Principal Corporate Counsel: Incubation & Enterprise AI

020 Cisco Systems, Inc.; North Carolina; Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. invites applications for a senior in-house counsel to support fast-moving incubation and AI initiatives within the IDA Legal team, including Outshift and CIRCUIT.

You will counsel product teams, oversee technology transactions, IP licensing, data governance, and privacy matters, and partner with executives and engineers to deploy compliant, innovative solutions at speed.

Qualifications

• Juris Doctor (JD) with 8+ years in a law firm or in-house setting.
• Demonstrated experience in product counseling, tech law and transactions, IP licensing.
• Analytical ability to translate regulatory landscapes into business guidance.

Skills

Product counseling

Technology law and transactions

IP licensing

Education

Juris Doctor (JD)

Job description

Application Window and Hybrid Work Model

The application window is expected to close on: 10/28/2026 “Members of the Legal organization at select locations will generally be expected to follow a hybrid work model, which includes two days of in-office attendance each week, with limited exceptions.”

Meet the Team

Join our dynamic and strategic Incubation, Data & AI (IDA) Legal team. This role is an exciting opportunity to join our growing team and provide critical legal support to Outshift by Cisco. Outshift is Cisco’s emerging technology incubation engine and advanced innovation organization, with a core mission to explore, research, build, and bring “Shift-Left” and “Shift-Ahead” technologies to market before they hit mainstream adoption. Outshift leads Cisco’s exploration and development of quantum networking technologies, under the umbrella of Cisco Research, and also includes the Open Source Program Office (OSPO). In this role, you will also provide legal support to Cisco’s Enterprise AI Platforms & Infrastructure team, which leads Cisco’s enterprise AI applications like CIRCUIT and MyAgent.

Your Impact

You will serve as a key legal partner to fast-paced, dynamic incubation teams, focused on building and graduating (or otherwise offloading) truly innovative projects at Cisco. You will provide valuable, dynamic legal guidance to teams as they collaborate and partner with third parties to ideate, build, prototype, and evolve emerging technologies. You will help ensure compliance by design, working cross-functionally within and outside of Legal. You will work with other Legal subject-matter experts to provide agile legal guidance on a range of issues, including joint development and partnerships, regulatory risk, IP and patent protection, data governance and privacy, and AI ethics and risk. You will provide clear and actionable guidance on complex business and legal issues. You will leverage and deploy AI to accelerate and streamline guidance to the business teams you support. You will enable clients to internally deploy, launch, and graduate innovations in a way that builds trust with users and meets your clients’ innovative velocity.

Minimum Qualifications

Education & Experience: Juris Doctor (JD) with 8+ years of experience in a law firm or in-house legal department. Subject Matter Expertise: Demonstrated experience in product counseling, technology law and transactions, and IP licensing. Analytical Rigor: Ability to synthesize complex, ambiguous regulatory landscapes into clear, business-centric advice. Communication: Exceptional drafting and negotiation skills with the ability to translate nuanced technical and legal concepts into actionable guidance for executives and engineers.

Preferred Qualifications

Specialized Experience: Experience serving as a legal counsel to dynamic and fast-paced product teams; general familiarity with open source legal issues, research agreements, brand protection and marketing issues. Intellectual Property: Background in IP and/or patent law. Certifications: External AI governance, privacy, or security certifications (e.g., AIGP, CIPP, CISSP). Team Dynamics: Experience working optimally in cross-functional, global teams. Adaptability: A proactive, “builder” mindset; comfortable working in a rapidly evolving environment.

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