Software Engineer, Hybrid, Milpitas, CA

++This is a hybrid position, based out of Milpitas, CA Office++

Cisco’s Catalyst Engineering - IOS-XE Infrastructure engineering team is at the heart of powering the world’s most critical enterprise networks. As a Software Engineer, you will design, develop, and deliver high-performance, resilient software infrastructure aligned with our multi-year technology roadmap.

In this role, you will apply Cisco’s Design Thinking Principles—focusing on architectural simplification, superior user and developer experience, and bulletproof security. You will collaborate closely with product managers, system architects, and cross-functional engineering teams to translate complex networking requirements into scalable, elegant software solutions.

• Architect & Build: Design, code, test, and maintain high-scale, reliable software components and features within the IOS-XE infrastructure ecosystem.
• Feature Ownership: Lead the technical design, effort estimation, and end-to-end execution of small-to-medium features from concept through production release.
• Code Quality & Best Practices: Write clean, modular, and well-tested code (unit and integration tests), enforce secure coding standards, and conduct thorough peer code reviews.
• System Reliability & Triage: Troubleshoot and resolve complex software defects during development and in production environments; participate in root-cause analysis (RCA) and postmortems to continuously improve system resilience.
• Documentation & Knowledge Sharing: Author technical design specifications, contribute to customer-facing documentation, and share architectural insights across teams through tech talks, presentations, and design reviews.

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or a related area, combined with 5 years of a related experience, or Master's Degree in Computer Science or a related area, combined with 3 years of related experience, or a PhD with 0 equivalent related work experience.
• Programming Languages: Python and C/C++ or similar object-oriented language.
• Operating Systems: Linux/Unix.
• AI Coding tools such as Codex, Copilot, or similar.
• Core Software Fundamentals: Data structures, algorithms, operating system concepts, and object-oriented / modular software design.
• Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC): Experience developing in an Agile/Scrum environment with robust CI/CD, version control (Git), and automated testing methodologies.

• Embedded systems, or networking infrastructure (L2/L3 protocols, data plane/control plane architectures).
• Infrastructure & Scale: Building software for high-throughput, low-latency, distributed, or multithreaded systems.
• Security-First Mindset: Secure coding practices, threat modeling, and defensive programming.

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.