Senior AI Research & Agentic Engineer Hybrid

Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.

Join Cisco's Enterprise AI team, the core group enabling Generative AI powered experiences across Cisco. Our mission is to build secure, scalable AI platforms that empower teams to safely develop, deploy, and operationalize AI-powered solutions. We operate at the intersection of applied AI, cloud infrastructure and security - partnering across engineering, security, compliance, and product teams to bring trusted AI to life at enterprise scale.

We are a fast-growing, highly collaborative team of platform engineers, AI engineers, and data scientists who value technical depth, ownership, and pragmatic execution. What makes this team exciting is the opportunity to define how secure Generative AI is built and governed inside a global technology leader.

• Design and develop sophisticated agentic workflows leveraging state-of-the-art LLM models and emerging frameworks to automate complex reasoning tasks.
• Rapidly prototype new AI features, transforming research concepts into functional demos using AI-native tools such as Copilot, Cursor, and Claude Code.
• Evaluate and integrate the latest advancements in AI-including Autonomous and Deep Agents-to ensure our platform remains an industry leader.
• Collaborate across teams to validate research prototypes, ensuring alignment with Cisco's security and scalability standards.
• Accelerate AI adoption across the enterprise by creating reusable agentic patterns and tools that empower teams globally.

• Master's degree in Computer Science or a related field and 4+ years of software engineering experience, OR bachelor's degree with 7+ years of relevant experience.
• Proven experience designing and building scalable, cloud-based systems (AWS, Azure, or GCP), including deploying and managing cloud-native AI services with container orchestration tools such as Kubernetes (K8s) and Docker.
• Senior-level Python development skills and deep experience with orchestration frameworks such as LangChain or LangGraph.
• Hands-on experience integrating and deploying Large Language Models (LLMs) from providers such as OpenAI or Gemini.
• Demonstrated experience building and testing autonomous systems or multi-step agentic workflows, including strong background in prompt engineering and the ability to translate research-level AI concepts into functional, production-quality code.

• Familiarity with DevOps practices and Agile methodologies, including project tracking and backlog management in Jira.
• Proficiency with advanced coding tools (Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, Windsurf, Cursor).
• Experience building connectors or servers using Model Context Protocol (MCP) to extend agent capabilities.
• Practical experience with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and vector database optimization.
• Ability to translate the latest AI research papers and industry breakthroughs into robust, production-ready solutions.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills, with a proven track record of partnering with product teams to deliver impactful AI solutions.

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.

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.

U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco's plan eligibility rules, which include medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability coverage, and basic life insurance. Please see the Cisco careers site to discover more benefits and perks. Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.

U.S. employees are eligible for paid time away as described below, subject to Cisco's policies:

• 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 ofunused sick timecarried forwardfrom one calendar yearto 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:

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

* 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.