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# Senior Staff Software Engineer

- **Company:** Cisco Systems, Inc.
- **Location:** New York, NY, United States
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Salary:** $214,100.0 - $309,800.0
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Artificial Intelligence, Audit Trail, Automation of Tests, Apache JMeter, Python (Programming Language), Software Engineering, Strategies of Testing, Performance Testing, Large Language Models, Prompt Engineering, Playwright, Performance Monitor
- **Published:** September 2, 2026
- **Apply:** https://diversityjobs.com/main/sendform/8/8/28176/1/18166981?backUrl=%2Fcareer%2F18166981%2FSenior-Staff-Software-Engineer-California-San-Jose

## About the Role

* Bachelor's degree with 12+ years of experience in software development, quality engineering, or test automation.
 * 5+ years of experience architecting large-scale test automation platforms or quality engineering ecosystems.
 * 5+ years software development experience in Python and playwright.
 * 5+ years experience designing scalable, maintainable, and high-performance test infrastructure.
 * 1+ years experience using AI-assisted tools or AI agents to build and scale test automation., * Strong technical leadership skills with the ability to turn ambiguous quality challenges into clear technical strategy.
 * Experience with AI/ML testing, LLM APIs, prompt engineering, agentic workflows, and LLM-as-judge evaluation.
 * Experience with Claude, Codex, or similar AI development and evaluation tools.
 * Experience with performance tools such as JMeter, or similar test environments.
 * Strong ability to collaborate across Engineering, Product, Security, Compliance, and Quality teams.
 * Passion for mentoring engineers and building a culture of automation, accountability, and customer-focused quality.

## Description

As a Senior Staff Software Engineer, you will define and drive the technical strategy for AI-powered quality, agentic workflow validation, benchmarking, and automation frameworks. You will lead complex technical initiatives, mentor senior engineers, and help establish quality practices that scale across teams and products., * Define the architecture and roadmap for Product Quality foundations, test automation, and AI-agent evaluation frameworks.

 * Lead validation strategies for AI agents, complex SOC workflows, tenant isolation, audit logs, and system behavior.
 * Identify gaps in current testing methods and build AI-based automation solutions to improve quality, coverage, and efficiency.
 * Establish benchmarking, performance testing, and regression frameworks for scalable and reliable product validation.
 * Mentor engineers, review technical designs, and guide teams through complex quality and automation challenges.
 * Lead proof-of-concepts and define clear success criteria for new testing approaches and AI-assisted automation.
 * Partner with Engineering and Product leaders to embed quality earlier in the development lifecycle.
 * Drive standards for contract testing, compliance validation, performance testing, and behavioral regression.
 * Ensure testing processes deliver reliable, repeatable, and high-quality outcomes at enterprise scale.