Software Engineering Technical Leader, CX Platform

020 Cisco Systems, Inc.; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 187,000 - 268,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. is seeking a senior engineering leader to define the technical trajectory for the CX Platform, unifying AI/ML capabilities with scalable backend systems.

You will guide architectural decisions, mentor senior engineers, and standardize CI/CD and security practices across the stack. This hybrid role in San Jose requires hands-on delivery, cross-team collaboration, and a focus on delivering production-ready software that empowers Cisco’s customer experience ecosystem across FY27

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in CS/Engineering or related field.
• 8+ years of related engineering experience for Bachelor’s; more for higher degrees.
• Experience delivering full-stack applications in production environments.
• Experience integrating AI/ML models or API-driven services.
• Experience implementing CI/CD pipelines and secure DevOps practices.

Responsibilities

• Define the technical trajectory for the CX Platform, guiding scalable, production-grade systems.
• Lead architectural decisions and design reviews across engineering teams.
• Mentor senior engineers and promote engineering excellence.
• Standardize CI/CD and security practices across the stack.

Skills

Full-stack

AI/ML integration

CI/CD pipelines

Architectural reviews

Security best practices

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Tools

Jenkins

GitHub Actions

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 10/29/2026 This is a Hybrid role located in San Jose CA. Requiring 2-3 days in office per week.

Meet the Team

The CX Platform is the high-velocity engineering engine powering Cisco’s entire customer experience ecosystem. We build full-stack applications, robust shared services, and cutting‑edge AI/ML integrations that empower our customer‑facing teams to ship innovation faster and with absolute confidence. As we look toward our FY27 vision, this team is at the epicenter of Cisco’s transformation, ensuring our architecture is not just reactive, but anticipatory. You’ll be joining a group of builders who own the product lifecycle from end to end—from front‑end user experiences to complex back‑end services. If you thrive in an environment where technical decisions are judged by their measurable impact on customer outcomes, you’ll find your home here.

Your Impact

In this role, you will define the technical trajectory for a platform that serves as the backbone of Cisco’s most critical customer and business challenges. You will move beyond building features to designing high-performing, scalable systems that define how other engineers develop, deploy, and maintain software across the organization. By bridging the gap between cutting‑edge AI/ML research and production‑grade software, you will ensure our platform remains secure, cohesive, and ready to meet the evolving demands of our global users. This is an opportunity where your technical authority will be the primary driver for architectural excellence, team mentorship, and the successful delivery of multi‑quarter engineering roadmaps.

• Define Technical Strategy: Lead the architectural vision for the CX Platform, ensuring that AI/ML capabilities are integrated coherently across all services rather than siloed, directly supporting our long‑term FY27 scalability goals.
• Architectural Stewardship: Partner with product and design leadership to translate complex requirements into reliable, high‑performing system designs that serve as the foundation for the entire engineering organization.
• Mentorship: Serve as a technical sounding board and mentor for senior engineers, using your deep code fluency to challenge decisions, conduct rigorous design reviews, and cultivate a culture of engineering excellence through consensus and collaboration.
• Operational Excellence: Standardize CI/CD practices and security protocols across the stack, ensuring that our development velocity is matched by meticulous quality standards and a seamless developer experience.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or an equivalent technical degree (e.g., Mathematics, Physics) 8 years of related professional engineering experience (with a Bachelor’s); 6 years (with a Master’s); 3 years (with a PhD).
• Experience designing and delivering full‑stack applications in production environments.
• Experience integrating AI/ML models or API‑driven services into customer‑facing products.
• Experience setting technical standards or architectural requirements for systems used by multiple engineering teams.
• Experience implementing CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions) and applying secure development lifecycles (e.g., SAST/DAST).
• Experience leading technical design reviews and influencing architectural decisions through consensus across engineering groups.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading architecture reviews and driving consensus among senior or principal engineers.
• Experience shaping technical strategy at an organizational level, not just within a single team.
• Experience in one or more of: distributed systems, AI/ML platform integration, secure system design, developer experience/tooling.
• Experience partnering with product and design leadership on multi‑quarter roadmaps.

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.

The starting salary range posted for this position is $186,900.00 to $267,700.00 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 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‑quotacomponents, subject to the applicable Cisco plan. For quota‑based incentivepay, Cisco typically paysas follows: .75%of incentive target for each1%of revenue attainmentupto 50%of quota;1.5%of incentive target for each1%of attainment between 50%and 75%;1%of incentive target for each1%of attainmentbetween 75%and100%;andOnceperformanceexceeds100% attainment, incentive ratesareat or above 1%for each1%of attainmentwith no cap on incentive compensation. For non‑quota‑basedsalesperformanceelementssuch as strategicsalesobjectives,Ciscomay pay0%up to125%of target. Ciscosales plansdonothaveaminimumthreshold ofperformanceforsalesincentive compensationtobepaid.

The applicable full salary ranges for this position, by specific state,arelistedbelow:NewYorkCityMetroArea:$186,900.00-$307,800.00 Non‑MetroNewYork state&Washingtonstate:$166,300.00-$274,100.00 * For quota‑basedsalesrolesonCisco’ssalesplan,therangesprovided inthispostingincludebasepayandsales target incentive compensationcombined. **EmployeesinIllinois, whether exempt or non‑exempt,will participateinauniquetimeoffprogramtomeetlocalrequirements.

Cisconians powerthefuture. Wemakeimpactasateam,innovatingfastandfearlesslytocreatemeaningfulsolutionsonalargescale. Thedepthandbreadthofourtechnologydoesn’tjustbenefitourcustomers–italsomeanslimitlessopportunitiesforustoexperimentandlearn. Weunderstandthepowereachofouruniquebackgroundsbringwhenweworktogether.Becauseofthat,wehaveaglobalnetworkofthinkers,doers,experts,andcuriouscreatorswhohelponeanotherdotheirlife’s bestwork.