Software Engineer - CHG (Hybrid)

Cisco; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 155,000 - 223,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental and vision insurance

401(k) with Cisco match

Paid parental leave

Disability coverage

Basic life insurance

Restricted stock units

Volunteer time off

Job summary

Cisco Systems is seeking engineers for its Cisco Secure Common Services Platform Engineering team. You will design and build cloud-native components powering Cisco's security stack using Go, Terraform, AWS Lambda, AppSync, and ECS/EKS within a Kubernetes environment.

The role emphasizes end-to-end ownership, collaboration with product teams, and opportunities to experiment with AI/ML-driven tooling while scaling secure, high-throughput platforms.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree plus 5 years related experience OR Master’s degree plus 3 years related experience OR PhD with production software experience.
• 3+ years of experience developing, deploying, and managing large-scale cloud-native web applications and microservices using Golang, Terraform, and serverless technologies such as AWS Lambda, AppSync, and ECS/EKS.
• 3+ years of experience using SQL (PostgreSQL) and NoSQL (DynamoDB) storage systems.
• 1+ year of experience building event-driven systems using Kafka, SQS, or SNS for asynchronous communication.
• Experience using AI/ML tools or APIs to support software development workflows.

Responsibilities

• Design and build core components of the Common Services Platform and/or Solutions to enable scalable deployments.
• Partner with Product Management to understand requirements, estimate level of effort, and contribute to planning.
• Collaborate across teams to deliver end-to-end functionality and align on integration points.
• Develop POCs and prototypes to explore new ideas or test performance.
• Mentor peers and engineering interns, sharing best practices and supporting growth.
• Contribute to system design and implementation for timely delivery.

Skills

Golang

Kafka

SQL

NoSQL

Event-driven

AI/ML tools

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

PhD

Tools

AWS Lambda

AppSync

ECS/EKS

Terraform

PostgreSQL

DynamoDB

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 11/19/2026

Meet the Team

We are Cisco Secure Common Services Platform Engineering, part of Cisco's Security Business Group, anchoring the platform that helps protect the world's most critical infrastructure by building the foundational building blocks powering every product across Cisco Security Cloud. Our services — Common Provisioning, Identity and Access Management, Common Objects Service, Posture Service, and Policy Service — give Cisco's security products a shared language for security objects, posture, and policy, moving the portfolio toward unified policy outcomes instead of fragmented, one-off integrations; when we ship a cleaner object model or a faster policy API, every downstream team that depends on it moves faster too. We're a small, close-knit engineering team working across Go microservices, event-driven Kafka pipelines, and Kubernetes/EKS infrastructure, where engineers own problems end-to-end, value transparency, and lean on each other rather than staying siloed. It's an exciting time to join: we're pushing AI/ML deeper into how we design, build, and ship the platform, while tackling real distributed-systems challenges — multi-tenant isolation, cycle-safe hierarchy resolution, high-throughput event distribution — that shape how securely and smoothly Cisco's entire security portfolio works together.

Your Impact

• Design and build core components of the Common Services Platform and/or Solutions to enable scalable, secure, and resilient cloud-native deployments.
• Partner with Product Management to understand requirements, estimate level of effort, and contribute to sprint and quarterly planning.
• Collaborate across teams to deliver end-to-end functionality while aligning on integration points and infrastructure.
• Develop POCs and prototypes to explore new ideas, validate technical approaches, or test performance.
• Mentor peers and engineering interns, sharing best practices and supporting their growth.
• Contribute to system design and implementation to ensure high-quality, timely delivery.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelors + 5 years of related experience OR Masters + 3 years of related experience OR PhD + 0 years of designing, developing, and deploying enterprise software in production environments.
• 3+ years of experience developing, deploying, and managing large-scale cloud-native web applications and microservices using Golang, Terraform, and serverless technologies such as AWS Lambda, AppSync, and ECS/EKS
• 3+ years of experience using SQL (PostgreSQL) and NoSQL (DynamoDB) storage systems.
• 1+ year of experience building event-driven systems using message/streaming platforms such as Kafka, SQS, or SNS for asynchronous, service-to-service communication.
• Experience using AI/ML tools or APIs (e.g., LLM-based coding assistants, model APIs, ML-driven automation) to support software development workflows.

Preferred Qualifications

• Exposure to data structures and algorithms beyond the basics — e.g., graph traversal, recursive or hierarchical data modeling — through coursework, side projects, or production work.
• Experience with clean/layered service architectures (Handler → Service → Repository) and ORM frameworks such as GORM.
• Experience taking difficult problems and translating them into solutions.
• Ability to communicate clearly and summarize information to others concisely across cross-functional and distributed teams.

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 $155,000.00 to $222,600.00 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.

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.

Cisco is an Aff…?

Cisco will consider for employment, on a case by case basis, qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.