Lead Machine Learning Engineer

Cisco is hiring a Hybrid Lead Machine Learning Engineer to lead AI Defense platform efforts that detect, validate, and stop threats to enterprise AI applications and agents in real time.

Responsibilities

• Own and drive the architecture of scalable, high-performance platform services that protect AI applications and agents in real time
• Stay hands-on across design and implementation, leading complex and ambiguous technical problem-solving
• Shape LLM inference and model-hosting strategy, balancing latency, cost, and scale for enterprise workloads
• Partner with Product, Threat Research, and Ops to deliver production-grade capabilities with operational excellence
• Serve as a technical thought leader and mentor, raising engineering standards and communicating strategy and trade-offs to senior leadership

Requirements

• Education and software engineering experience: Bachelor’s in Computer Science and 10+ years, or Master’s and 8+ years, or PhD and 3+ years of software engineering experience, including architecting and delivering large-scale distributed systems
• Experience with cloud-native backend development and modern cloud infrastructure
• Prior experience providing technical leadership across teams while remaining hands-on

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with LLM inference, generative AI systems, or AI/ML infrastructure
• Background in security products or AI security
• Experience delivering SaaS and hybrid enterprise deployments

Team

• Cisco’s AI Defense secures next-generation enterprise AI platforms, autonomous agents, and foundation models
• Team composition includes distributed systems engineers, security researchers, and AI practitioners operating in an agile, high-velocity environment
• Opportunity to help shape product architecture and team culture while serving as a technical leader

Location and Employment Details

• Location: Milpitas, CA (hybrid)
• Salary (annual): USD 197,500 - 322,900
• Minimum experience: 3 years
• Application window expected to close on: 11/22/2026

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) plan with Cisco matching contribution
• Paid parental leave
• Short and long-term disability coverage
• Basic life insurance
• Restricted stock units (eligible to receive; vesting following continued employment)
• 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; 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco
• Non-exempt employees: 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year (accrued at 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees)
• Exempt employees: flexible vacation time off program with no defined limit on how much vacation time may be used (subject to availability and business limitations)
• 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter; up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward
• Additional paid time away may be requested for critical or emergency issues for family members
• Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer
• Non-sales roles: eligible for annual bonuses subject to Cisco policies
• Sales plan roles: performance-based incentive pay on top of base salary, subject to the applicable Cisco plan

Compensation Notes (U.S. and/or Canada Applicants)

• Starting salary range posted for U.S. and/or Canada locations: $216,300.00 to $280,800.00 (projected range for new hires, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits)
• Individual pay determined by hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training

Applicable Full Salary Ranges by State

• New York City Metro Area: $216,300.00 - $322,900.00
• Non-Metro New York state & Washington state: $197,500.00 - $287,300.00