Senior Staff Engineer - Agentic Identity

Cisco; United States; Remote; USD 214,000 - 310,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

401(k) plan with Cisco match

Parental leave

Disability coverage

Life insurance

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc is seeking a Technical Leader to architect and build core identity and access management capabilities for AI agents across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments. You will lead strategy from concept to production, translating complex identity challenges into enterprise-grade software that supports non-human callers and autonomous agents.

You will design scalable IAM frameworks, deliver developer tooling and APIs, and partner with Security, AI Platform, Product, and Cloud

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field with 12+ years of software engineering experience, or a Master’s degree with 8+ years of relevant experience.
• 10+ years of experience designing and building distributed systems, backend services, or security platforms in production environments.
• 5+ years of experience implementing enterprise identity, authentication, or access protocols (such as OAuth 2.0/2.1, OIDC, SAML, SCIM, LDAP, SPIFFE, or mTLS).
• 4+ years of experience with containerization technologies (Docker, containerd, or Kubernetes) and at least one major cloud platform (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• 3+ years of experience with security engineering principles, including threat modeling, attack-path analysis, or security architecture reviews.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement scalable identity and access management frameworks for AI agents, including token exchange, credential brokering, workload identity, and delegated access models.
• Deliver Developer Tooling & APIs: Build reusable APIs, SDKs, CLI tools, and integration patterns to enable seamless adoption across platform and product teams.
• Drive Cross-Functional Alignment: Partner with Security, AI Platform, Product, and Cloud Operations teams to align identity architecture with operational constraints and customer workflows.
• Lead Technical Excellence: Set architectural direction, conduct design and code reviews, establish engineering standards for non-human identity, and mentor engineering talent.
• Deliver Production MVPs: Rapidly prototype solutions for ambiguous identity and security problems, validate them with internal and external partners, and iterate them into scalable production services.

Skills

Software engineering

Distributed systems

Identity & access protocols

Containerization

Security engineering

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/CE/EE or related field

Master's degree

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Cloud platforms (AWS/AZURE/GCP)

Job description

Meet the Team

Join us as we pursue our vision to make machine data accessible, usable, and secure for everyone. As AI agents rapidly emerge as active users—executing searches, calling APIs, and orchestrating multi‑step actions across critical customer data—the fundamental paradigm of identity and access management must evolve. Our team is at the forefront of this shift, building the foundational identity, authentication, and governance infrastructure required for non‑human callers and autonomous agents. By joining our team, you will tackle greenfield architectural challenges at massive enterprise scale, working alongside collaborative security, AI, and platform leaders in a supportive environment dedicated to continuous learning, innovation, and impact.

Your Impact As a Technical Leader on our team, you will define and build core agentic identity capabilities across cloud, on‑premises, and hybrid architectures. You will lead technical strategy from initial concept through production deployment, translating complex identity and access challenges into resilient, enterprise‑grade software that protects and powers the next generation of AI systems.

Architect and Build Core Capabilities

Design and implement scalable identity and access management frameworks for AI agents, including token exchange, credential brokering, workload identity, and delegated access models.

Deliver Developer Tooling & APIs

Build reusable APIs, SDKs, CLI tools, and integration patterns (including Model Context Protocol/MCP‑based access) to enable seamless adoption across platform and product teams.

Drive Cross‑Functional Alignment

Partner with Security, AI Platform, Product, and Cloud Operations teams to align identity architecture with operational constraints and customer workflows.

Lead Technical Excellence

Set architectural direction, conduct design and code reviews, establish engineering standards for non‑human identity, and mentor engineering talent.

Deliver Production MVPs

Rapidly prototype solutions for ambiguous identity and security problems, validate them with internal and external partners, and iterate them into scalable production services.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field with 12+ years of software engineering experience, or a Master’s degree with 8+ years of relevant experience.
• 10+ years of experience designing and building distributed systems, backend services, or security platforms in production environments.
• 5+ years of experience implementing enterprise identity, authentication, or access protocols (such as OAuth 2.0/2.1, OIDC, SAML, SCIM, LDAP, SPIFFE, or mTLS).
• 4+ years of experience with containerization technologies (Docker, containerd, or Kubernetes) and at least one major cloud platform (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• 3+ years of experience with security engineering principles, including threat modeling, attack‑path analysis, or security architecture reviews.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience designing or securing AI‑adjacent architectures, tool‑using agentic workflows, policy control layers, or Model Context Protocol (MCP) authorization. Deep technical expertise developing multi‑threaded, high‑throughput server‑side applications in Go, C/C++, or Java on Linux. Familiarity with AI‑specific security risks, such as prompt injection, tool misuse, privilege escalation, and unsafe delegation patterns. Experience contributing to industry standards bodies (e.g., IETF, OpenID Foundation, AuthZEN) or presenting at technical industry conferences. Working knowledge of device trust integrations, endpoint posture assessment, and hardware‑backed identity signals for policy enforcement.

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 $214,100.00 to $309,800.00 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.

Benefits

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.