Senior Site Reliability Engineer, Production Engineer - ThousandEyes(Hybrid)

020 Cisco Systems, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 168,000 - 245,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco ThousandEyes is seeking a Senior Site Reliability Engineer to design and manage large-scale, highly available distributed systems for our SaaS platform. You will work with application teams to ensure performance, reliability, and security across multi-region microservices.

You will deploy resilient AWS cloud-native services, use Kubernetes, Prometheus, and Service Mesh, and drive automation, chaos testing, and 'everything-as-code' approaches to scale operations and guardrails as the

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree plus 7 years of related experience, or Master’s + 4 years, or PhD + 1 year, or equivalent experience
• Proficiency in Python or Go development
• Security-focused solutions spanning development and deployment lifecycle
• Strong Unix/Linux knowledge and system internals
• Knowledge of Site Reliability principles: Incident Response, Change Management, Deployments, SLOs

Responsibilities

• Lead design and management of large-scale distributed systems for a SaaS platform.
• Collaborate with application teams to ensure performance, reliability and security.
• Develop automation for deployment, chaos testing, and everything-as-code.
• Implement multi-region, microservice-based reliability improvements.

Skills

Python

Go

Unix/Linux

Kubernetes

AWS

Security

Incident Response

Automation / IaC

Job description

Meet the Team

The application window is expected to close on: 09/29/2026

This role follows a hybrid work model, with in-office attendance two times a week in San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, or New York.

Meet the Team

Cisco ThousandEyes is a leading Digital Experience Assurance platform that empowers organizations to deliver seamless digital experiences across every network—even those beyond their ownership. Leveraging AI and an unparalleled set of cloud, internet, and enterprise network telemetry data, ThousandEyes enables IT teams to proactively detect, diagnose, and resolve issues before they impact end-user experiences. ThousandEyes is deeply integrated across Cisco's extensive technology portfolio, supporting customers in scaling deployments while offering AI-powered assurance insights within Cisco’s Networking, Security, Collaboration, and Observability portfolios.

Your Impact

As a Senior Site Reliability Engineer (SRE), you will lead the design and management of large-scale, highly available distributed systems, collaborating with application teams to ensure the performance, reliability, and security of our SaaS platform. You will deploy resilient AWS cloud-native services and leverage CNCF-standard tools—such as Kubernetes, Prometheus, and Service Mesh—to standardize operations across our multi-region, microservice-based architecture.

A core component of your work involves developing automation for service operations, including deployment, chaos testing, and "everything-as-code" strategies, to provide robust guardrails for our rapidly growing infrastructure. You will directly influence the ThousandEyes platform by identifying and resolving operational obstacles, ensuring our systems remain scalable under substantial daily data volumes. This role is exceptionally exciting because it places you at the center of mission-critical engineering, where you will solve complex scaling challenges and shape the future of our global platform's reliability.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelors + 7 years of related experience, or Masters + 4 years of related experience, or PhD + 1 year of related experience, or equivalent related work experience
• Proficiency in software development with languages such as Python or Go
• Shown ability to build and implement scalable, well-tested, and security-focused solutions that integrate security protocols throughout the development and deployment lifecycle
• Strong understanding of Unix/Linux systems, including kernel, system libraries, file systems, and client-server protocols
• Knowledge of Site Reliability principles: Incident Response, Change Management, Distributed Systems, Deployment Strategies, and SLOs

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with procedures for operating a large-scale, highly available enterprise platform
• Excellent communication and documentation skills
• Strong sense of ownership, drive, and attention to detail
• Expert-level knowledge of Kubernetes and its ecosystem
• In-depth knowledge of cloud providers, preferably AWS

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.

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: $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.

Cisconians power the future. We make impact as a team, innovating fast and fearlessly to create meaningful solutions on a large scale. The depth and breadth of our technology doesn't just benefit our customers – it also means limitless opportunities for us to experiment and learn. We understand the power each of our unique backgrounds bring when we work together. Because of that, we have a global network of thinkers, doers, experts, and curious creators who help one another do their life’s best work.