Technical Project Manager - AI Research

Cisco Systems, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 138,000 - 197,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) matching

Paid parental leave

Disability coverage

Life insurance

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. is seeking an experienced Technical Project Manager for Cisco Foundation AI in San Francisco. You will lead cross-functional teams to schedule, track milestones, manage risks, and coordinate model and research releases across AI research and engineering tracks.

The role emphasizes end-to-end project planning, collaboration with researchers, engineers, infrastructure, and product teams, and the use of AI-assisted tools to automate workflows. Hybrid onsite Mon/Wed/Fri in SF hub.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, business or related field; 4+ years of technical PM experience OR Master’s with 2+ years.
• Experience managing technical projects in software engineering, AI/ML, cloud infra, or R&D organizations.
• End-to-end project planning, dependency management, milestone tracking, and cross-functional coordination across matrixed teams.
• Hands-on use of AI-assisted tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Codex) to automate workflows.

Responsibilities

• Drive end-to-end execution: scheduling, dependencies, milestones, risk mitigation across AI research and engineering tracks.
• Coordinate cross-functional alignment with researchers, engineering, infra, and product teams.
• Oversee model and research releases, evaluation benchmarks, and open-source contributions with compliance reviews.

Skills

Technical PM

Cross-functional coord

Project planning

AI tooling

GitHub Copilot

Education

Bachelor's degree (CS/Engineering/Business)

Master's degree +2 yrs exp

Tools

GitHub Copilot

ChatGPT

Claude Code

Codex

Job description

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

Meet the Team

Cisco Foundation AI is a frontier AI research team advancing foundational model development, evaluation, and engineering innovation. Based in our San Francisco hub, our team operates in a collaborative hybrid model (onsite Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) partnering closely with researchers, engineers, infrastructure, product, and legal teams to turn cutting-edge AI research into enterprise-grade capabilities.

Your Impact

• Drive End-to-End Execution: Lead project scheduling, dependency mapping, milestone delivery, and risk mitigation across complex AI research and engineering tracks.
• Cross-Functional Alignment: Partner with AI researchers, Engineering, Infrastructure, and Product teams to define project scope, technical requirements, and release milestones.
• Coordinate Model & Research Releases: Oversee launch readiness for AI models, evaluation benchmarks, research papers, and open-source contributions, managing compliance reviews and documentation.
• Operational Reporting & Dashboards: Build dashboards and status reports providing executive transparency into project health, resource allocation, and timeline dependencies.
• Leverage AI Productivity Tooling: Integrate modern AI-assisted developer and workflow tools to automate documentation, reporting, and operational velocity.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business, Project Management, or related field with 4+ years of technical project management experience, OR Master's degree with 2+ years of relevant experience.
• Prior experience managing technical projects within software engineering, AI/ML, cloud infrastructure, or advanced research organizations.
• Applied background in end-to-end project planning, dependency management, milestone tracking, and cross-functional coordination across matrixed teams.
• Hands-on experience utilizing AI-assisted developer and productivity tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude Code, or Codex) to automate project workflows.

Preferred Qualifications

• Previous experience supporting frontier AI research, Large Language Models (LLMs), foundation model training, or high-performance compute clusters.
• Practical background with Agile, Scrum, Kanban, or Lean delivery frameworks in R&D environments.
• Experience assisting with technical procurement, cloud resource budgeting, or vendor management.
• Background developing executive dashboards and data-driven operational metrics.

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 $138,100.00 to $196,500.00 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:

$138,100.00 - $226,000.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$124,000.00 - $201,000.00

* 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.