Principal Software Engineer

About the role

The application window is expected to close on: 01/24/2027

This is an onsite role in Milpitas, CA.

Meet the Team

Cisco Secure Access is cloud-delivered security service edge (SSE) solution, grounded in zero trust, gives users an exceptional user experience and protected access from any device too anywhere. Cisco Secure Access enforces security policies such as access control, threat protection and data security using ZTNA, SWG, DNS, CASB and FWaaS.

As a team member, you'll play a crucial role in enhancing seamless and secure access to applications and resources, and protecting organizations from diverse cyber threats. Join the Cisco Secure Access team, where innovation meets cutting-edge technology in a dynamic and collaborative environment.

Your Impact

You will serve as a Principal Software Engineer within Cisco's cloud security business group, collaborating across multiple fast-paced teams to design, develop, and deliver scalable, supportable, and maintainable production-quality applications!

Your responsibilities include building new capabilities to the products as well as and improving existing processes and architecture, developing, partnering with internal and external teams to understand business and technical requirements and documenting technical specifications for development.

You will oversee architecture, design, code quality, and deployments, while also documenting and communicating technical solutions to architecture groups and leadership. Additionally, you will participate in design and code reviews, mentor junior developers, evaluate new technology stacks and third-party tools through proof of concepts and benchmarks, and troubleshoot sophisticated system-level stability and scalability issues.

Minimum Qualifications

• A Bachelor's degree or higher in Engineering or Computer Science with a minimum of 17+ years of relevant industry experience, or a Master's degree and 10 years of relevant industry experience owning architecture and technical strategy across multiple teams, from problem definition and system design through rollout, adoption, and operational support.
• 7+ years of experience in a technical leadership role and architecture.
• 10+ years experience in development in AWS cloud or similar and proficiency in Python, Go or Java.
• Experience in distributed systems, cloud-native architecture, APIs, micro-services architecture, data platforms, multi-tenant services, and production operations.
• Experience building agentic systems and leveraging AI to improve productivity across the software development lifecycle (SDLC).

Preferred requirements

• Experience with SSE/SASE, zero-trust architecture, identity-aware access, authorization, secure web access, data protection, DNS security, browser isolation, or digital experience monitoring.
• Experience with LLM applications, retrieval-augmented generation, agent orchestration, tool calling, prompt and context management, model evaluation, LLMOps, AI safety, guardrails, and responsible AI.
• Experience with streaming data, feature engineering, anomaly detection, behavioral or graph analytics, model drift, explain-ability, feedback loops, and investigation or analyst workflows.
• Experience with data pipelines handling large volumes and sound knowledge in technologies such as Kafka, Kubernetes, NoSQL.
• Experience with modern frontend frameworks, TypeScript, component or design systems, web performance, accessibility, browser security, API design, and backend-for-frontend architecture.
• Ability to work independently, research current and emerging technologies, propose changes as needed to cater to changing business / technical conditions.
• Ability to optimally lead teams and inspire others to achieve goals through innovation, quality and excellence.
• Excellent debugging skills, ability to troubleshoot and resolve complex system level stability or scalability issues.
• A track record of setting engineering standards, resolving cross-organization architectural tension, mentoring principal-level talent, and communicating complex ideas to mixed audiences.

#LI-RN1

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.

Pay and benefits

The starting salary range posted for this position is $250,600.00 to $362,600.00 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:

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state: $241,400.00 - $371,000.00

• 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.