Senior QA Engineer

Cisco Systems, Inc; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 168,000 - 245,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

10 paid holidays per year plus floatin

Paid vacation and sick time

Comprehensive medical/dental/vision

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. is seeking a Quality Engineer to build and scale AI-powered testing infrastructure for Cisco's security ecosystem. You will translate complex quality challenges into robust solutions, collaborating across teams to implement benchmarking and validation across AI agents and workflows.

The role emphasizes performance testing, security compliance, and automation using AI techniques. The position requires 8+ years in software development and test automation, with deep

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with 8+ years in software development and test automation, including large-scale testing ecosystems.
• Strong Python and Groovy programming for scalable, high-performance tests.
• Experience with security compliance frameworks and modern performance testing.
• Proven ability to use AI to build test automation and QA tools.

Responsibilities

• Translate quality challenges into technical solutions and boost engineering efficiency through evaluation strategies.
• Design scalable testing infrastructure and benchmarking protocols for AI agents and systems.
• Collaborate in code/design reviews and validate testing hypotheses across teams.
• Implement PoCs and ensure adherence to experimentation standards and validation paradigms.
• Execute advanced validation techniques including LLM-based judging and tenant isolation probes.

Skills

Python

Groovy

Testing frameworks

AI/ML testing

Security compliance

Performance testing

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Playwright

OCSF

Caldera

LangChain

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 11/19/2026

Meet the Team

The Enterprise Security Apps organization of Splunk at Cisco is shaping the future of AI-powered quality by building robust test infrastructure for our AI-agentic Security Operations Center (SOC). Our mission is to secure the absolute reliability, performance, and security of our most complex systems within the unified Splunk and Cisco organization. Together, we drive the adoption of groundbreaking benchmarking and catalyze the evolution of our quality ecosystems to transform high-level challenges into scalable, high-impact solutions.

Your Impact

As a Quality Engineer in our department, you will translate complex quality challenges into technical solutions and drive engineering efficiency through evaluation strategies and implementation. You will collaborate closely with team members to implement benchmarking protocols, design scalable testing infrastructure, and support our overarching technical performance goals. Your work directly impacts the reliability, security, and integrity of Cisco's unified security ecosystems.

• Contribute to the development of foundations and evaluation frameworks, ensuring assessment capabilities for AI agents, workflows, and system processes.
• Develop AI-based solutions or agents to mitigate risk and enhance system integrity across testing methodologies.
• Participate in code and design reviews, support technical collaboration, and assist in the validation of technical hypotheses.
• Implement the lifecycle of proof-of-concepts (POCs) while adhering to standards for experimentation and the validation of testing paradigms.
• Execute advanced validation techniques, including LLM-as-judge methodologies, tenant isolation probes, and behavioral regression suites.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree plus 8+ years of experience in software development and test automation, including experience building large-scale testing ecosystems.
• Programming experience with Python and Groovy, involving the design of scalable, maintainable, and high-performance testing infrastructure.
• Experience working with security compliance frameworks.
• Experience implementing modern performance testing methodologies.
• Experience using AI to build automation, including writing AI skills to build test automation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience translating quality challenges into structured and actionable technical implementations.
• Experience applying modern tooling within the AI/ML landscape to drive detection efficacy and system reliability.
• Experience with test automation tools and frameworks including contract testing frameworks, and Playwright.
• Experience with security and compliance tools such as Open Cybersecurity Schema Framework (OCSF) validation libraries, vacuum linter, Caldera, tenant isolation probes, and audit log validation.
• Experience in AI/ML testing utilizing LLM APIs (Claude, Codex), prompt engineering, agentic workflows, LangChain, and LangSmith.

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 $167,700.00 to $245,200.00 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 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.

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.