Machine Learning Engineering Technical Leader

Meet the Team Join our team that's advancing Cisco’s AI/ML capabilities by designing innovative algorithms and neural network architectures for natural language processing, machine perception, and Generative AI. You will drive the development of scalable, production-ready machine learning solutions that power Cisco’s products and deliver measurable business impact. Your Impact You will: • Partner with engineering, product, and data science teams to convert requirements into prototypes and production-ready AI systems . • Build, deploy, and scale AI/ML and Generative AI services , taking solutions from experimentation through full production. • Design and operate high-performance AI systems , optimizing for inference latency, throughput, and cost efficiency at scale. • Drive adoption of agentic AI architectures , LLM-powered features, and modern ML platform capabilities. • Proactively identify innovation opportunities, explore emerging AI/ML approaches, and turn them into concrete technical proposals. • Stay current with AI/ML advancements and apply relevant innovations to active initiatives. • Influence system architecture and guide engineering best practices for ML platforms and cloud-native AI systems. Minimum Qualifications • Strong backend development experience in Python (preferred) or Java . • Experience building API-driven and event-driven services for AI inference, agent orchestration, tool invocation, and data pipelines. • Hands-on experience with Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) • Experience with agentic AI systems and agent orchestration frameworks such as LangGraph . • Strong experience with Kubernetes and containers , including deploying and scaling ML training and inference workloads across CPU and GPU environments. • Solid background in DevOps/MLOps and CI/CD , including automated training, evaluation, and model promotion pipelines. • Experience with source control and CI/CD tools such as Git, Jenkins, ArgoCD , or similar. • Hands-on experience with AWS, GCP, or Azure . • Experience designing and operating high-performance AI/ML systems . Preferred Qualifications • Proven technical leadership, with experience influencing system architecture and mentoring engineers on ML platforms and cloud-native best practices . • Strong systems-thinking ability to balance model quality, scalability, reliability, latency, and cost in real-world AI deployments. • Demonstrated ability to identify and drive adoption of new AI/ML approaches and translate them into scalable production solutions. • Deep interest in staying at the forefront of AI/ML and Generative AI advancements 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. Disclaimer To ensure that we hire the best talent in the right way, we follow a strict hiring process and recently, Cisco has been made aware of fraudulent recruiters claiming to be from the company. Please be advised that any communication from Cisco about careers will: • be in direct response to an application you have submitted through the company career site • begin with screening or an interview • originate from a Cisco email address, and • be conducted across email, phone, or WebEx Cisco will never make a job offer without conducting an interview process or ask you for money in any way. If you have been requested to apply for a role or have received an offer from a site other than https://careers.cisco.com or cisco.wd5.myworkday.com , do not provide any personal identifying information, including your Aadhaar or other personal identifying number, birth certificate, banking information, driver's license, or passport. If you are the target of a recruiting scam, consider filing a report with your local law enforcement authorities. Cisco bears no responsibility, and cannot be held liable, for any claims, damages, expenses, or other inconvenience resulting from or in any way connected to recruiting scams.