Software Engineering Technical Leader (Identity Engineering - SSO)

Preferred candidates will be based in Ann Arbor, MI or Austin, TX. Remote candidates will be considered

Cisco’s Identity Engineering organization is building a unified foundation for connecting, managing, and securing identity across Cisco products and diverse enterprise identity systems.

The platform will support identity lifecycle management and consistent security enforcement for workforce users, service identities, and emerging AI agents.

You will join the squad responsible for the platform’s core SSO and identity-brokering capabilities. The team works on authentication, federation, and identity orchestration across heterogeneous systems, solving complex distributed-systems and cross-product integration challenges.

In this hands-on individual-contributor role, you will set the technical direction for the authentication and federation foundation of Cisco’s identity platform. Key responsibilities include:

Architecture & Technical Strategy: Own the architecture and technical direction for core SSO and identity-broker capabilities. Make complex decisions involving security, scalability, performance, extensibility, and long-term platform evolution.

Identity Platform Engineering & SSO: Lead the design and development of secure, scalable SSO services, identity-broker capabilities, and APIs using Python. Establish durable patterns for authentication, federation, identity orchestration, and integration across Cisco products and heterogeneous identity systems.

Spec-Driven Execution: Turn ambiguous business and technical needs into clear specifications, architectural designs, acceptance criteria, and executable plans. Document consequential decisions through Architecture Decision Records and ensure implementation remains aligned with the intended architecture.

AI-Native Development: Establish effective practices for using AI-assisted development throughout the software development lifecycle. Apply strong engineering judgment to ensure AI-assisted work meets expectations for security, correctness, maintainability, and quality.

Cross-Functional Influence: Serve as a technical bridge among engineering squads, product management, and platform architecture teams. Communicate tradeoffs, build alignment, and guide cross-team initiatives from early design through delivery.

Technical Leadership & Mentorship: Raise engineering standards through design reviews, code reviews, technical guidance, and mentorship. Help engineers navigate complex problems and develop stronger skills in architecture, identity, and distributed systems.

• Bachelor’s degree with 8+ years of related experience, master’s degree with 6+ years of related experience, or PhD with 3+ years of related experience.
• Experience providing technical leadership for the design and delivery of distributed systems, microservices, or enterprise cloud services.
• Professional experience building backend services and APIs using Python, including asynchronous programming patterns.
• Experience designing or building identity, authentication, authorization, or security capabilities.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools to deliver software while maintaining strong standards for security, correctness, and maintainability.

• Experience leading complex software initiatives across multiple engineering or product teams.
• Deep knowledge of identity and federation protocols such as SAML, OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.0, SCIM, or WS-Federation.
• Experience building REST APIs using OpenAPI specifications and related code-generation workflows.
• Experience with AWS, SQL, Redis, or event-driven architectures.
• Experience with React and TypeScript.
• Experience leading spec-driven development, writing Architecture Decision Records, and establishing software design standards.

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.