Software Engineer

Cisco Systems, Inc; Durham (NC); On-site; USD 129,000 - 185,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) with Cisco matching

Paid parental leave

Health insurance

Flexible vacation

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. is seeking an experienced software engineer for the Supply Chain Plan IT team in the United States. You will develop secure software with a focus on UX, collaborate with design and product teams, and contribute to design and user documentation.

You will lead features, stay current with industry trends, and apply agile engineering practices to deliver high-quality solutions for enterprise customers.

Qualifications

• Software engineering experience with Python and backend development.
• Understanding of Snowflake database concepts, including data modeling, SQL, stored procedures, performance optimization, and data pipelines.
• Experience building REST APIs and backend services and integrating with enterprise applications.
• Hands-on experience with AI/GenAI applications, including LLMs, RAG, AI agents, tool/function calling, and prompt engineering.

Responsibilities

• Develop software aligned with Cisco Design Thinking Principles with a focus on UX and secure coding practices.
• Partner with design and product management to create customer solutions and develop technical design docs.
• Debug and address software issues in development and production to support customers; contribute to user documentation.
• Lead small-to-medium features, mentoring peers, and driving timely delivery and quality.

Skills

Python

Backend development

REST APIs

AI/GenAI

Kubernetes

Docker

Snowflake concepts

Security

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Kubernetes/OpenShift

Docker

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 10/20/2026

Meet the Team

Join the Supply Chain Plan IT at Cisco and help drive innovation in our Supply Chain IT systems. We’re seeking creative, passionate individuals ready for new challenges and eager to make a significant impact. As part of the team, you’ll work with cutting-edge technologies, influence global operations, and help build the future of Cisco’s supply chain. We value fresh perspectives, foster a culture of collaboration and continuous learning, and prioritize work-life balance. If you’re ready to use your skills to solve real-world challenges and be part of something bigger, we want you on our team.

Your Impact

Develop software consistent with Cisco ‘Design Thinking Principles’ with a focus on simplification and UX (User Experience) at its core, using secure coding practices, ensuring user privacy, and following software development best practices. Partners with other teams including design and product management to create the right solution for the customers. Creates technical design documentation to be used by the team as well as contributing to user documentation to be used by end users. Debugs and addresses software issues during development and in production systems to support customers. Brings new ideas for product innovation and helps improve software development processes.

Responsibilities

Experienced professional using best practices and knowledge of internal or external business issues to improve products or services. Works independently but receives guidance and direction from leader then determines best approach to accomplish work. Acts as a resource for colleagues with less experience. Develops relationship with peer stakeholders within and across teams and builds productive working relationships. May lead projects with limited complexity to execute the defined software engineering roadmap. May lead small-to-medium features from technical design through completion. Stays current on industry trends and serves as an expert on the software development lifecycle and agile engineering practices; coaches others, as needed. Contributes to delivery of high-quality design and deliverables. Advocates for new features within a product to address customer needs. Tracks metrics for product adoption and success. Writes functional clean code and unit tests with minimal guidance. Performs coding, debugging, testing, and troubleshooting throughout the development process under minimal supervision. Performs code reviews for others in project. Writes code enabling scale, reliability, and velocity in product releases. Contributes as an expert in secure coding principles and understands threat model of a feature. Troubleshoots complex issues within the production environment, may serve customers through on‑call rotations to identify end user problems, may lead postmortem and write root cause analysis. Expert on multiple functional components. Shares knowledge across teams, both informally and formally (e.g., ad‑hoc basis, internal presentations, blogs, newsletters). Coordinates and collaborates on project timelines and continuously reviews, updates, and communicates project specifications to team members and stakeholders. Develops remediation plans and alternatives to ensure timely delivery. Identifies and acts upon opportunities to assist others. Mentors peers and/or engineering interns.

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree with 5+ years, Master’s with 3+ years of relevant experience

• Software engineering experience with Python and backend development.
• Understanding of Snowflake database concepts, including data modeling, SQL, stored procedures, performance optimization, and data pipelines.
• Experience building REST APIs and backend services and integrating with enterprise applications.
• Hands‑on experience with AI/GenAI applications, including LLMs, RAG, AI agents, tool/function calling, and prompt engineering.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience integrating AI applications with enterprise data sources such as Snowflake.
• Understanding of data pipelines, APIs, microservices, and event‑driven architectures.
• Experience with cloud/container technologies such as Kubernetes/OpenShift and Docker is preferred.
• Understanding of AI security, access control, data security, and enterprise AI governance.
• Experience with LLM frameworks and AI development platforms is a plus.
• Ability to work across data, backend, and AI layers and translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions.
• Strong debugging, problem‑solving, and software design skills.
• Experience working in an Agile development environment and collaborating with architects, data engineers, product teams, and business users.
• Snowflake Cortex / Snowflake AI capabilities
• LLMs and agentic AI
• RAG and vector search
• MCP / tool‑based AI integrations
• Python‑based AI/ML frameworks
• API development and enterprise system integration
• Supply chain, planning, or enterprise application experience

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.

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.

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.