Infrastructure Platform Engineer

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

Acacia, part of Cisco, develops high-speed coherent optical networking technology, including silicon-based DSPs, photonic integrated circuits, optical modules, and pluggable transceivers. Its pioneering technology enables data centers and telecommunications networks to carry more traffic over greater distances while reducing power consumption, infrastructure complexity, and operating costs.

The Acacia Infrastructure & Service Operations team ensures the security, reliability, and availability of the systems and infrastructure that support engineering, product development, manufacturing, testing, supply chain operations, and global collaboration—helping teams innovate efficiently and maintain business continuity. We operate in a fast-paced, high-impact environment where the surge in AI demand makes our work more critical than ever. Our team is evolving to provide better coverage and ownership of our core platforms.

We are a cohesive, highly technical unit streamlining the flow of work for our business. As we scale to support the growing demands Acacia infrastructure, we are guided by collaboration, accepted ownership, and an eye for detail to build a more resilient, efficient infrastructure environment. We pride ourselves on fostering a culture of mutual support, where every team member is empowered to solve problems independently and contribute to the long-term stability of our global infrastructure.

As an Infrastructure Platform Engineer, you will strengthen the reliability, resilience, and day-to-day effectiveness of the Acacia's Engineering and Operations platforms. You will apply technical expertise across the infrastructure stack including servers, virtualization, storage, networking, identity, monitoring, backup, and automation to remedy complex issues and strengthen service reliability. Your goal is to reduce downtime, accelerate service restoration, mitigate operational risk and expand the team’s shared knowledge and capabilities.

• Provide hands-on technical support for infrastructure platforms, including VMware, Windows/Linux servers, and enterprise storage to ensure high system availability.
• Collaborate with Engineering & Operations teams to solve complex connectivity and backend integrity issues, minimizing downtime for critical test environments.
• Develop and maintain robust documentation, runbooks, and escalation procedures to improve incident resolution and operational efficiency.
• Partner with security and network teams to balance system performance with organizational security requirements, ensuring a secure and reliable platform.
• Coordinate hardware maintenance and lifecycle support to sustain the infrastructure that drives our coherent optical transceiver development.
• Demonstrate a strong service-oriented approach by working directly with users to address their needs and providing occasional support to data center and remote sites.
• Apply evidence-based troubleshooting techniques and high attention to detail to resolve complex infrastructure challenges efficiently.
• Participate in scheduled maintenance and an on-call rotation, with periodic travel to supported locations.

• Bachelor's degree (or equivalent experience) and five or more years administering and troubleshooting enterprise infrastructure, systems, or platform environments. This must include enterprise virtualization platforms and Windows Server environments.
• Professional experience in at least four of the six following areas: Linux systems, Enterprise storage, Backup & recovery, Active directory or identity services, Infrastructure monitoring, and/or Network services such as TCP/IP, DNS, and DHCP.
• Independent diagnosis of production infrastructure incidents, documentation of findings, and coordination of resolutions.
• Improvement of a repeatable infrastructure operation through scripting, automation, configuration management, APIs, or comparable tooling.
• Experience performing or coordinating data center and hardware work, such as physical verification, equipment installation or replacement, cabling, inventory, maintenance preparation, vendor coordination, and post-change validation.

• Support of engineering, research and development, laboratory, test engineering, manufacturing, supply-chain, or remote-site environments, or of the infrastructure of their workflows.
• Specific expertise using tools such as Ansible, Terraform, and/or PowerShell DSC.
• Public-cloud or hybrid-cloud services exposure and a firm understanding of the operational relationship between cloud and on-premises infrastructure.
• Experience with enterprise backup platforms, recovery exercises, disaster-recovery testing, or business-continuity activities.
• Support of enterprise monitoring, logging, or observability platforms and improvement of alert quality or operational dashboards.
• Experience with server and infrastructure lifecycle work, including upgrades, patching, migrations, capacity planning, or technical-debt reduction.
• Familiarity with ServiceNow or a comparable enterprise IT service-management platform.
• Support of geographically distributed sites through remote work, planned travel, vendors, or designated local hands.
• Development of runbooks, standard operating procedures, health checks, or self-service support documentation adopted by other team members.
• Relevant VMware, Cisco, Microsoft, Linux, cloud, automation, or IT service-management certifications.

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. 

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:

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

* 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.