{"id":3073803,"url":"https://alion.io/job/cisco-systems-director-physical-ai","title":"Director, Physical AI","company":{"id":90,"name":"Cisco Systems","domain":"cisco.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/cisco-systems","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":85,"open_postings":237,"ghost_share":0.03,"stale_share":0.456,"repost_share":0.101,"time_to_fill_p50_days":25,"computed_at":"2026-10-24T06:02:35Z"}},"role":"Leadership","role_family":"Leadership","seniority":"head","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Jose, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":230000,"max":334500,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":334500},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":10,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"A2A","optional":false},{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"Computer Vision","optional":false},{"name":"Edge AI","optional":false},{"name":"Model Context Protocol","optional":false},{"name":"Obstacle Avoidance","optional":false},{"name":"OCR","optional":false},{"name":"Okta","optional":false},{"name":"Physical AI","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"ROS","optional":false},{"name":"Sensor Fusion","optional":false},{"name":"Zero Trust","optional":false},{"name":"Battery Management Systems","optional":true},{"name":"CUDA","optional":true},{"name":"EtherCAT","optional":true},{"name":"FreeRTOS","optional":true},{"name":"Gazebo","optional":true},{"name":"gRPC","optional":true},{"name":"Isaac Sim","optional":true},{"name":"MuJoCo","optional":true},{"name":"Nav2","optional":true},{"name":"ONNX Runtime","optional":true},{"name":"Rest API","optional":true},{"name":"ROS2","optional":true},{"name":"SLAM","optional":true},{"name":"TensorRT","optional":true},{"name":"Vision-Language-Action","optional":true},{"name":"Whisper","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-20T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-20","last_verified_at":"2026-10-22T23:09:28Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":4,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":4},"description":"The application window is expected to close on: 10/29/2026Meet the Team\nCisco's Enterprise AI Platforms & Infrastructure (EAIPI) organization is establishing a Physical AI and Common Services engineering field to extend autonomous intelligence from software agents into the physical enterprise environment. As Cisco scales its AI foundation across global campuses, critically important data centers, and executive briefing facilities, physical robotics represents the next critical frontier in autonomous operations, physical security, and facilities intelligence.\nWe enable and provide leadership for the development, design, and optimization of information technology, robotics, and edge systems functions supporting company business processes and technical information systems platforms. In this role, you will direct the analysis, selection, and modification of enterprise systems, application software, network hardware/software integration, and database management, ensuring infrastructure architecture standards improve efficiency, platform compatibility, and uninterrupted service. You will select, develop, and evaluate personnel to ensure efficient operations and facilitate the integration of third-party platforms into enterprise IT services while protecting Cisco’s data, tools, and information systems.\nWe are seeking an exceptionally technical Director of Physical AI and Common Services to lead the end-to-end strategy, technical architecture, mechatronic modifications, and software engineering for our quadrupedal and bipedal robotic fleets, bridging on-chassis edge AI compute with Cisco's enterprise AI fabric.\nYour Impact\nAs the Director of Physical AI and Common Services, you will have comprehensive ownership across hardware customization, on-chassis software development, campus and data center operational pilots, and multi-functional safety governance.\nLead technical evaluation, procurement co-development, and engineering execution across quadrupedal platforms and bipedal/humanoid robotic systems.\nStructure and lead technical co-development landmarks and Joint Development Agreements (JDAs) with leading robotics manufacturers to enable direct on-chassis hosting of Cisco internal intelligence containers, Large Language Models (LLMs), and agent runtimes.\nDirect physical retrofits, mechanical bracket design, sensor integration (thermal imaging, LiDAR, depth cameras, Meraki surveillance), far-field microphone arrays, directional audio speakers, and RFID/NFC badging hardware.\nDesign, deploy, and operationalize autonomous concierge robots across executive briefing facilities.\n Integrate low-latency conversational speech-to-speech AI triggered by wake-word detection, multi-state LED intent signaling (listening, thinking, navigating), and dynamic guest credential verification via badging reader hardware.\nImplement intelligent lead/follow behaviors, real-time 360-degree obstacle avoidance, dynamic door/portal actuation protocols, and waypoint generation (Orbit/Autowalk) to escort executives and guests.\nArchitect and deploy autonomous quadruped and humanoid patrol routines across Cisco global data centers.\nBuild on-chassis edge ML pipelines for directional acoustic listening to detect failing server cooling fans, power supplies, and mechanical bearing wear prior to service disruption.\nDeploy thermal imaging, optical character recognition (OCR) for server status indicators, cable path verification, and environmental telemetry audits integrated into Cisco SRE monitoring systems.\nArchitect on-chassis edge compute payloads running containerized ROS 2 (Humble/Iron) environments with high-throughput sensor fusion.\nConnect physical robots into Cisco's Circuit / MyAgent ecosystem via Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent-to-Agent (A2A) interfaces, allowing AI agents to command and query physical robots securely.\nImplement 802.1X network authentication, Duo/Okta identity federation, and zero-trust edge access control. Enforce edge data filtering with zero persistent storage of visitor video, image, or audio capture in strict compliance with Cisco Data Protection & Privacy (DPP) standards.\nManage and expand the primary robotics sandbox lab, simulation environments, and physical staging cages.\nPartner with Workplace Resources (WPR), Environmental Health & Safety (EHS), and local municipal fire authorities to establish high-density lithium-ion battery containment, fire suppression protocols, and safety gating.