legal, governance, and engineering teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related STEM field with 10 years experience OR Master's + 7 years experience.
• 3+ years hands-on Gen AI engineering on production use cases.
• Proficiency in software engineering best practices, containerized distributed apps, and DevOps/CI-CD tools.
• Proficiency in Python programming language or similar.
• Hands-on experience with Gen AI frameworks such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, LangSmith, AI operators, with proficiency in Python for AI operations.
• Experience with vector databases such as Weaviate, Pinecone, Milvus or similar.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, deploy, and optimize high-performance, scalable Generative AI frameworks for on-premise and cloud environments.
• Architect secure workflows for end-to-end document processing, including ingestion, classification, retrieval, and automated fine-tuning pipelines.
• Implement robust data security, encryption, and access control protocols to ensure compliance with organizational and regulatory standards.
• Optimizes model architecture and hyperparameters, exploring advanced techniques and fine-tuning strategies, to achieve superior performance and address scalability challenges.
• Integrate responsible AI practices, including toxicity screening, bias detection, and ethical auditing, to ensure safe and compliant model deployment.
• Collaborate with cross-functional, legal, and governance teams to maintain alignment with evolving privacy and security frameworks.
• Monitor and maintain AI infrastructure with real-time alerting to ensure system stability and performance.
• Stay current with advancements in Generative AI, document security, and ethical AI development to drive continuous infrastructure improvement.

Skills

Gen AI engineering

Containerized apps

DevOps/CI/CD

Python

LangChain

LlamaIndex

LangSmith

AI operators

Weaviate

Pinecone

Milvus

Agentic AI workflows

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related STEM field

Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related STEM field

Tools

LangChain (tool)

Weaviate

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 12/30/2026

Who We Are

The Cisco IT team is changing the way we run Cisco's operations by leveraging the power of technology, the best of business processes, and utilizing outstanding data insights. We are redefining how Cisco designs and delivers the employee, partner, and customer experience based on a culture that values customer service. We strive for speed and agility in all that we do. Above all else, we are kind to each other. We aspire to be an industry-leading IT team, with a strong focus on AI and security to differentiate us and foster innovation. To achieve simplicity and the best employee and customer experience, we need excellent talent and the right abilities to succeed.

Who You'll Work With

You will work with our amazing Enterprise Data & Platforms team as part of Cisco IT organization. You will build solutions and support them across our portfolio of capabilities, primarily focusing on enabling AI/ML and Generative AI capabilities in a multi-functional team setup. You will collaborate with other engineers, architects, and organization leadership.

Who You Are

We are looking for a highly skilled Senior Software Engineer with Gen AI skills to lead the development, deployment and management of Gen AI based applications and services, with a focus on Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) and Agentic AI. This role requires expertise in developing and supporting large-scale GenAI applications, with a strong emphasis on AI-first engineering. The successful candidate will have extensive experience in responsible AI practices, including toxicity screening and ensuring regulatory compliance across AI solutions.

What You’ll Do

• Design, develop, deploy, and optimize high-performance, scalable Generative AI frameworks for on-premise and cloud environments.
• Architect secure workflows for end-to-end document processing, including ingestion, classification, retrieval, and automated fine-tuning pipelines.
• Implement robust data security, encryption, and access control protocols to ensure compliance with organizational and regulatory standards.
• Optimizes model architecture and hyperparameters, exploring advanced techniques and fine-tuning strategies, to achieve superior performance and address scalability challenges.
• Integrate responsible AI practices, including toxicity screening, bias detection, and ethical auditing, to ensure safe and compliant model deployment.
• Collaborate with cross-functional, legal, and governance teams to maintain alignment with evolving privacy and security frameworks.
• Monitor and maintain AI infrastructure with real-time alerting to ensure system stability and performance.
• Stay current with advancements in Generative AI, document security, and ethical AI development to drive continuous infrastructure improvement.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related STEM field with 10 years of related experience OR Master's + 7 years of related experience.
• 3+ years hands-on experience in Gen AI engineering on production use cases.
• Proficiency in software engineering best practices, design and development of containerized large-scale distributed applications, and use of DevOps and CI/CD tools,
• Proficiency in Python programming language or similar.
• Hands-on experience with Gen AI frameworks such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, LangSmith, AI operators, with proficiency in Python for AI operations.
• Experience with vector databases, such as Weaviate, Pinecone, Milvus or similar.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related STEM field.
• Experience with design and development of advanced Agentic AI workflows orchestration.

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 $169,800.00 to $214,800.00 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 of unused sick time carried forward from one calendar year to 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

$203,000.00 - $297,400.00

Non-Metro New York State & Washington State

$181,000.00 - $264,600.00

• 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.