Software Engineering Technical Leader - SRE + Kubernetes + Cloud + Automation + Incident Management + AI-first (10-14 Years)
Cisco’s Collaboration Business Unit empowers people and organizations worldwide to connect, communicate, and innovate seamlessly.
You will collaborate with a global team of software engineers and SREs responsible for delivering extraordinary collaboration experiences at scale. Our team supports backend services deployed worldwide and works closely with development, product, and operations partners to ensure reliability and performance.
Webex is powering the shift to the hybrid workforce, helping people stay connected in a rapidly evolving digital world. We cultivate a startup-like culture that values innovation, ownership, and collaboration, while offering the scale and impact of a global technology leader.
Your impactFrom a reliability standpoint, this role involves evaluating the scalability, resiliency, performance, and security properties and techniques used in production environments. It supports the uptime of production services through an On-Call rotation, which includes monitoring and alerting to meet internal Service Level Objectives (SLOs) and customer-facing Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Ensuring reliable incident processes is achieved by conducting Disaster Recovery drills.
The role also focuses on improving reliability through incident management by investigating incidents, implementing remediation strategies, and learning from past incidents to make improvements. It involves determining the reliability and security requirements of components and systems to meet the reliability objectives of the company, customers, and any relevant governmental agencies. Additionally, the role aims to reduce operational expenses through automation, by identifying and mitigating failure points, and automating repetitive and resource-intensive tasks. It also involves developing new acceleration techniques and analytical tools to ensure the early identification of potential issues with new products, packaging, processes, and overall product reliability.
Specifically:- Own the deployment and operation of critical collaboration services across cloud and hybrid environments, driving reliability and scalability.
- Design, evolve, and optimize CI/CD pipelines and automation, including AI‑first tooling for deployment, monitoring, and incident response.
- Lead incident response for complex production issues, perform root cause analysis, and drive systemic reliability and performance improvements.
- Use observability data to guide capacity planning, scaling strategies, and resource optimization across services.
- Define and champion operational best practices, documentation standards, and a culture of reliability and operational excellence.
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience) with 7–13 years in Site Reliability Engineering, Cloud Operations, or Systems Engineering.
- Strong hands-on experience operating production services using Docker and Kubernetes in cloud or hybrid environments.
- Proficiency in one or more programming or scripting languages (e.g., Python, Go, Bash) to build automation and operational tooling.
- Experience with monitoring, observability, and incident response in production environments, including on-call participation and post-incident reviews.
- Working knowledge of Linux systems, networking, distributed systems, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, and Git-based workflows.
- Experience operating large-scale, globally distributed SaaS platforms.
- Familiarity with hybrid cloud environments and multi-region deployments.
- Experience applying AI-assisted or automation-first approaches to SRE tooling and workflows.
- Strong written communication skills for creating clear operational documentation and runbooks.
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.
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.
Disclaimer
To ensure that we hire the best talent in the right way, we follow a strict hiring process and recently, Cisco has been made aware of fraudulent recruiters claiming to be from the company. Please be advised that any communication from Cisco about careers will:
- be in direct response to an application you have submitted through the company career site
- begin with screening or an interview
- originate from a Cisco email address, and
- be conducted across email, phone, or WebEx
Cisco will never make a job offer without conducting an interview process or ask you for money in any way. If you have been requested to apply for a role or have received an offer from a site other than https://careers.cisco.com or cisco.wd5.myworkday.com, do not provide any personal identifying information, including your Aadhaar or other personal identifying number, birth certificate, banking information, driver's license, or passport.
If you are the target of a recruiting scam, consider filing a report with your local law enforcement authorities. Cisco bears no responsibility, and cannot be held liable, for any claims, damages, expenses, or other inconvenience resulting from or in any way connected to recruiting scams.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience
- 7-13 years of experience in Site Reliability Engineering, Cloud Operations, or Systems Engineering
- Hands-on experience operating production services using Docker and Kubernetes in cloud or hybrid environments
- Proficiency in one or more programming or scripting languages, such as Python, Go, or Bash
- Experience with monitoring, observability, and incident response in production environments
- On-call participation and post-incident reviews experience
- Working knowledge of Linux systems, networking, distributed systems, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, and Git-based workflows
- Experience operating large-scale, globally distributed SaaS platforms
- Familiarity with hybrid cloud environments and multi-region deployments
- Experience applying AI-assisted or automation-first approaches to SRE tooling and workflows
- Strong written communication skills for creating operational documentation and runbooks
Cisco Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Cisco and has not been reviewed or approved by Cisco.
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is described as robust with multiple plan options and access to onsite/virtual LifeConnections Health Centers on major campuses. Company materials also highlight mental-health resources and comprehensive preventive care, supporting strong core medical benefits.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time away includes company‑wide recharge days, a paid birthday, a year‑end shutdown, and paid Critical Time Off for emergencies. Paid volunteer days further expand opportunities to step away and recharge.
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Parental & Family Support — Policies include a global minimum for paid parental leave for primary caregivers, caregiving concierge services, and on‑site children’s learning centers in select locations. In the U.S., family‑building support is consolidated under Carrot with a defined lifetime maximum, indicating structured assistance across fertility, preservation, adoption, and surrogacy.
Cisco Insights
What We Do
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) enables people to make powerful connections--whether in business, education, philanthropy, or creativity. Cisco hardware, software, and service offerings are used to create the Internet solutions that make networks possible--providing easy access to information anywhere, at any time. Cisco was founded in 1984 by a small group of computer scientists from Stanford University. Since the company's inception, Cisco engineers have been leaders in the development of Internet Protocol (IP)-based networking technologies. Today, with more than 71,000 employees worldwide, this tradition of innovation continues with industry-leading products and solutions in the company's core development areas of routing and switching, as well as in advanced technologies such as home networking, IP telephony, optical networking, security, storage area networking, and wireless technology. In addition to its products, Cisco provides a broad range of service offerings, including technical support and advanced services. Cisco sells its products and services, both directly through its own sales force as well as through its channel partners, to large enterprises, commercial businesses, service providers, and consumers.







