Security Engineer (Remote)

Cisco Systems, Inc.; Denver, Northern (CO, KY); Hybrid; USD 139,000 - 204,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonuses

RSU grants

Paid holidays

Paid time off / vacation

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. is seeking a Senior Application Security Engineer to lead advanced penetration testing across on-prem and cloud portfolios. The role focuses on crafting attack plans, delivering actionable remediation guidance, and scaling testing with agentic AI workflows.

Ideal candidates have 7+ years in application-level pen testing, strong cloud experience (AWS/GCP), and programming skills in Python or Bash. Strong communication and collaboration with engineering teams are essential.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree plus 7 years of related experience in application-level penetration testing.
• Experience across web, mobile, networks, and distributed systems.
• Cloud experience with AWS and GCP; familiarity with remediation strategies.

Responsibilities

• Lead advanced penetration testing engagements for on-prem and cloud applications.
• Develop attack plans and provide remediation guidance to development teams.
• Build and operate agentic AI workflows to scale security testing.
• Contribute to risk-based decisions and drive security maturity.

Skills

Penetration testing

Web/mobile/applications security

Cloud platforms AWS/GCP

Python

Bash

AI-driven automation

Education

Bachelor’s degree + 7 years in application-level penetration testing

Master’s degree + 4 years

PhD + 1 year

Tools

Python

Bash

Splunk

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 09/25/2026

Meet the Team

The Application Security team is a high-impact group dedicated to safeguarding our customer-facing products by identifying and mitigating security threats before they arise. Our function is to proactively stress-test our ecosystem, ensuring that our innovations remain secure, resilient, and reliable for our global users. We are a dynamic, expert-led team that balances rigorous offensive security methodologies with cutting-edge AI-driven automation. We are incredibly excited to be at the forefront of the industry, pioneering the use of agentic AI to evolve how security testing is performed at scale.

Your Impact

In this role, you will lead advanced penetration testing engagements, serving as a critical line of defense for our on-prem and cloud application portfolios. You will craft sophisticated attack plans to identify vulnerabilities, providing actionable, detailed remediation guidance to our development teams to drive product maturity. By building and operating agentic AI workflows, you will scale our testing capabilities, allowing for deeper coverage of complex system architectures. Your expertise will be instrumental in making key risk-based decisions, ensuring that our products meet the highest security standards. Ultimately, you will champion a proactive security culture, leveraging human judgment alongside autonomous agents to outpace emerging threats.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree plus 7 years of related experience, Master’s plus 4 years, or PhD plus 1 year in application-level penetration testing.
• Prior experience in offensive security across core areas including web applications, mobile applications, networks, and distributed systems.
• Previous background with technical understanding of common vulnerabilities, attack vectors, and their corresponding remediation strategies.
• Prior experience working with public cloud platforms (specifically AWS and GCP).
• Applied experience with the ability to develop and maintain custom tooling using languages such as Python or Bash.

Preferred Qualifications

• Active contributions to the security community, such as research publications, CVEs, open-source projects, or bug-bounty recognitions.
• Prior experience in development and automation languages, including C++, Javascript, Python, or Go.
• Prior experience with Splunk products or similar large-scale data platforms.
• Prior experience with buidling cross-functional relationships with engineering teams to drive long-term security maturity.
• Applied experience with effective communication skills, with a track record of mentoring team members and providing constructive technical feedback.

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 $139,300.00 to $203,600.00 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.

• 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 ofunused sick timecarried forwardfrom one calendar yearto 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:

$167,700.00 - $282,000.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$149,100.00 - $250,900.00

* 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.