Senior Hardware Design Engineer

Cisco Systems, Inc.; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 133,000 - 185,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. in Austin, TX is seeking a hardware/design engineer to contribute across design, validation, bring-up and sustaining activities for Catalyst switching platforms.

You will shape product quality, customer experience, and supply continuity in a global enterprise context. The role requires a degree in electrical or computer engineering with multiple years of hardware experience, plus expertise in high-speed design, power delivery, SI, EMI/EMC, and manufacturing readiness.

Qualifications

• Requires a bachelor’s degree in electrical or computer engineering with 7+ years or a master’s with 4+ years of related hardware experience.
• Proven hardware design, validation, bring-up and debugging for complex electronic systems.
• Experience in high-speed digital design, power delivery, SI, thermal, EMI/EMC and manufacturing readiness.

Responsibilities

• Contribute across design, validation, bring-up, diagnostics and manufacturing readiness.
• Influence product cost, manufacturability and supply continuity through sound engineering decisions.
• Collaborate with software, mechanical, signal integrity, power, thermal and supply chain teams.
• Help resolve complex issues affecting deployments, manufacturing continuity and reliability.
• Maintain leadership in enterprise access switching through execution quality and innovation.

Skills

High-speed design

Power delivery

Signal integrity

EMI/EMC

Manufacturing readiness

Hardware design

Debugging

Education

Bachelor's degree in electrical or computer engineering

Master's degree in electrical or computer engineering

Tools

Oscilloscopes

Logic Analyzers

Function generators

Protocol analyzers

Job description

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

This role requires the employee to work onsite at the Austin, TX office location.

Meet the Team

The Common Hardware Group (CHG) creates innovative hardware platforms central to the AI era, powering Cisco’s core Switching, Routing, and Wireless products for organizations globally. Our innovations in silicon, optics, and hardware platforms—like Silicon One—are shaping the technology industry.

The Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series hardware team within CHG is responsible for designing and developing the stackable enterprise switching platform tailored for security, mobility, and cloud applications. This product family features flexible uplink architectures supporting 1 GE to 100 GE speeds and offers models with 24 or 48 ports supporting various Ethernet speeds and Power over Ethernet (PoE) capabilities, including PoE+, Cisco UPOE, and UPOE+.

Your Impact

This role directly impacts Cisco’s Catalyst switching business by delivering reliable, scalable, and cost-effective hardware platforms for enterprise campus networks. The engineer will contribute across design, validation, manufacturing, and sustaining activities, with influence on product quality, customer experience, supply continuity, and Cisco’s competitive position in enterprise networking.

• Plays a visible role in maintaining Cisco’s leadership position in enterprise access switching through execution quality and platform innovation.

• Drives technical execution across hardware design, validation, bring-up, diagnostics, compliance, manufacturing readiness, and sustaining support.

• Influences product cost, manufacturability, supply continuity, and lifecycle efficiency through strong engineering decisions.

• Partner with software, mechanical, signal integrity, power, thermal, manufacturing, supply chain, compliance, product management, and customer support teams.

• Helps resolve complex technical issues that affect customer deployments, manufacturing continuity, and product reliability.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical or computer engineering + 7 years of related experience OR master’s degree in electrical or computer Engineering + 4 years of related experience.

• Experience in hardware design, validation, bring-up, and debug for complex electronic systems.

• Experience in areas such as high-speed digital design, power delivery, signal integrity, thermal, EMI/EMC, and manufacturing readiness.

• Experience with lab equipment such as Oscilloscopes, Logic Analyzers, Function generators, protocol analyzers, etc.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Knowledge of Board Design tools: Cadence Concept/Allegro/System Capture.

• Experience with interface protocols such as PCIe, USB, eMMC, I2C, MDIO, and Ethernet.

• Experience with Ethernet switching technologies, PHYs, SerDes, optics, PoE, power supplies, or embedded management subsystems.

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 $132,800.00 to $185,100.00 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 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:

$154,900.00 - $259,100.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$136,500.00 - $228,300.00

* 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.