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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Software Engineering Technical Leader - **Company:** Cisco Systems, Inc. - **Location:** Durham, NC, United States - **Experience:** Expert - **Salary:** $151,600.0 - $222,400.0 - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Artificial Intelligence, Amazon Web Services, Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems, Microsoft Azure, Cloud Engineering, Concurrency Controls, Continuous Integration, Data Architecture, Data Infrastructure, Persistent Data Structure, Distributed Data Store, Distributed Systems, Amazon DynamoDB, Fault Tolerance, Python (Programming Language), PostgreSQL, Enterprise Messaging Systems, OAuth, OpenID, Redis, Reliability Engineering, Prometheus, Azure Machine Learning, Software Engineering, User-Centered Design, Cloud Platform System, Large Language Models, Grafana, Caching, Generative AI, Backend, Event Driven Architecture, Kubernetes, Cassandra, Hashicorp, Apache Kafka, Graphql, Machine Learning Operations, Virtual Agents, Api Management, Cisco, Docker, Microservices - **Published:** August 27, 2026 - **Apply:** https://dejobs.org/x/x/65736CCE734346CAA21BF67C5107BCEA/job/ ## About the Role * Bachelor's with 8+ years of related experience or Master's with 6+ years of related experience. * 4+ years' experience in software development as a Technical Lead or similar lead role across large scale systems. * Python experience building production grade microservices and event driven architectures. * Technical experience in cloud-native ecosystems (such as AWS, GCP, or Azure), container orchestration (Kubernetes, Docker), and automated CI/CD infrastructures. * Experience designing high-concurrency, distributed data pipelines and messaging systems (e.g., Apache Kafka, Redis, PostgreSQL, DynamoDB/Cassandra). * Background in API contract design (gRPC, REST, GraphQL) and systemic domain-driven design (DDD)., * Strategic Product Vision: Demonstrated success in shaping overarching backend product strategies and data architectures, including evaluating and implementing pioneering capabilities (example - AI driven pipelines) to influence multi-year business roadmaps. * AI/ML Platform Architecture: Demonstrated history architecting scalable MLOps, LLM integration frameworks, agentic AI platforms, fine-tuning infrastructure, or large-scale hybrid/vector search engine integrations (e.g., Pinecone, Qdrant). * Operational Excellence: Experience establishing observability platforms (OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana), chaos engineering protocols, and formal site reliability engineering (SRE) frameworks. * Industry & Strategic Influence: Active involvement in driving open-source contributions, technology patents, enterprise architecture standards, or speaking at industry conferences. * Soft Skills: Demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguity, drive technical consensus, and communicate complex architectural concepts to divers stakeholders. ## Description As a Software Engineering Technical Leader in Cisco's CX Engineering organization, you will serve as the principal technical authority driving the next generation of enterprise AI and cloud-native platforms. Scaling beyond team-level execution, you will define multi-year roadmaps, bridge complex business goals with high-throughput architectures, and elevate engineering excellence by mentoring technical leaders across the organization. * Strategic Architectural Vision: Lead the end-to-end design and system topology for multi-tenant cloud platforms, evaluating emerging technologies to drive governance across microservices and hybrid data environments. * Enterprise AI & Autonomous Systems: Architect foundational AI applications, including distributed Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), agentic workflows, multi-modal LLM orchestrations, and secure vector retrieval systems. * High-Scale Distributed Systems: Design fault-tolerant, elastic systems by establishing company-wide standards for concurrency control, high-throughput messaging (Apache Kafka), caching, and multi-region data persistence. * Security, Compliance & Resilience: Enforce zero-trust integration patterns and data protection standards (HashiCorp Vault, OAuth2/OIDC) while ensuring compliance with enterprise Service Level Objectives (SLOs). * Technical Governance & Engineering Standards: Conduct global architecture review boards (ARBs) and champion best practices across API contracts (gRPC/REST), Kubernetes orchestration, CI/CD, and observability. * Leadership & Organizational Influence: Mentor Lead Software Engineers and drive technical consensus across matrixed pods, aligning disparate technology stacks toward unified enterprise goals. * Executive Alignment: Partner with product and engineering executives to translate long-term business strategy into actionable execution blueprints. ## Related Videos - [Inside Bitpanda's Tech Stack: Scaling a European Fintech Leader - Markus Dorner](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1979-inside-bitpanda-s-tech-stack-scaling-a-european-fintech-leader-markus-dorner) - [Reducing LLM Calls with Vector Search Patterns - Raphael De Lio (Redis)](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1714-reducing-llm-calls-with-vector-search-patterns-raphael-de-lio-redis) - [How Cisco embraced a DevOps culture within its network engineering team](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/99-how-cisco-embraced-a-devops-culture-within-its-network-engineering-team) - [Keeping applications secure by evolving OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100152-keeping-applications-secure-by-evolving-oauth-2-0-and-openid-connect) - [Remote Driving on Plant Grounds with State-of-the-Art Cloud Technologies](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/251-remote-driving-on-plant-grounds-with-state-of-the-art-cloud-technologies) - [Accelerating Authentication Architecture: Taking Passwordless to the Next Level](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/733-accelerating-authentication-architecture-taking-passwordless-to-the-next-level) ## Related Articles - [How We Built a Worry-Free System That Runs for 10+ Years – And What We’d Do Again](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/751-how-we-built-a-worry-free-system-that-runs-for-10-years-and-what-we-d-do-again) - [Highest Paying Tech Companies for Developers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/220-highest-paying-tech-companies-for-developers) - [Navigating the AI Shift](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/629-navigating-the-ai-shift) - [Best US AI Conferences for CTOs in 2026: Build vs. Buy, Vendor Evaluation, and Peer Intelligence](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/736-best-us-ai-conferences-for-ctos-in-2026-build-vs-buy-vendor-evaluation-and-peer-intelligence) - [The Best X (Twitter) Accounts for Developers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/294-the-best-x-twitter-accounts-for-developers) - [Dev Digest 120 - Apple and peers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/455-dev-digest-120-apple-and-peers)