Principal Software Engineer

Cisco Systems; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 251,000 - 363,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco Systems is seeking a Principal Software Engineer in the San Jose area to lead architecture, development, and delivery of secure cloud product capabilities for enterprise-scale security operations.

You will translate security and operational requirements into scalable designs, APIs, data flows, integrations, and production-ready code while mentoring engineers and collaborating with product, security, and customer teams to improve reliability, performance, and customer value.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's + 15 years of related experience, or Master’s + 12 years, or PhD + 8 years, or equivalent related work experience.
• Prior experience designing and delivering secure, enterprise-scale products or platforms.
• Experience with API design, distributed systems, data stores and integrations, automated testing, and production-quality code.
• Cloud product architecture experience with AWS, Azure, or GCP; cloud-native services; IaC; high availability; scalability; resilience; observability; secure multi-tenant design.
• Security engineering and security operations across secure SDLC, cloud environments, and enterprise infrastructure, including threat modeling and incident response.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture, development, and delivery of secure cloud product capabilities.
• Translate security/operational requirements into scalable designs, APIs, data flows, and integrations.
• Mentor engineers and collaborate across security, product, engineering, and customer teams.

Skills

Secure design

Distributed systems

API design

Cloud architecture

Threat modeling

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

PhD

Tools

AWS

Azure

GCP

Job description

Meet the Team

Cisco's Splunk Enterprise Security team builds software and cloud product capabilities that help customers gain actionable security insights. The team connects security engineering, security operations, and cloud product architecture to support enterprise-scale deployments. It works closely with product managers, security architects, security operations practitioners, engineering teams, and customer support. The team is a place to lead complex initiatives, mentor engineers, and shape secure, resilient products that improve customer outcomes.

Your Impact

As a Principal Software Engineer, you will lead the architecture, development, and delivery of secure cloud product capabilities and services that support enterprise-scale security operations. You will translate security and operational requirements into scalable architectures, technical designs, APIs, data flows, integrations, and implementation plans. You will design, implement, test, deploy, operate, and continuously improve production software while applying secure coding, threat modeling, privacy by design, automated testing, CI/CD, and production-readiness practices. You will partner across security, product, engineering, and customer-facing teams to resolve complex challenges involving security controls, data ingestion, distributed systems, reliability, and performance. You will mentor engineers and drive measurable improvements in operational outcomes, product adoption, and customer value.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelors + 15 years of related experience, or Masters + 12 years of related experience, or PhD + 8 years of related experience, or equivalent related work experience.

• Prior experience designing and delivering secure, enterprise-scale products or platforms.

• Previous background with software development, including API design, distributed systems, data stores and integrations, automated testing, and production-quality code.

• Prior experience with cloud product architecture experience with AWS, Azure, or GCP; cloud-native services; infrastructure as code; high availability; scalability; resilience; observability; and secure multi-tenant design.

• Prior experience with security engineering and security operations experience across the secure SDLC, cloud environments, and enterprise infrastructure, including threat modeling, secure design reviews, vulnerability management, identity and access controls, security monitoring, detection, investigation, incident response, and production support.

Preferred Qualifications

• Applied experience leading or architecting large-scale, distributed systems and cloud products, especially in security analytics, SIEM, or SOC environments.

• Applied experience operating security capabilities across multiple cloud providers, enterprise environments, and complex or regulated organizations.

• Applied experience owning software across the full SDLC, including requirements, architecture, implementation, testing, deployment, production operations, and continuous improvement.

• Prior experience with cloud product architecture, infrastructure as code, containers or serverless architectures, secure multi-tenant systems, reliability engineering, and cost-aware design.

• Applied experience with data pipeline development, stream processing, integration of third-party security data sources.

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 $250,600.00 to $362,600.00 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:

$250,600.00 - $416,900.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$241,400.00 - $371,000.00

• 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 Affimative 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.