Hardware Engineer Hybrid

020 Cisco Systems, Inc.; North Carolina; Hybrid; USD 116,000 - 163,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. in Raleigh, North Carolina, seeks an experienced Hardware Engineer to architect, design, implement, and test security features across Cisco products.

The role emphasizes hardware and firmware security, HDL verification, and collaboration with product teams. The HFST team values initiative, deep embedded knowledge, and the ability to manage multiple concurrent projects in a hybrid environment.

Qualifications

• B.S. in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related technical field with 5+ years of relevant experience (or M.S. with 3+ years).
• HDL Design & Verification experience in HDL (FPGA/ASIC) design or verification (e.g. Verilog, VHDL, SystemVerilog).
• Board-level bring-up and debug using hardware debug tools and lab equipment (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, JTAG/SWD, evaluation boards).

Responsibilities

• Designing, developing, documenting, and testing hardware or combined hardware and firmware-based security technologies on CPU evaluation platforms and Cisco products.
• Assisting internal product teams deploying hardware and software security technologies.
• Educating product teams on HW security concepts and best practices.
• Developing documentation, proof of concepts, reference code, and scripts to facilitate adoption and verification of security technologies.
• Participating in hardware architecture, design, specifications, and HDL code reviews.

Skills

HDL Design & Verification

Troubleshooting & Lab Bring-Up

CPU Architectures

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering or Electrical Engineering

Master's degree in related field

Tools

Verilog

VHDL

SystemVerilog

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 11/29/2026 This role is hybrid in Raleigh, North Carolina. (3 days a week in the office) The successful applicant will be performing work on US Government classified environments, and therefore, must be a U.S. Person (i.e., U.S. citizen, U.S. national, lawful permanent resident, asylee, or refugee). This position may also perform work that the U.S. government has specified can only be performed by a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil.

Meet the Team

The Security & Trust Organization (S&TO) has corporate-level responsibility for customer data protection and compliance, corporate information protection, and government and product security. Security is a key concern of our customers and a top investment area for Cisco. Join us and help us become the #1 Trusted IT Company in the World. Within S&TO, the Foundational Security Technologies (FST) team seeks to increase product security and trustworthiness across a broad range of Cisco products through development, integration and deployment of reusable software and hardware solutions. Within Foundational Security, the Hardware & Firmware Security Team (HFST) focuses on security solutions implemented at the hardware and firmware level.

Your Impact

The HFST seeks an experienced, proactive Hardware Engineer to architect, design, implement, test, and support hardware security features and solutions across Cisco's portfolio. In this role, you will apply your hardware engineering expertise and embedded systems knowledge to tackle sophisticated hardware security challenges. Responsibilities focus on driving the development and deployment of hardware- and firmware-based security technologies that ensure the trustworthiness of Cisco products. This is a multifaceted role including leading development and verification activities within the team, serving as an applications engineering specialist and trusted advisor to product teams deploying security technologies, assessing system architectures and hardware components for security capabilities and vulnerabilities, and providing technical guidance and education to increase security awareness. The successful candidate will need to be comfortable working in an environment with many concurrent activities and be able to prioritize and manage concurrent tasks independently. Since security threats are dynamic and constantly evolving, the role will also require ongoing education to improve security knowledge, investigation of new security threats and technologies to address them, and active evaluation of security solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Designing, developing, documenting, and testing hardware or combined hardware and firmware-based security technologies on CPU evaluation platforms and Cisco products.
• Assisting internal product teams deploying hardware and software security technologies.
• Educating product teams in their understanding of HW security.
• Developing documentation, proof of concepts, reference code, and scripts to facilitate adoption and verification of security technologies.
• Participating in hardware architecture, design, specifications, and HDL code reviews.

Minimum Qualifications

• Education & Experience: B.S. in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related technical field with 5+ years of relevant experience (or M.S. with 3+ years of experience).
• HDL Design & Verification: Prior experience in HDL (FPGA/ASIC) design or verification (e.g. Verilog, VHDL, System Verilog).
• Troubleshooting & Lab Bring-Up: Prior experience with board-level bring-up and debug using hardware debug tools and lab equipment (e.g., oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, JTAG/SWD, and evaluation boards).

Preferred Qualifications

• CPU Architectures: Experience with x86 and ARM CPU architectures, boot flow, and bootstrap / firmware execution.
• Scripting & Automation: Scripting language experience for automation using Python or Linux shell scripts.
• Security Architecture: Background in security-related design principles, threat modeling, and secure hardware architecture.
• Cryptography: Experience with Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) standards, algorithms, and encryption techniques, with implementation experience in embedded products.
• Embedded CPU Systems: Prior experience with embedded CPU systems along with hardware debug and test in a lab environment.

S&TO 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.

Cisconians power the future. We make impact as a team, innovating fast and fearlessly to create meaningful solutions on a large scale. The depth and breadth of our technology doesn't just benefit our customers – it also means limitless opportunities for us to experiment and learn. We understand the power each of our unique backgrounds bring when we work together. Because of that, we have a global network of thinkers, doers, experts, and curious creators who help one another do their life’s best work.

Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:

The starting salary range posted for this position is $115,800.00 to $163,200.00 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.

Benefits & Compensation

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.

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

• New York City Metro Area: $138,100.00 - $226,000.00
• Non-Metro New York state & Washington state: $124,000.00 - $201,000.00

* 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.