Principal Hardware Engineer

The application window is expected to close on: 11/27/2026 This role requires the employee to work onsite at the San Jose, CA office location. Up to 10% of local and/or international travel may be required Meet the Team Networking Hardware Engineering (NHE) creates innovative hardware platforms central to the AI era, powering Cisco’s core Switching, Routing, and Wireless products for organizations globally. NHE serves as the execution engine for Cisco's most strategic hardware initiatives. We partner across silicon, engineering, product management, operations, supply chain, manufacturing, and executive leadership to transform technology strategy into successful product delivery. Our mission is to provide program leadership, governance, transparency, and execution difficulty across highly complex system development programs, shaping the future of hyperscale infrastructure. Your Impact • Define and drive the end-to-end quality strategy for next generation hyperscale switching, routing, wireless access points, AI servers, and optical platforms, from architecture and development through qualification, high-volume production, and customer deployment. • Lead resolution of complex product quality issues and customer cases, bringing together engineering, manufacturing, operations, and customer teams to identify root causes, contain impact, and deliver timely, lasting corrective actions. • Serve as a senior technical partner concern point for critical customer issues, including deployment, interoperability, reliability, performance, and system integration challenges across Cisco and third-party products. • Establish thorough quality and reliability practices across silicon, high-speed SerDes, optics, PCB, power, thermal, mechanical, firmware, diagnostics, and network operating systems. • Drive system-level failure analysis and risk reviews. Translate field data, customer feedback, and manufacturing findings into preventive actions that improve product robustness and customer experience. • Lead quality readiness for emerging Ethernet platforms, including pluggable, linear-drive, and near-packaged/co-packaged optical solutions. • Partner directly with hyperscale customers to understand operational requirements, resolve quality concerns, and build confidence in product readiness, reliability, and serviceability. • Define and strengthen qualification, validation, diagnostics, and production-monitoring plans to detect issues early and reduce recurrence in deployed systems. • Influence multi-functional teams and senior leaders on quality priorities, product risk, and corrective-action plans. Mentor engineers and represent Cisco in strategic customer and industry engagements. Minimum Qualifications • Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering or computer engineering or computer science, with 15+ years of experience; master’s degree with 12+ years in electrical engineering or computer engineering or computer science; or PhD in electrical engineering or computer engineering or computer science with 10+ years of related experience such as networking, switching, optics, or data-center infrastructure. • Experience leading quality, reliability, systems engineering, or customer issue resolution for complex, high-volume networking, switching, optical, or hyperscale data-center products. • Experience driving complex technical investigations from customer symptom and data collection through root-cause identification, corrective action, and verification of effectiveness. • Experience with Ethernet switching and optical communication technologies, including switch ASICs, high-speed SerDes, signal integrity, optical modules, DSPs, link budgets, and system validation. • Experience leading multi-functional response to critical customer cases, field partner concerns, product defects, or interoperability issues. Preferred Qualifications • Strong judgment in assessing product risk and prioritizing actions, with the ability to influence engineering teams, customers, and executive partners. • Experience with quality and reliability across fixed, modular, chassis-based, or disaggregated switching platforms. • Knowledge of hyperscale data-center architectures, AI/ML fabrics, scale-out networks, and distributed systems. • Experience with silicon photonics, coherent optics, linear-drive optics, near-packaged/co-packaged optics, or optical switching. • Familiarity with SONiC, Linux-based network operating systems, SAI, platform firmware, telemetry, diagnostics, and fleet automation. • Experience using field, manufacturing, and test data to identify emerging quality trends and drive preventive improvements. • Contributions to industry standards, patents, or publications, with recognized technical leadership in networking quality or optical systems. 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. Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada: The starting salary range posted for this position is $233,900.00 to $330,400.00 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