Senior Staff Engineer - Agentic Identity & AI Security

Cisco Systems; Trenton (NJ); On-site; USD 214,000 - 310,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco Systems is seeking a Technical Leader to define and build core identity capabilities for AI agents across cloud, on‑premises, and hybrid environments. You will set architectural direction, mentor engineers, and deliver production MVPs that scale for enterprise workloads.

You will collaborate with Security, AI Platform, Product, and Cloud Operations teams to align identity architecture with business goals, while shaping the next generation of secure, non-human identities.

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

• 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 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

Distributed systems

Backend services

Security architecture

MCP authorization

Threat modeling

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/Engineering

Master’s degree

Tools

Docker

containerd

Kubernetes

AWS

OAuth 2.0

OIDC

SAML

Job description

Cisco Systems is seeking a Technical Leader to define and build core identity capabilities for AI agents across cloud, on‑premises, and hybrid environments. You will set architectural direction, mentor engineers, and deliver production MVPs that scale for enterprise workloads.

You will collaborate with Security, AI Platform, Product, and Cloud Operations teams to align identity architecture with business goals, while shaping the next generation of secure, non-human identities.