Software Engineer, Hybrid

Cisco; Durham (NC); On-site; USD 139,000 - 204,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Paid parental leave

Disability coverage

RSU grants

Paid time off

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. is seeking a software engineering professional in the United States to advance secure, scalable applications.

The role emphasizes design thinking, UX-focused development, and collaboration with product and design teams to deliver customer-centric software solutions. Candidates should bring strong experience in mentoring peers, leading end-to-end projects, and applying AI-native approaches within hybrid cloud environments.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated ability to write clean, functional code and perform unit testing with secure coding practices.
• Proven experience in managing the software development lifecycle, including debugging production issues and leading root cause analyses.
• Ability to lead projects end-to-end and mentor team members.

Responsibilities

• Develops functional, clean code and unit tests; emphasizes UX and secure coding practices.
• Partners with design, product management, and cross-functional teams to align solutions with customer needs.
• Creates technical design docs and performs code reviews for scale and security.

Skills

Design Thinking

UX focus

Secure coding

Threat modeling

Root cause analysis

Mentoring

Project leadership

AI frameworks

CI/CD

IaC

Automation

Hybrid cloud

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

PhD

Tools

CI/CD pipelines

IaC automation

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 11/29/2026

Meet the Team

Today’s challenging business environment is more than that – it’s a period of disruption between the pandemic, global business change and internal process complexity. For us to focus on simplicity and the best customer experience, we need great talent and the right skillsets to be successful. This is now a mantra for our Cisco leadership team and for us. The Cisco IT team is changing the way we run Cisco’s operations by maximizing the power of technology, the best of business processes and superior data insights. Together, we will Reimagine the Cisco experience. Show the world how to Reinvent applications and leverage the future of the Internet to Showcase the power of Cisco: our people, products, processes, systems, and data. This includes actively adopting and leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance our capabilities, drive innovation, and deliver smarter solutions across our operations. Please join us and make this journey together!

Your Impact

Responsibilities

• Develops functional, clean code and unit tests consistent with Cisco ‘Design Thinking Principles.’ Focuses on simplification, UX, secure coding practices, and user privacy.
• Partners with design, product management, and cross-functional teams to align solutions with customer needs, gather requirements, and complete project steps.
• Creates technical design documentation and contributes to end-user guides. Performs code reviews to optimize for scale, velocity, reliability, and security (including threat modeling).
• Debugs and addresses software issues during development and in production environments. Serves as an escalation point for on‑call issues, leads postmortems, and writes root cause analyses.
• Identifies and recommends improvements to the software development lifecycle, Agile practices, and product innovation.
• Functions as an advanced professional with deep knowledge of technical job families and business issues to improve products and services.
• Works independently with minimal guidance to determine the best approach for complex tasks.
• Leads projects from end-to-end and may contribute to defined software engineering roadmaps.
• Acts as a resource for colleagues, mentoring peers or junior members and sharing knowledge through formal and informal channels (presentations, blogs, etc.).
• Thinking: Integrates product sense (market awareness, competition, production adoption) and tracks related metrics to identify opportunities for multiple products to create value.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelors + 7 years of related experience OR Masters + 4 years of related experience OR PhD + 1 year of related experience.
• Demonstrated ability to write clean, functional code and perform unit testing using secure coding practices, with a focus on 'Design Thinking Principles' and user experience.
• Proven experience in managing the software development lifecycle, including debugging production issues, conducting code reviews, performing threat modeling, and leading root cause analysis.
• Ability to lead projects from end-to-end, mentor team members, and partner effectively with product management and design teams to gather requirements and deliver solutions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proven experience in working with AI-native frameworks and integrating machine learning capabilities into enterprise applications to drive innovation and automated decision‑making.
• Proficiency in architecting, deploying, and managing scalable workloads across hybrid cloud environments to ensure high availability and operational agility.
• Strong background in CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code (IaC), and automation tools designed to increase delivery speed and improve system reliability in an Agile environment.
• Demonstrated success in applying 'Design Thinking Principles' throughout the software development lifecycle to prioritize intuitive user experiences and simplify complex business processes.

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 $139,300.00 to $203,600.00 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

$167,700.00 - $282,000.00

Non-Metro New York State & Washington State

$149,100.00 - $250,900.00

• 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.