Principal Machine Learning Developer

The Cisco CTO Organization is shaping the future of networking and security through AI-native, cloud-delivered, and autonomous operations platforms. We are investing in agentic AI to make network and security operations more observable, proactive, intelligent, and efficient at scale.

As a Principal Machine Learning Engineer Developer you will define how AI, LLMs, and autonomous operations transform network and security management across Cisco’s wireless, wired, cloud, enterprise networking, and security platforms! You will work at the intersection of networking, security operations, machine learning, large-scale telemetry, and agentic systems to enable faster diagnosis, proactive assurance, intelligent threat analysis, and safe automated remediation.

• Define architectures for AI-native network and security operations platforms, spanning observability, assurance, incident intelligence, threat analysis, optimization, and automation
• Integrate LLMs and agentic workflows with network telemetry, topology, configurations, events, alerts, logs, and operational knowledge
• Build intelligent capabilities for anomaly detection, root-cause analysis, performance prediction, incident triage, threat investigation, and guided remediation
• Develop network and security world models that infer operational state across devices, users, services, applications, and dependencies
• Design closed-loop automation for proactive detection, intelligent investigation, policy recommendations, and safe remediation
• Build large-scale telemetry, time-series, graph, log, and event-processing pipelines to support real-time inference
• Apply RAG, domain adaptation, evaluation, and grounding techniques to create reliable AI assistants for network and security operators
• Develop cloud-native platform capabilities using Kubernetes, microservices, and multi-cloud architectures
• Drive end-to-end execution from architecture and experimentation through production deployment, reliability, and scale
• Partner with product and engineering teams to translate AI innovation into customer-facing networking and security operations products
• Lead and mentor engineers and researchers across AI, networking, security operations, cloud platforms, and distributed systems

• Bachelor's degree with 12+ years of related experience, Master's degree with 7+ years of related experience, or PhD with 5+ years of related experience.
• 12+ years in AI/ML, platform engineering, distributed systems, agentic applications in networking, security operations, or related fields 
• Experience working with large-scale operational data, including metrics, logs, events, alerts, traces, topology, configurations, and unstructured data
• Experience with programming languages in C++, Go, Java, and/or Python

• Experience applying agentic AI to network operations, security operations, or autonomous infrastructure
• Deep knowledge of intent-based networking, closed-loop automation, self-driving networks, NaaS, SD-WAN, network observability, or SecOps platforms
• Experience with security analytics, SIEM/SOAR workflows, identity and access signals, vulnerability intelligence, or cloud security operations
• Experience with multimodal learning, world models, graph ML, causal inference, RAG, or time-series modeling
• Strong product mindset, connecting network and security operations innovation to customer outcomes and business value
• Experience driving cross-functional initiatives from research and concept through production
• Published research, patents, or demonstrated technical leadership in AI, networking, security, or distributed systems
• Experience with real-time inference, anomaly detection, root-cause analysis, threat analysis, or intelligent automation
• Experience designing cloud-native distributed systems, including Kubernetes, microservices, and multi-cloud platforms
• Experience with network and security operations, observability, telemetry, incident management, and automation

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. 

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:

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

* 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.