Software Technical Leader, Test Automation, Splunk

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

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) with Cisco matching

Paid parental leave

Disability coverage

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. seeks a visionary Technical Leader to architect the roadmap for AI-agentic QA and SOC reliability. You will mentor engineers, drive benchmarking, and define scalable testing ecosystems across AI agents and complex system workflows.

You will lead architectural reviews, guide teams through hypothesis validation, and govern POCs with rigorous experimentation to ensure enterprise-grade quality and security compliance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree plus 10+ years of software development and test automation experience, including architecting large-scale testing ecosystems.
• Proficiency in Python and Go, with ability to design scalable, high-performance testing infrastructure.
• Experience with security compliance frameworks.
• Experience with modern performance testing methodologies.
• Experience using AI to build automation and AI-driven testing.

Responsibilities

• Architectural leadership: define and oversee the architectural roadmap for QA foundations and evaluation frameworks for AI agents and workflows.
• Strategic innovation: develop AI-based testing solutions to mitigate risk and improve system integrity.
• Technical mentorship: guide teams through architectural reviews and validation of complex hypotheses.
• Experimental governance: manage POCs with rigorous experimentation standards.
• Quality ecosystem management: ensure testing delivers reliable outcomes at scale in line with enterprise standards.
• Advanced validation: establish standards for validation techniques including LLM-as-judge and isolation probes.
• Cross-functional collaboration: work with engineering leadership on contract testing, audit logs, and security compliance.

Skills

Python

Go

Test automation

Large-scale testing

Security compliance

Performance testing

AI in testing

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Tools

Playwright

JMeter

K6

Terra VM

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 09/18/2026

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

Meet the Team

Are you ready to shape the future of AI-powered quality? We are seeking a visionary Technical Leader to architect the bold roadmap for our AI-agentic Security Operations Center (SOC)! Together, we define the strategic direction that secures the absolute reliability and performance of our most complex systems. We work to mentor world-class engineering talent, drive the adoption of groundbreaking benchmarking, and catalyze the evolution of our quality ecosystems. Join us as we work to transform high-level challenges into scalable, high-impact solutions.

Your Impact

This role is designed for a strategic innovator who translates high-level quality challenges into scalable architectural solutions, driving engineering efficiency through sophisticated evaluation strategies and multi-functional leadership. In this role, you will mentor top-tier engineering talent and implement groundbreaking benchmarking protocols that redefine technical performance! Responsibilities include:

• Architectural Leadership: Define and oversee the architectural roadmap for PQ foundations and evaluation frameworks, ensuring robust assessment capabilities for AI agents, complex workflows, and underlying system processes.

• Strategic Innovation: Identify systemic gaps in testing methodologies and lead the development of AI-based solutions or agents to proactively mitigate risk and enhance system integrity.

• Technical Mentorship & Oversight: Drive the technical culture by mentoring engineering talent, conducting architectural reviews, and guiding teams through the validation of complex technical hypotheses.

• Experimental Governance: Oversee the lifecycle of proof-of-concepts (POCs), establishing rigorous standards for experimentation and the validation of novel testing paradigms.

• Quality Ecosystem Management: Ensure that testing processes consistently deliver reliable, high-quality outcomes at scale, maintaining alignment with enterprise-level quality standards.

• Advanced Validation Strategy: Set the technical standard for groundbreaking validation techniques, including LLM-as-judge methodologies, tenant isolation probes, and behavioral regression suites.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with engineering leadership to enforce rigorous contract testing, audit log validation, and security compliance, ensuring seamless integration of quality across the development lifecycle.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree plus 10+ years of experience in software development and test automation, to include experience architecting large-scale testing ecosystems.

• Demonstrated experience in programming, to include Python and Go, with a demonstrated ability to design scalable, maintainable, and high-performance testing infrastructure.

• Demonstrated experience with security compliance frameworks.

• Demonstrated experience with modern performance testing methodologies.

• Demonstrated experience using AI to build automation (writing AI skills to build test automation)

Preferred Qualifications

• Leadership & Problem-Solving: Exceptional capacity to translate complex, ambiguous quality challenges into structured, actionable, and long-term architectural strategies.

• Strategic Vision: Proven ability to innovate within the AI/ML landscape, applying modern tooling to drive detection efficacy and system reliability.

• Test Automation: Go, Python, Contract testing frameworks, Playwright.

• Security & Compliance: OCSF validation libraries, vacuum linter, Caldera, tenant isolation probes, and audit log validation.

• AI/ML Testing: Deep expertise in LLM APIs (Claude, Codex), prompt engineering, and the design of agentic workflows. Proficiency in demonstrating LangChain and LangSmith to ensure model reliability, AI behavioral regression, and LLM-as-judge frameworks.

• Performance Testing: K6, Terra VM (Security Suite), and JMeter.

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 $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’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 ofunused 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.