Meet the Team
The Splunk Metadata Catalog (MDC) team is part of the core Splunk Platform organization. We are building a high-scale Knowledge Graph that empowers Splunk users to discover data assets effortlessly, map complex relationships, and trace data lineage across diverse ecosystems.
You will join a fast-paced, high-impact team pioneering foundational technology central to the Cisco Data Fabric strategy. As a Staff Engineer, you will shape architectural decisions and build systems that scale across enterprise-grade data platforms.
Your Impact
As a Staff Software Engineer on the team, you will:
Drive Architecture & Design: Lead the technical design, architecture, and implementation of complex, highly scalable features and microservices within the Metadata Catalog and Knowledge Graph platform.
Build Scalable Distributed Systems: Design, build, and optimize robust, low-latency, and high-throughput services that handle large-scale graph relationships and data lineage queries.
Raise the Engineering Bar: Champion engineering best practices, design reviews, code quality, and a robust Developer Owned Quality mindset across the team.
Technical Leadership & Mentorship: Guide, mentor, and coach mid-level and early-career engineers, fostering technical growth and operational rigor.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with Product Managers, Architects, SREs, and peer engineering teams across Cisco Data Fabric to deliver unified solutions.
Operational Excellence: Own services in production, establishing observability standards, SLOs/SLAs, performance benchmarks, and participating in on-call rotations and post-incident reviews.
Minimum Qualifications
Education & Experience: Bachelor's in computer science / engineering + 8 years of related experience, or Masters + 6 years of related experience, or PhD + 3 years of related experience
Distributed Systems & Cloud: Proven track record of designing, building, and deploying enterprise-grade distributed systems and cloud-native microservices in production (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
Core Programming: Advanced proficiency with strong debugging and system-level programming skills in an object-oriented or systems language (e.g., Go, Java, or C++).
Containers & Orchestration: Strong hands-on experience with containerization and orchestration platforms (Docker, Kubernetes).
CI/CD & DevOps: Deep experience with modern CI/CD pipelines, automated testing frameworks, and infrastructure-as-code practices in an Agile environment.
Engineering Fundamentals: Strong mastery of data structures, algorithms, concurrency, system design, and database principles.
Preferred Qualifications
Graph Technologies: Direct experience working with graph databases (Neo4j, AWS Neptune, Apache AGE, ArangoDB) or query languages/frameworks (Cypher, Gremlin, GraphQL, RDF/SPARQL).
Metadata & Lineage Systems: Background building metadata catalogs, data governance tools, schema registries, or data lineage platforms.
Big Data & Streaming: Familiarity with high-throughput streaming and data processing systems (e.g., Apache Kafka, Apache Flink, Apache Spark).
Observability & Reliability: Experience establishing observability metrics, tracing (e.g., OpenTelemetry, Prometheus), and resilience patterns for mission-critical cloud services.
Communication & Influence: Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to articulate complex technical trade-offs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
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.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in computer science or engineering and 8 years of related experience, or a master's degree and 6 years of related experience, or a PhD and 3 years of related experience
- Experience designing, building, and deploying enterprise-grade distributed systems and cloud-native microservices in production
- Experience with AWS, Azure, or GCP
- Advanced proficiency in Go, Java, C++, or another object-oriented or systems programming language
- Strong hands-on experience with Docker and Kubernetes
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing frameworks, and infrastructure as code in an Agile environment
- Strong knowledge of data structures, algorithms, concurrency, system design, and database principles
- Experience with Neo4j, AWS Neptune, Apache AGE, or ArangoDB
- Experience with Cypher, Gremlin, GraphQL, RDF, or SPARQL
- Background building metadata catalogs, data governance tools, schema registries, or data lineage platforms
- Familiarity with Apache Kafka, Apache Flink, or Apache Spark
- Experience with observability metrics, distributed tracing, OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, and resilience patterns
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
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 broad, with medical options including PPOs, high-deductible plans, and regional HMOs. Feedback suggests robust wellness and mental-health resources, with some locations offering on-site support and second medical opinions.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time off is highlighted through paid holidays, paid time off, and additional recharge days such as “Days for Me,” with generous volunteer time also mentioned. Feedback suggests these programs help support rest, volunteering, and critical life events.
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Parental & Family Support — Parental and family support appears extensive, including paid child-bonding leave, family medical leave, and caregiving resources. Observations also point to family-planning assistance and adoption or surrogacy support in some regions.
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.
