Principal ML Engineer - AI Platform & Scale (Hybrid)

Cisco; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 296,000 - 375,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental and vision insurance

401(k) plan with Cisco matching

Paid parental leave

Short and long‑term disability

Job summary

Cisco is seeking a Principal Machine Learning Engineer to lead the design and scaling of a foundational AI platform powering Cisco IQ across cloud, on‑prem, and air‑gapped environments. You will own architecture decisions, guide production deployments, and mentor senior engineers.

The role emphasizes hands-on technical leadership, scalable AI services, and governance across the CX engineering ecosystem in a hybrid work setting in San Jose, CA.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s + 14 years, or Master’s +11, or PhD +7 in related field.
• Experience with Python, PyTorch or JAX, using PEFT/LoRA, quantization, and distillation.
• Experience deploying production LLM/SLM runtimes with batching, KV-cache, or speculative decoding.
• Experience deploying production RAG systems and agentic workflows using vector databases.
• Experience designing automated evaluation frameworks (golden datasets, drift detection, CI/CD).
• Experience designing production AI platform APIs with quota management, versioning, deployment across hybrid and air-gapped environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture and design reviews for scalable AI platform components.
• Architect, build, and scale AI foundation powering Cisco IQ across environments.
• Drive production-grade AI systems with emphasis on performance, governance, and safety.
• Mentor engineers and influence platform direction through hands-on leadership.

Skills

Python

PyTorch

JAX

PEFT/LoRA

Quantization

Distillation

Education

Bachelor’s + 14 years experience

Master’s +11 years experience

PhD +7 years experience

Job description

Cisco is seeking a Principal Machine Learning Engineer to lead the design and scaling of a foundational AI platform powering Cisco IQ across cloud, on‑prem, and air‑gapped environments. You will own architecture decisions, guide production deployments, and mentor senior engineers.

The role emphasizes hands-on technical leadership, scalable AI services, and governance across the CX engineering ecosystem in a hybrid work setting in San Jose, CA.