Machine Learning Engineering Technical Leader

Cisco Systems, Inc; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 257,000 - 333,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) plan with Cisco matching

Paid parental leave

Paid time away

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. in San Francisco is seeking a Senior Technical Lead to define the architectural direction of our distributed AI platform and drive cross-team execution across Go and Python microservices.

You will help decompose complex systems into actionable work streams and set high engineering standards. You will strengthen security with cryptographic identity, zero-trust verification, and CVE remediation, while mentoring senior engineers to advance the platform’s maturity in a fast-paced

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in CS/CE/EE or related field plus 12+ years software experience; or Master’s 8+ yrs; or PhD 5+ yrs; or equivalent.
• 7+ years designing, building, and operating high-concurrency distributed backend microservices in production, with Go & Python.
• 4+ years designing enterprise authentication systems (OAuth 2.0 / OIDC, JWT, mTLS).
• AI-SDLC experience with code gen tools and agents.
• Experience with LLM orchestration frameworks, agentic runtimes (ReAct), tool-calling interfaces, or MCP servers.
• Kubernetes with automated secret management and OpenTelemetry tracing.

Responsibilities

• Own architectural direction and cross-service execution for the distributed AI platform.
• Author end-to-end specifications to map complex designs into executable work streams across teams.
• Harden service-to-service communication with cryptographic identity and zero-trust verification.
• Lead remediation and production triage to maintain stability and security resilience.
• Mentor senior engineers to drive the platform's technical maturity.

Skills

Distributed systems

Go & Python

Identity & Security

AI-SDLC

LLM orchestration

Kubernetes

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/CE/EE

Master’s degree

PhD

Tools

Temporal

LaunchDarkly

Weaviate

Milvus

Qdrant

PostgreSQL

gRPC

protobuf

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 11/26/2026

MEET THE TEAM

The AI Software & Platform Team designs and operates the core platform infrastructure that connects Cisco’s enterprise product dashboards with intelligent, agentic AI capabilities. By building a multi-service architecture of agentic orchestrators and high-throughput API gateways, the team ensures that AI capabilities are integrated seamlessly into the larger Cisco ecosystem to drive real-time operational workflows at scale. The team is composed of highly technical engineers working with Go and Python microservices, fostering a vibe of high-scale innovation and security resilience. It is an exciting time to join the team as we define the future of agentic AI orchestration and distributed system trust within the enterprise.

YOUR IMPACT

As a Senior Technical Lead, you will own the architectural direction and cross-service technical execution for our distributed AI platform to ensure robust identity and multi-tenancy. You will author end-to-end technical specifications for platform capabilities to decompose complex system designs into executable work streams across multiple engineering teams. You will harden service-to-service communication by deploying cryptographic identity signing and zero-trust verification to enhance fleet security. Additionally, you will lead structured CVE remediation and production triage to maintain system stability and security resilience. Success in this role means establishing high engineering standards and mentoring senior engineers to drive the platform's technical maturity.

Minimum Qualifications

• Education & Experience: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related technical discipline + 12+ years of professional software engineering experience; OR Master’s degree with 8+ years; OR PhD with 5+ years; OR an equivalent combination of education and verified industry software engineering experience.
• Distributed Systems Engineering: Minimum of 7 years designing, building, and operating high-concurrency, distributed backend microservices in production, with experience in both Go and Python.
• Identity & Security: Minimum of 4 years designing and implementing enterprise authentication and authorization systems (e.g., OAuth 2.0 / OIDC, JWT, RFC 8693 token exchange, mTLS).
• AI Software Development Lifecycle (AI-SDLC): Experience leveraging code gen tools and agents for software development.
• AI & Agentic Systems: Experience building or integrating LLM orchestration frameworks, agentic runtimes (e.g., ReAct), tool-calling interfaces, or Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers.
• Cloud Infrastructure: Experience deploying and operating services on Kubernetes with automated secret management and distributed tracing (OpenTelemetry/APM).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing API gateways, gRPC/protobuf service definitions, and shared client libraries across large monorepos.
• Experience with distributed workflow engines (e.g., Temporal) and real-time event streaming (SSE, WebSockets, Kafka).
• Experience with feature flag lifecycle management and targeting using tools like LaunchDarkly.
• Experience leading remediation programs in collaboration with internal offensive security or red-team penetration testing groups.
• Experience integrating vector databases (e.g., Weaviate, Milvus, Qdrant) and relational databases (PostgreSQL/pgx) at scale.

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 $256,900.00 to $333,400.00 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

$256,900.00 - $383,500.00

Non-Metro New York State & Washington State

$234,400.00 - $341,100.00

• 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.