Lead Machine Learning Engineer , AI Defense (Hybrid)

Cisco Systems; Milpitas (CA); Hybrid; USD 216,000 - 281,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco Systems in the San Jose area seeks a Technical Lead for AI Defense. You will own the systems that detect, validate and stop threats to AI, and you will shape architecture and team culture across engineering. You will balance latency, cost and scale for enterprise workloads, while remaining hands-on and mentoring others. This is a high-impact, security-focused leadership role at scale.

Join a fast-moving team redefining enterprise AI security and collaboration at Cisco's global footprint.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's in Computer Science and 10+ years or Master's and 8+ years or PHD and 3+ years of software engineering experience, including architecting and delivering large-scale distributed systems.
• Experience with cloud-native backend development and modern cloud infrastructure.
• Prior experience with technical leadership across teams while remaining hands-on.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the architecture of scalable, high-performance platform services that protect AI applications and agents in real time.
• Remain hands-on in design and implementation, leading by example on the most complex and ambiguous technical problems.
• Shape LLM inference and model-hosting strategy, balancing latency, cost and scale for enterprise workloads.
• Partner with Product, Threat Research and Ops to deploy production-grade features and capabilities, delivered with operational excellence.
• Act as a technical thought leader and mentor, raising the engineering bar and communicating complex strategy and trade-offs to senior leadership.

Skills

Cloud-native backend development

Distributed systems

Technical leadership

Hands-on engineering

Education

Bachelor's in Computer Science

Master's in Computer Science

PhD in CS

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 11/22/2026

This is a Hybrid role based out of Cisco's San Jose office.

Meet the Team

Cisco’s AI Defense is dedicated to securing the next generation of enterprise AI platforms, autonomous agents, and foundation models. Our team brings together world-class distributed systems engineers, security researchers, and AI practitioners in an agile, high-velocity, and collaborative environment. You will join as a technical leader shaping both the product architecture and team culture. This is a rare opportunity to define the industry standard for AI security at Cisco’s global enterprise scale.

Your Impact

As a Technical Lead, you will serve as a hands-on technical authority for AI Defense, owning the systems that detect, validate and stop threats to AI. You will drive hard design and implementation challenges, from low-latency LLM inference at scale to secure deployments in customer environments. Your work will set the engineering standards for the team and directly shape how Cisco secures AI for its customers.

• Define and drive the architecture of scalable, high-performance platform services that protect AI applications and agents in real time.

• Remain hands-on in design and implementation, leading by example on the most complex and ambiguous technical problems.

• Shape LLM inference and model-hosting strategy, balancing latency, cost and scale for enterprise workloads.

• Partner with Product, Threat Research and Ops to deploy production-grade features and capabilities, delivered with operational excellence.

• Act as a technical thought leader and mentor, raising the engineering bar and communicating complex strategy and trade-offs to senior leadership.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's in Computer Science and 10+ years or Master's and 8+ years or PHD and 3+ years of software engineering experience, including architecting and delivering large-scale distributed systems.

• Experience with cloud-native backend development and modern cloud infrastructure.

• Prior experience with technical leadership across teams while remaining hands-on.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with LLM inference, generative AI systems, or AI/ML infrastructure.

• Background in security products or AI security.

• Experience delivering SaaS and hybrid enterprise deployments.

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 $216,300.00 to $280,800.00 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:

$216,300.00 - $322,900.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$197,500.00 - $287,300.00

• 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.

Cisco is an affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, genetic information, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis.

Cisco will consider for employment, on a case by case basis, qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.