Technical Lead, Software Engineer AI Assistant

Job description

Technical Lead, Software Engineer - AI Assistant

Apply (https://jobs.cisco.com/jobs/Login?projectId=1451396)

+ Location:Milpitas, California, US
+ Alternate Locationseattle washington
+ Area of InterestEngineer - Software
+ Compensation Range210600 USD - 305100 USD
+ Job TypeProfessional
+ Technology InterestAI or Artificial Intelligence
+ Job Id1451396

**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.

**Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:**

When available, the salary range posted for this position reflects the projected hiring range for new hire, full-time salaries in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including equity or benefits.

For non-sales roles the hiring ranges reflect base salary only; employees are also eligible to receive annual bonuses.

Hiring ranges for sales positions include base and incentive compensation target.

Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location and additional factors, including but not limited to skillset, experience, and relevant education, certifications, or training.

Applicants may not be eligible for the full salary range based on their U.S. or Canada hiring location.

The recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.

U.S. employees haveaccess (https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/careers/we-are-cisco/benefits-and-perks.html) to quality medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, short and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance and numerous wellbeing offerings.

Employees receive up to twelve paid holidays per calendar year, which includes one floating holiday (for non-exempt employees), plus a day off for their birthday.

Non-Exempt new hires accrue up to 16 days of vacation time off each year, at a rate of 4.92 hours per pay period.

Exempt new hires participate in Cisco’s flexible Vacation Time Off policy, which does not place a defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use, but is subject to availability and some business limitations.

All new hires are eligible for Sick Time Off subject to Cisco’s Sick Time Off Policy and will have eighty (80) hours of sick time off provided on their hire date and on January 1st of each year thereafter.

Up to 80 hours of unused sick time will be carried forward from one calendar year to the next such that the maximum number of sick time hours an employee may have available is 160 hours.

Employees in Illinois have a unique time off program designed specifically with local requirements in mind.

All employees also have access to paid time away to deal with critical or emergency issues.

We offer additional paid time to volunteer and give back to the community.

Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non-quota components.

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 up to 125% of target.

Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.
Cisco is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, genetic information, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis.
Cisco will consider for employment, on a case by case basis, qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Required Skill Profession

Other General