Senior Director of Engineering - Policy and Data Platform

Cisco; Milpitas (CA); Hybrid; USD 294,000 - 407,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco is seeking a leader to own the strategy, architecture, and roadmap for the Policy and Data Platform from Milpitas, CA or Boston, MA, with hybrid work and remote options for US candidates.

You will build a high-impact engineering organization, translate customer policy needs into robust systems, and collaborate with product and security teams to ensure platform reliability and scalable deployment.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of software engineering experience.
• 5+ years in an engineering leadership role managing managers or senior engineers.
• Experience architecting and scaling data platforms or policy systems in production.
• Experience managing engineering budgets and resource planning for an organization of 30+ engineers.
• Experience delivering large-scale distributed systems.

Responsibilities

• Own the strategy, architecture, and roadmap for the Policy and Data Platform.
• Build and scale a multi-team engineering organization, developing managers and senior engineers.
• Translate customer security policy needs into durable technical systems.
• Partner with product and security teams to align platform capabilities with customer needs.
• Set engineering standards and operational practices that improve platform reliability.

Skills

Software engineering

Engineering leadership

Data platform architecture

Budget management

Distributed systems

Education

Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science or Engineering

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 09/13/2026

Location: Milpitas, CA or Boston, MA Preferred Hybrid

Alternate Locations: Open to remote anywhere in the US for candidates outside of these locations

Meet the Team

You will join the Policy and Data Platform team, the group responsible for building the security policy systems that protect customers' environments. The team builds the platform that lets customers define, enforce, and manage security policies at scale across their infrastructure. This work spans UI, data engineering, platform architecture, and policy enforcement, with a strong emphasis on reliability and trust. The team works across Cisco to enable other teams to integrate with the platform, strengthening the signals used to recommend new policies and expanding the number of enforcement points.

Your Impact

• Own the strategy, architecture, and roadmap for the Policy and Data Platform.
• Build and scale a multi-team engineering organization, developing managers and senior engineers.
• Translate customer security policy needs into durable technical systems.
• Partner with product and security teams to align platform capabilities with customer needs.
• Set engineering standards and operational practices that improve platform reliability.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent experience, with 15+ years of software engineering experience.
• 5+ years of experience in an engineering leadership role managing managers or senior engineers.
• Experience architecting and scaling data platforms or policy systems in production.
• Experience managing engineering budgets and resource planning for an organization of 30+ engineers.
• Experience delivering large-scale distributed systems from design through production launch.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building systems that secure customer environments, such as access control, firewall, or workload protection policies.
• Familiarity with security policy enforcement across cloud, network, or hybrid environments.
• Strong communicator able to translate technical tradeoffs into business terms for executives.
• Experience building and scaling engineering teams through periods of rapid growth.
• Demonstrated ability to build trust and alignment across cross-functional, matrixed organizations.

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 $293,900.00 to $406,800.00 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

$293,900.00 - $467,900.00

Non-Metro New York State & Washington State

$285,600.00 - $432,300.00

• 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.