Software Engineer

Cisco Systems, Inc.; Boulder (CO); Hybrid; USD 130,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) matching

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

RSUs (restricted stock units)

Paid time off

Volunteer days

Job summary

Splunk, a Cisco company, is seeking a software engineer to build and operate the automation that powers Splunk’s release lifecycle across the release portfolio. You will partner with Engineering, Release Management, TPMs, TechOps, and partner teams to simplify branch cuts, builds, backports, publish workflows, and release visibility.

You will turn complex release processes into reliable CI-driven systems, dashboards, APIs, and alerts that make release status clear and actionable.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree + 5 years related experience or Master’s + 3 years.
• Programming skills in Python, Go, Java, or similar languages.
• Experience building and operating production-grade automation and backend systems.
• Understanding of SDLC, CI/CD, deployment, and operational support.
• Experience with Git, GitLab/GitHub, CI pipelines, APIs, AWS and Jira.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, test, and maintain services and automation for release workflows.
• Collaborate with release managers and engineers to translate needs into durable automation.
• Build clean, well-tested code with minimal guidance.
• Perform code reviews to improve quality, reliability, and security.
• Troubleshoot complex issues in production automation and CI/CD pipelines.
• Participate in on-call rotations and incident analysis for release systems.
• Track metrics for adoption, failure modes, and release health.
• Stay current with engineering practices and operational tooling.
• Share knowledge via documentation, runbooks, demos, and design discussions.
• Coordinate timelines and communicate risks, developing remediation plans.

Skills

Python

Go

Java

CI/CD

Git

Education

Bachelor’s degree + 5 years experience

Master’s degree + 3 years experience

Tools

Git

GitLab/GitHub CI

AWS

Jira

APIs/CI tooling

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 09/19/2026

Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.

Meet the Team

Splunk, a Cisco company, is building a safer, more resilient digital world with an end-to-end, full-stack platform designed for hybrid and multi-cloud environments. The Release Engineering team builds the systems that keep Splunk releases moving with confidence. We own the automation and operational workflows behind branch cuts, active branch maintenance, backports, build publication, release notes, release metadata, and release visibility for Splunk releases.

Our mission is to turn release and certification work into reliable CI: builds that can be produced and certified regularly, release status that is visible in real time, and alerts that bring humans in only when judgment is needed. The team works to reduce manual coordination and make the release lifecycle easier for every engineering team that depends on it.

This is a team for engineers who like both systems and impact. Some days you may be improving a service that provides release metadata to internal consumers. Other days you may automate an existing manual workflow or improve dashboards that help leadership and release partners understand where a release stands. We value operational ownership: our on-call rotation plans weekly builds, triages release certification results, handles incidents when builds or publish flows are blocked, and helps partner teams in ensuring releases go smoothly.

You’ll join a small, high-leverage team that sits at the center of Splunk’s release machinery. We care about replacing tribal knowledge with durable automation, turning messy cross-system signals into clear answers, and making every release a little less tedious.

Your Impact

We are seeking a software engineer to help build and operate the automation that powers Splunk’s release lifecycle across Splunk release portfolio. You will partner with Engineering, Release Management, TPMs, TechOps, and partner teams to simplify branch cuts, builds, backports, release certification, publish workflows, release notes, and release visibility.

You will turn complex release processes into reliable CI-driven systems, dashboards, APIs, and alerts that make release status clear and actionable. Your work will help Splunk ship faster and more predictably while reducing manual coordination, and ensuring the right code reaches the customers as fast as possible.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, implement, test, and maintain services and automation that support Splunk release workflows.

• Work with release managers, engineering teams, product stakeholders, and on-call engineers to understand release lifecycle needs and translate them into durable automation.

• Build clean, maintainable, well-tested code with minimal guidance.

• Perform code reviews and help raise the quality, reliability, and security of team deliverables.

• Troubleshoot complex issues in production automation, CI/CD workflows, Jira/GitLab integrations, and release pipelines.

• Participate in on-call rotations, incident triage, postmortems, and root cause analysis for release automation systems.

• Track relevant metrics for adoption, success, failure modes, release workflow health, and automation impact.

• Stay current with software engineering practices, CI/CD patterns, secure coding principles, and operational tooling.

• Share knowledge with the team through documentation, runbooks, demos, design discussions, and technical guidance.

• Coordinate timelines, communicate status and risks, and develop remediation plans when delivery or release workflows are blocked.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelors + 5 years of related experience or Masters + 3 years of related experience

• Programming skills in Python, Go, Java, or similar backend/service-oriented languages.

• Experience building and operating production-grade automation, backend systems, internal platforms, or developer productivity tools.

• Understanding of the software development lifecycle, including design, coding, testing, code review, CI/CD, deployment, and operational support.

• Experience with Git, GitLab/GitHub, CI pipelines, APIs, AWS and issue-tracking systems such as Jira.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Ability to leverage AI-assisted coding tools and generative AI frameworks to improve software development efficiency, code quality, and architectural design within cloud-based environments.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, especially when coordinating across engineering and release stakeholders.

• Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively with peers and cross-functional partners.

• Ability to debug complex workflow failures across multiple systems.

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 $128,600.00 to $184,900.00 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 ofunused sick timecarried forwardfrom one calendar yearto 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:

$155,000.00 - $256,000.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$138,100.00 - $227,900.00

* 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.