Software Engineering Technical Leader

Cisco Systems; Boulder (CO); On-site; USD 178,000 - 257,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Paid parental leave

Generous paid time off

Job summary

Cisco Systems is hiring a Senior Staff Software Engineer for the AI Platform within the Developer Platforms group. You will design, build, and operate internal platform capabilities enabling engineers to create and run AI agents at scale, while advancing security, reliability, and observability across AI-powered workflows.

You will collaborate with teams to gather requirements, drive architecture decisions, and shape practices for deploying AI agents in production.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience.
• 7+ years with backend services, distributed systems, APIs, infrastructure platforms, developer tooling, or internal platforms.
• 3+ years in AI-enabled systems, AI agents, or ML platform concepts.
• 5+ years with modern software development practices, including testing, CI/CD, observability, reliability, and secure engineering.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate internal platform capabilities for AI agents at scale.
• Develop services, frameworks, and tooling for reliable, secure AI workflows.
• Build AI agents and automation to reduce engineering toil and boost productivity.
• Collaborate with engineers to understand use cases and deliver platform capabilities.
• Contribute to architecture and implementation of AI platform services and integrations.
• Establish patterns for building, testing, deploying, and operating AI agents.
• Improve platform reliability, observability, security, and usability.

Skills

Backend services

Distributed systems

APIs

AI-enabled systems

CI/CD practices

Tools

Observability tools

Security practices

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 10/15/2026

Meet the Team

The Developer Platforms team builds the internal tools, frameworks, and platforms that enable more than 3,000 Splunk engineers to build, test, and release world-class products at scale. The team works across developer productivity, quality systems, release engineering, build platforms, infrastructure automation, and AI-enabled engineering workflows.

We are looking for a Senior Staff Software Engineer to join the AI Platform team within Developer Platforms. This team is responsible for building the internal platform that enables Splunk engineers to create, deploy, and operate AI agents safely and effectively.

The team is also actively building high-impact AI agents and systems that reduce engineering toil, improve developer productivity, and help Splunk engineering teams keep pace with increasing software delivery velocity.

This is a hands-on engineering role for someone who enjoys building scalable platforms, working with emerging AI technologies, and creating practical solutions that improve the daily experience of other engineers.

Your Impact

• Design, build, and operate internal platform capabilities that enable engineers to create and run AI agents at scale.
• Develop services, frameworks, and tooling that make it easier for teams to build reliable, secure, and maintainable AI-powered workflows.
• Build high-impact AI agents and automation systems that reduce engineering toil and improve developer productivity.
• Partner with engineers across Splunk to understand use cases, gather feedback, and deliver platform capabilities that solve real developer problems.
• Contribute to the architecture and implementation of AI platform services, including integrations with internal systems, infrastructure, and developer tools.
• Help establish patterns and best practices for building, testing, deploying, and operating AI agents within Splunk.
• Improve platform reliability, observability, security, and usability through thoughtful design, implementation, and operational ownership.

Minimum Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with a track record of designing, building, and operating production-grade systems.
• 7+ years of experience with backend services, distributed systems, APIs, infrastructure platforms, developer tooling, or internal platforms.
• 3+ years experience in AI-enabled systems, AI agents, LLM-based applications, prompt workflows, or machine-learning platform concepts.
• 5+ years experience with modern software development practices, including testing, CI/CD, observability, reliability, and secure engineering.

Preferred Requirements

• Ability to work across teams, understand developer needs, and turn ambiguous problems into practical technical solutions.
• Experience building platforms, frameworks, or tools used by other engineers is highly desirable.
• Passion for improving developer experience, engineering productivity, automation, and the responsible use of AI in software engineering.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with engineers, technical leads, product managers, and stakeholders.

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 $177,600.00 to $257,400.00 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:

$214,100.00 - $356,300.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$192,400.00 - $317,200.00

• 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 affirmative action and equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, genetic information, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis.

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