Senior Software Engineer

The Cisco Enterprise Routing team is responsible for the end-to-end lifecycle of the platforms that serve as the “connective tissue” for businesses worldwide. Their work ensures that data-ranging from simple office emails to high-bandwidth video conferencing and cloud-based applications-moves securely and efficiently across branch offices, campus networks, and multi-cloud environments. We are seeking a highly skilled Software Development Engineer to join our team focused on the development of Cisco’s 2nd Generation Secure Routers. In this role, you will operate at the intersection of hardware and software, building high-performance solutions that power our enterprise-grade routing platforms. You will be responsible for low-level software development, including ROMMON, device drivers, and the optimization of forwarding plane software to ensure maximum throughput and security.

What You’ll Do

*** **Lead the design and delivery of large, complex features across the routing stack, ensuring scalability, reliability, and security from start to finish.

***** Develop low-level platform software including ROMMON, bootloaders, device drivers, and forwarding-plane components.

*** **Set design direction, coordinate among several engineers , and integrate hardware and software by bringing up new platforms and supporting NIM modules.

***** Debug complex issues across hardware, firmware, and software layers; participate in on-call rotations and postmortems, rarely causing preventable customer downtime.

*** Write clean, maintainable code with unit tests; perform code reviews, contribute to secure coding practices, and **promote an automated testing culture .

*** Collaborate cross-functionally with hardware, product, and design teams; **act as a recognized resource and mentor for less experienced colleagues .

***** Internalize the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) process, understanding technical trade-offs to meet business needs and deadlines on high-stakes projects.

• Bachelors + 7+ years of related professional software engineering experience, or Masters + 5+ years of related experience.

• Proven ability to work autonomously on problems with unclear solutions requiring judgment and analysis.

***** C/C++ systems programming in embedded or low-level environments.

***** Experience with device drivers, RTOS/Linux kernels, and hardware-software interfaces.

***** Understanding of routing architectures and L2 protocols (Ethernet, VLANs, STP).

***** Experience with ROMMON, hardware bring-up, and BSPs.

***** Strong debugging skills across hardware, firmware, and software layers.

Preferred Qualifications

*** **Experience with AI-assisted development tools (Copilot, Claude, Codex).

*** **Familiarity with modern IDE’s and tools.

*** **Knowledge of secure boot chains and hardware-based security.

*** **Experience working in Agile, cross-functional, and distributed teams, often taking the technical lead.

The starting salary range posted for this position is $137,000.00 to $200,500.00 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.

• 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:

$165,000.00 - $277,600.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$146,700.00 - $247,000.00

• 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.

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., Cisco will consider for employment, on a case by case basis, qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.