Software Tech Leader, Splunk IAM

Cisco Systems, Inc.; Allen (TX); On-site; USD 152,000 - 222,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. is seeking a Software Engineering Technical Leader to shape architecture and governance for AI-enabled identity solutions. You will lead cross‑team programs, drive secure, scalable designs, and mentor engineers while staying hands‑on in code.

The role emphasizes threat modeling, secure coding, and proactive risk management in a fast‑paced environment. Expect to influence strategic technical directions, collaborate with multiple teams, and deliver high‑quality prototypes and

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related STEM field with 8+ years of experience
• 8+ years of software engineering experience to include writing, testing, and deploying production‑grade code
• Demonstrated experience in enterprise identity and access management (IAM) standards—including SAML, OIDC, and OAuth—and hands‑on experience with their real‑world implementation through secure coding principles, application security and threat modeling
• Demonstrated experience in at least one backend language (such as Go, Java, or Python) and the ability to contribute to complex, multi‑service codebases
• Demonstrated experience designing, building, and delivering highly scalable, secure, and distributed systems to include diagnosing and resolving low‑level system bottlenecks, memory leaks and complex concurrency issues

Responsibilities

• Translate and influence our strategic vision into a clear technical direction. You will manage workstreams holistically, lead projects that span multiple teams, and actively shape our software engineering roadmap.
• Drive critical architectural decisions with a deep focus on security, scalability, and reliability. You will actively contribute to the threat modeling of our products to ensure robust security.
• Actively mentor peers and team members, fostering a warm culture of continuous learning. You will facilitate knowledge‑sharing initiatives such as design sessions, brownbags, and technical demos.
• While your primary focus will be on technical leadership, architecture, and mentoring, you will maintain a steady, active presence in the codebase. You will regularly dedicate focused time to building technical prototypes, personally implementing high‑risk components, and writing clean, production‑grade code that sets the standard for the team.
• Proactively identify, prioritize, and resolve risks in production systems. You will design and implement robust monitoring tools to increase system visibility, lead constructive postmortems, and ensure reliable on‑call support.
• Build and maintain collaborative, cross‑functional relationships. You will scope complex work accurately, communicate delivery of trade‑offs, and negotiate with partners to align on outcomes.

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 09/04/2026

Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.

Meet the Team

Join the Splunk IAM Engineering team. As AI adoption accelerates and autonomous agents are created at unprecedented speed, identity has become a critical control plane for enterprise security. Our team plays a central role in ensuring these agents are properly governed, trusted, and managed across their lifecycle. Our team is deeply committed to technical excellence, mutual support, and continuous growth, dedicated to securing and scaling our enterprise‑level identity and access management solutions. We believe that the best engineering happens in an environment built on trust, psychological safety, and open collaboration.

Your Impact

As a Software Engineering Technical Leader, you will help shape the systems, policies, and engineering patterns that enable the enterprise to innovate with AI safely, responsibly, and at scale. You will apply specialized expertise to solve complex problems, take a broad perspective to identify innovative solutions, and guide our technical vision. You will manage workstreams holistically across multiple teams, ensuring engineering priorities align with stakeholders’ needs while remaining hands‑on in the codebase. Responsibilities include:

• Translate and influence our strategic vision into a clear technical direction. You will manage workstreams holistically, lead projects that span multiple teams, and actively shape our software engineering roadmap.

• Drive critical architectural decisions with a deep focus on security, scalability, and reliability. You will actively contribute to the threat modeling of our products to ensure robust security.

• Actively mentor peers and team members, fostering a warm culture of continuous learning. You will facilitate knowledge‑sharing initiatives such as design sessions, brownbags, and technical demos.

• While your primary focus will be on technical leadership, architecture, and mentoring, you will maintain a steady, active presence in the codebase. You will regularly dedicate focused time to building technical prototypes, personally implementing high‑risk components, and writing clean, production‑grade code that sets the standard for the team.

• Proactively identify, prioritize, and resolve risks in production systems. You will design and implement robust monitoring tools to increase system visibility, lead constructive postmortems, and ensure reliable on‑call support.

• Build and maintain collaborative, cross‑functional relationships. You will scope complex work accurately, communicate delivery of trade‑offs, and negotiate with partners to align on outcomes.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related STEM field with 8+ years of experience, or Master’s degree with 6+ years of relevant experience, or PhD with 3+ years of relevant experience.

• 8+ years of software engineering experience to include writing, testing, and deploying production‑grade code.

• Demonstrated experience in enterprise identity and access management (IAM) standards—including SAML, OIDC, and OAuth—and hands‑on experience with their real‑world implementation through secure coding principles, application security and threat modeling.

• Demonstrated experience in at least one backend language (such as Go, Java, or Python) and the ability to contribute to complex, multi‑service codebases.

• Demonstrated experience designing, building, and delivering highly scalable, secure, and distributed systems to include diagnosing and resolving low‑level system bottlenecks, memory leaks and complex concurrency issues.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with Claude and other generative AI tools to enhance development quality, accelerate throughput, and optimize engineering workflows.

• Expertise in designing and implementing identity governance frameworks, ensuring secure lifecycle management, policy enforcement, and trust verification across both human and non‑human (machine, service, or AI agent) identities.

• Ability to rapidly prototype and build Proof of Concepts (PoCs) for complex integrations, supported by hands‑on experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and containerized orchestration platforms.

• Deep understanding of distributed data systems, including relational and non‑relational databases, as well as asynchronous messaging, queuing, or event‑streaming architectures.

• Experience designing and implementing comprehensive observability, distributed tracing, and diagnostic frameworks to ensure system reliability and deep operational visibility.

• Active contribution to knowledge sharing within the wider professional community (e.g., technical blogs, publications, or presenting at external events).

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 $151,600.00 to $222,400.00 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 timecarried forwardfrom one calendar yearto 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:

$186,900.00 - $307,800.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$166,300.00 - $274,100.00

* 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.