Principal AI Scientist, Enterprise Foundations

Cisco Systems, Inc.; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 264,000 - 384,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401(k) with Cisco matching

Paid parental leave

Stock grants / RSUs

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. seeks a Principal AI Researcher to define the technical vision and architecture for proprietary intelligence.

You will lead multi-year research strategy, directing end-to-end pre-training, alignment, and production deployment for domain-specific models in networking, security, and observability. You will publish influential research, mentor senior talent, and advise executives on enterprise AI directions while collaborating across Cisco’s global teams in a hybrid Seattle or

Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience in STEM with advanced research background.
• Experience architecting and leading large-scale pre-training or RL pipelines.
• Minimum of 6 publications in top AI venues with high impact.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the strategic research roadmap for purpose-built LLMs for Cisco’s infrastructure.
• Lead pre-training, CPT, and RL initiatives for foundational models.
• Architect agentic frameworks and autonomous operations for IT environments.
• Advise executives translating research breakthroughs into scalable enterprise products.
• Publish high-impact research and engage with AI venues.

Skills

Foundational model research

PyTorch

Distributed training

Publications in AI venues

Education

PhD in STEM

Master’s degree in STEM

Bachelor’s degree in STEM

Tools

PyTorch

Job description

Cisco Systems, Inc. seeks a Principal AI Researcher to define the technical vision and architecture for proprietary intelligence.

You will lead multi-year research strategy, directing end-to-end pre-training, alignment, and production deployment for domain-specific models in networking, security, and observability. You will publish influential research, mentor senior talent, and advise executives on enterprise AI directions while collaborating across Cisco’s global teams in a hybrid Seattle or