Software Engineer - Customer Experience - SDK - L2/L3

Role details

Meet the Team Cisco Silicon One™ is Cisco’s dynamic silicon architecture powering the next generation of web-scale, cloud, service provider, enterprise, and AI networking infrastructure. The Silicon One Software Customer Engineering team works closely with Silicon One architecture, SDK, platform software, and Network Operating System (NOS) teams, as well as strategic customers and ecosystem partners, to enable, integrate, optimize, support, and deploy Silicon One software solutions across a broad range of networking environments. Our team serves as a critical extension silicon development, software engineering, and real-world deployments, helping accelerate feature adoption, optimize system performance, resolve complex customer challenges, and ensure successful integration of Silicon One technologies in production networks ranging from hyperscale cloud environments to large-scale AI/ML infrastructure. We are seeking an expert Software Engineering Technical Leader to help drive software integration, feature enablement, performance optimization, customer support, and customer adoption of Silicon One solutions across Cisco and open-source networking ecosystems. Your Impact As a Software Engineer on the Silicon One software team, you will supply to the design, development, integration, and optimization of software solutions across Cisco and open-source Network Operating Systems. You will: • Triage customer issues, optimize software features supporting modern cloud, data center, and AI/ML networking deployments. • Collaborate with Silicon One architecture, SDK, platform software, and NOS teams to deliver scalable, high-performance networking solutions. • Participate in software integration efforts involving L2/L3 forwarding, ACL, QoS, traffic management, congestion management, and load-balancing technologies. • Troubleshoot, analyze, and resolve software and networking issues in development, qualification, and production environments. • Support solution validation, deployment planning, performance tuning, and feature adoption activities. • Supply to automation, validation, testing, and continuous integration frameworks to improve software quality and deployment efficiency. • Participate in design reviews and technical planning activities. Minimum Qualifications • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related technical field with 10+ years of software development experience; OR • Master's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related technical field with 8+ years of software development experience. • Strong software development expertise in C++ and Python. • Experience developing software on Linux-based systems. • Experience developing, integrating, or debugging networking software using SDKs and abstraction layers. • Experience with Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI) or similar networking abstraction frameworks. • Strong understanding of Layer 2 and Layer 3 networking technologies and protocols. • Experience with Network Operating Systems and software integration across networking platforms. • Strong understanding of Quality of Service (QoS), traffic management, congestion management, and load-balancing technologies. • Hands-on experience with software debugging, performance analysis, and solving in complex networking environments. • Experience working with networking ASICs, switching platforms, or network infrastructure software. Preferred Qualifications • Experience developing or integrating networking SDKs for switching, routing, or programmable networking silicon. • Experience with Cisco and open-source Network Operating Systems, including SONiC or similar platforms. • Deep understanding of data center networking architectures and large-scale distributed systems. • Experience optimizing networking performance, scalability, and reliability in hyperscale cloud or AI environments. • Familiarity with Silicon One architecture, SDKs, and software ecosystem. • Experience with Linux kernel interfaces, device drivers, and low-level hardware programming. • Experience developing automation, diagnostics, validation, and test infrastructure using Python. • Experience supporting customers, partners, or field engineering organizations in diagnosing and resolving software and networking issues. • Experience with deployment, validation, and operational support of networking solutions in cloud, data center, or AI infrastructure environments. • Strong understanding of switch/router architectures and high-performance networking systems. • Excellent communication, teamwork, and mentoring skills. 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.