Technical Lead, Software Engineer - AI Assistant

Applications are accepted until further notice Who We Are The Cisco's AI team consists of AI researchers, and software developers who collaborate to build innovative products and platforms for Cisco. We are motivated by tackling unique challenges that arise when connecting people and devices at a world-wide scale. Who You'll Work With You will join a newly formed, dynamic AI team as one of the core members, and have the opportunity to influence the culture and direction of the growing team. Our team includes AI experts and distributed system experts who work together with our partners in products management, and engineers across a wide variety of other Cisco teams. We are seeking a Senior Technical Leader to join our AI Canvas Partner Integrations team, where you will play a key role in building and integrating AI services that enable seamless partner and enterprise solutions on the AI Canvas platform. Your skills in understanding service operations and architecting/building effective interfaces between service boundaries with the right instrumentation will be essential for the success of our product. Your role will involve understanding the operations of each AI service, designing and building interfaces that seamlessly connect these services, and ensuring the appropriate instrumentation is in place. Your work will be instrumental in delivering a powerful and effective solution to our customers. What You Will Do As a Senior Technical Leader, you will be responsible to drive the integration of Cisco's product portfolio with the AI Canvas platform and to lead the design and implementation of a developer portal for AI Canvas and Assistants. You will operate at the intersection of AI/ML engineering, platform architecture, and developer experience design, collaborating closely with cross-functional engineering, product, and design teams. * Architect and lead technical integration of major Cisco product lines (e.g., Webex, Meraki, ThousandEyes, AppDynamics) by integrating frameworks for seamless deployment of AI agents across Cisco's network, collaboration, and observability domains. * Develop APIs, SDKs, and microservices enabling data, model, and workflow interoperability between Canvas and Cisco products. * Lead end-to-end development of the AI Canvas Developer Portal-a self-service hub for developers to access APIs, SDKs, documentation, sample apps, and sandboxes. * Integrate telemetry, analytics, and feedback loops to measure developer engagement and continuously improve the experience. * Drive technical strategy and roadmap for Cisco + Canvas integrations aligned with Cisco's AI-first strategy. * Design and build effective interfaces between AI services, ensuring smooth communication and data exchange while adhering to security and performance requirements. * Collaborate with UX designers and analyze user feedback to identify frictional workflows, then build tools to streamline those processes. * Collaborate with LLM engineers to optimize prompt-tool interactions. * Serve as a senior architect and mentor for cross-functional engineering teams. Basic Qualifications * 10+ years in software engineering, systems architecture, or platform development. * 3+ years of experience in software engineering, with recent exposure to AI assistants. * Expertise in building scalable, production-grade AI services leveraging public cloud infrastructure, containerization (Kubernetes, Docker), and CI/CD pipelines. * Hands-on experience creating enterprise Generative AI solutions using prompt engineering, LLM fine-tuning, and orchestration tools (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex, Semantic Kernel, AutoGen) integrated in public cloud ecosystems. * Hands-on experience with NLP techniques including text classification, sentiment analysis, NLG, and working with large language models * Familiarity with AI/ML pipelines, MLOps, or AI infrastructure platforms (e.g., Vertex AI, OpenAI, AWS Sagemaker). * Hands-on experience with Python, Go, TypeScript, React and API frameworks (GraphQL, REST). • Deep understanding of developer experiences principles and portal/platform architecture. • Excellent communication and leadership skills, with the ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders. Preferred Qualifications * Experience in security focused Saas providers • Prior experience building developer portals or marketplace • Familiarity with AI governance or compliance in enterprise settings. * The capacity to think critically and tackle complex, innovative problems in the field. * A willingness to continuously learn and adapt, crucial in the ever-evolving field of AI * Background in leading open-source or internal developer tooling initiatives. Why Cisco? #WeAreCisco #WeAreCisco where every individual brings their unique skills and perspectives together to pursue our purpose of powering an inclusive future for all. Our passion is connection-we celebrate our employees' diverse set of backgrounds and focus on unlocking potential. Cisconians often experience one company, many careers where learning and development are encouraged and supported at every stage. Our technology, tools, and culture pioneered hybrid work trends, allowing all to not only give their best, but be their best. We understand our outstanding opportunity to bring communities together and at the heart of that is our people. One-third of Cisconians collaborate in our 30 employee resource organizations, called Inclusive Communities, to connect, foster belonging, learn to be informed allies, and make a difference. Dedicated paid time off to volunteer-80 hours each year-allows us to give back to causes we are passionate about, and nearly 86% do! Our purpose, driven by our people, is what makes us the worldwide leader in technology that powers the internet. Helping our customers reimagine their applications, secure their enterprise, transform their infrastructure, and meet their sustainability goals is what we do best. We ensure that every step we take is a step towards a more inclusive future for all. Take your next step and be you, with us.
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.
Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:
The starting salary range posted for this position is $210,600.00 to $305,100.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits.
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:
$210,600.00 - $350,800.00
Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:
$189,300.00 - $312,200.00
* 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.