\nCollaborate with Global Procurement Services (GPS) on preferred vendor onboarding, Corporate Security (SSBR) on outdoor perimeter pilots, Legal/IP on patent harvesting and JDA boundaries, and Outshift on joint robotics research.\nMinimum Qualifications\nBachelor’s degree in Robotics, Mechatronics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field or equivalent practical work experience.\n10+ years of professional engineering experience in robotics, mechatronics, embedded systems, or autonomous physical hardware systems.\nDirect technical leadership experience managing multidisciplinary engineering teams (e.g., mechatronics, firmware, computer vision, or robotics software).\nExperience developing, integrating, or deploying autonomous mobile robot (AMR), quadrupedal, or robotic platforms.\nExperience programming in C++ or Python for robotics, embedded systems, or edge compute applications.\nPreferred Qualifications\nMaster’s degree or Ph.D. in Robotics, Mechatronics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent work experience in a related technical field.\nDeep expertise in ROS / ROS 2 (Humble/Iron/Rolling), Nav2 navigation stacks, local SLAM, LiDAR-inertial odometry, 360-degree obstacle avoidance, and Sim2Real simulation platforms (NVIDIA Isaac Sim / Isaac ROS, Gazebo, MuJoCo).\nExperience with mechanical payload design, rapid prototyping, actuator dynamics, kinematics/dynamics of legged locomotion, power distribution boards (PDB), high-density Li-ion Battery Management Systems (BMS), embedded firmware (FreeRTOS), CAN bus, EtherCAT, USB 3.2, I2C, and SPI.\nExperience with on-device AI acceleration (NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin, TensorRT, CUDA, ONNX Runtime), real-time speech-to-speech models (Whisper, lightweight SLMs), wake-word detection, 3D point cloud perception, depth estimation, thermal vision, and Visual-Language-Action (VLA) models.\nExperience with custom fleet management bridges (Boston Dynamics Orbit, Formant), Model Context Protocol (MCP), Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocol design, distributed pub/sub architectures, and gRPC/REST APIs.\nExperience implementing 802.1X wireless authentication, Duo/Okta identity, mTLS zero-trust communication, ISO 25785-1 industrial mobile robot safety compliance, and data privacy governance.\nDemonstrated experience building, operating, and safety-certifying physical robotics laboratories, including high-density battery containment, municipal fire suppression compliance, and physical hazard mitigation.\n Proven track record structuring and driving Joint Development Agreements (JDAs) and co-development programs with commercial robotics OEMs.\nWhy Cisco?\nAt 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.\nFueled 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.\nWe are Cisco, and our power starts with you.\nMessage to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:\nThe starting salary range posted for this position is $230,000.00 to $290,800.00 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.\nU.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.\nU.S. employees are eligible for paid time away as described below, subject to Cisco’s policies:\n10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees\n\n1 paid day off for employee’s birthday, paid year-end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco\n\nNon-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\n\nExempt 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)\n\n80 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\n\nAdditional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members\n\nOptional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer\n\nFor non-sales roles, employees are also eligible to earn annual bonuses subject to Cisco’s policies.\nEmployees 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:\n.75% of incentive target for each 1% of revenue attainment up to 50% of quota;\n\n1.5% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 50% and 75%;\n\n1% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 75% and 100%; and\n\nOnce performance exceeds 100% attainment, incentive rates are at or above 1% for each 1% of attainment with no cap on incentive compensation.\n\nFor 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.\nThe applicable full salary ranges for this position, by specific state, are listed below:\nNew York City Metro Area:\n$230,000.00 - $334,500.00Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:\n$203,200.00 - $296,300.00* 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.\n** Employees in Illinois, whether exempt or non-exempt, will participate in a unique time off program to meet local requirements.","description_format":"text","description_chars":11691,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":10,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Annual bonuses","Equity","Life insurance","Parental leave","Restricted stock units","Vision insurance"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Network Security","Unified Communications","Endpoint Security","Observability & APM"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-22T10:10:30Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 1,384 · green card filings: 608","filings_12m":1384,"filings_prev_12m":1364,"green_card_filings_12m":608,"median_offered_wage_usd":152500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":25}],"liveness":{"score":89,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.889,"p_room":1,"age_days":4,"expected_fill_days":25,"reasons":["conf:30","velocity","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-24T06:02:35Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":334500,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/cisco-systems-director-physical-ai","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/cisco-systems-director-physical-ai.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-24T17:35:07Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":25600,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-25T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":90},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=90"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fcisco-systems-director-physical-ai"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fcisco-systems-director-physical-ai"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fcisco-systems-director-physical-ai"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/cisco-systems-director-physical-ai\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fcisco-systems-director-physical-ai"}]}