Software Engineer NextGen AI Search

The application window is expected to close on: 12/30/2026 Meet the Team

The AI Platforms and Enablement team is the engine behind Cisco’s internal AI transformation. Our mission is to build and scale CIRCUIT, our universal enterprise AI platform designed to collapse information silos and amplify productivity through intelligent, agentic experiences.

Your Impact

As a Software Engineer, you will be a core contributor to our engineering efforts, focusing on building high-performance data pipelines, search infrastructure, and agentic components that power our AI capabilities. You will be the search infrastructure and data engineering specialist within the CIRCUIT ecosystem, from data ingestion and indexing to the implementation of generative AI workflows.

You will build and optimize robust data ingestion pipelines using Dataflow (Apache Beam), ensuring enterprise data flows seamlessly into our search ecosystem. You will implement and tune Elasticsearch configurations, develop re-ranking algorithms, and improve relevancy measurements to ensure high-quality outputs. Additionally, you will build and refine AI Agents, deploy and manage services on GCP using Kubernetes, and work directly with LLMs to implement RAG pipelines.

You will write clean, maintainable Python code, participate in rigorous code reviews, and collaborate in Agile ceremonies to ensure cross-functional success.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of experience in professional software engineering, with a focus on backend, data, or search systems.
• 2+ years of hands-on experience designing and operating Elasticsearch in a production environment.
• Demonstrated experience delivering production-grade software in a cloud environment using Kubernetes.
• Proven proficiency in Python and building robust data pipelines using Dataflow (Apache Beam).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing and implementing hybrid search architectures, combining semantic (vector-based) and keyword (BM25) results.
• Exposure to MCP (Model Context Protocol) and experience connecting LLMs to external data sources.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools such as Cursor, GitHub Copilot, or Claude to accelerate development workflows.
• Strong analytical ability to understand and measure relevancy, providing quantitative improvements to search quality.
• Proven experience building and consuming REST APIs, collaborating effectively with stakeholders and engineering teams to solve complex technical hurdles.

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 $128,600.00 to $184,900.00 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:

$155,000.00 - $256,000.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$138,100.00 - $227,900.00

• 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.