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# Principal Engineer - Cisco IQ Services and Applications

- **Company:** Cisco Systems, Inc.
- **Location:** Durham, NC, United States
- **Salary:** $223,100.0 - $301,100.0
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Artificial Intelligence, Amazon Web Services, Distributed Systems, Python (Programming Language), Network Protocols, Software Architecture, Ansible, Software Engineering, Systems Architecture, Large Language Models, Information Technology, Free and Open-Source Software, Terraform, Cisco
- **Published:** August 15, 2026
- **Apply:** https://dejobs.org/x/x/66CFE0C4ABD840D2BFE5CB0957328827/job/

## About the Role

* Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
 * 12+ years of experience in back-end software architecture and core software development using Python, Rust, or similar high-performance languages.
 * Proven track record of architecting and deploying large-scale, AI-spec driven applications and complex agentic workflows.
 * Demonstrated mastery of infrastructure-as-code and architectural automation, specifically Terraform and Ansible.
 * Extensive experience in leading large-scale technical initiatives and influencing cross-functional engineering organizations through the full software development lifecycle., * Deep domain expertise in networking protocols, large-scale infrastructure management, and system-level design.
 * Advanced experience in fine-tuning Large Language Models (LLMs) and deploying domain-specific AI architectures into production environments.
 * Expert-level proficiency in designing and managing cloud-agnostic, distributed architectures across AWS, GCP, and private cloud environments.
 * Recognized thought leader in the industry, with a history of open-source contributions or research showcasing complex, production-grade software architecture.
 * Exceptional communication and executive presence, with the proven ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders and translate high-level technical vision into actionable, long-term business outcomes.

## Description

* Define and Architect the high-level strategy for scalable backend systems, ensuring the seamless integration of agentic AI into our core service delivery.
 * Provide Technical Leadership across the organization, setting the vision and mentoring engineering leaders to ensure architectural consistency and long-term technical excellence.
 * Influence and Align stakeholders across the business to define multi-year technical roadmaps, ensuring that architectural standards align with global innovation goals.
 * Establish Standards for complex prompt engineering and model interactions, ensuring the reliability, security, and high-fidelity of AI-driven outputs at scale.


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