Senior Staff Engineer: Agentic Identity for AI Systems

Cisco Systems; Denver (CO); 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 across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid architectures. You will lead strategy from concept to production, translating identity and access challenges into enterprise-grade software for AI systems.

You will architect scalable IAM for AI agents, deliver APIs and tooling, guide cross-functional teams, and mentor engineers while delivering MVPs and scalable services in a collaborative, innovate-driven environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 10+ years of experience designing and building distributed systems, backend services, or security platforms in production environments.
• 5+ years implementing enterprise identity, authentication, or access protocols (OAuth 2.0/2.1, OIDC, SAML, SCIM, LDAP, SPIFFE, or mTLS).
• 4+ years 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 scalable identity and access management frameworks for AI agents, including token exchange and workload identity.
• Deliver reusable APIs, SDKs, CLI tools, and integration patterns for platform teams.
• Drive cross-functional alignment with Security, AI Platform, Product, and Cloud Operations teams.
• Lead architectural direction, design/code reviews, and engineering standards for non-human identity.
• Deliver production MVPs and iterate into scalable services with internal/external partners.

Skills

Software engineering

Distributed systems

Identity protocols

Containerization

Security engineering

Education

Bachelor's degree (CS/CE/EE) or related field

Master’s degree (optional)

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

AWS

Azure

GCP

Go/C/C++/Java

Job description

Cisco Systems is seeking a Technical Leader to define and build core identity capabilities across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid architectures. You will lead strategy from concept to production, translating identity and access challenges into enterprise-grade software for AI systems.

You will architect scalable IAM for AI agents, deliver APIs and tooling, guide cross-functional teams, and mentor engineers while delivering MVPs and scalable services in a collaborative, innovate-driven environment.