{"id":671479,"url":"https://alion.io/job/cisco-systems-distinguished-software-engineer-remote","title":"Distinguished Software Engineer (Remote)","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":92,"open_postings":264,"ghost_share":0.011,"stale_share":0.436,"repost_share":0.068,"time_to_fill_p50_days":16,"computed_at":"2026-10-12T06:55:09Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"board_field","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Jose, United States","New York, United States","Seattle, United States","Washington, United States","United States","Georgia","Mexico"],"countries":["US","GE","MX"],"hiring_countries":["US"],"hiring_countries_total":1,"salary":{"min":293900,"max":467900,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":467900},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":15,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-13T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-08-13","last_verified_at":"2026-10-12T21:38:53Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":61,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":61},"description":"The application window is expected to close on: 10/19/2026Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.\nThis is a remote position in the USA.\nMeet the Team\nYou will join Cisco’s Security and Policy Platform Group, a foundational organization responsible for transforming Cisco’s Security products from single point products to comprehensive security outcomes, as a Distinguished Engineer. The team delivers secure, scalable capabilities enabling customers to control and security policies across Cisco and third-party products.\nThis work spans cloud and client infrastructure, security, policy and networking, with a strong emphasis on reliability, interoperability, and long-term scalability!\nYour Impact\nInnovate, develop, and drive industry-leading software, hardware, and technology solutions with global impact across Cisco’s product portfolio.\nServe as a recognized internal and external thought leader, influencing industry direction through technical expertise, innovation, and execution.\nAct as a cross-domain technology leader, translating emerging technology trends into strategic advantage for Cisco.\nDefine and drive the long-term technical vision and architecture for platform and policy systems while influencing senior leadership and technical communities.\nEstablish and uphold engineering and architectural standards that guide multiple organizations and product lines.\nDrive company-wide technology strategy aligned to long-term business outcomes and market leadership.\nAnticipate and develop industry trends, positioning Cisco at the forefront of policy and security innovation.\nTranslate sophisticated technologies into scalable platform strategies and business opportunities across Cisco’s portfolio.\nLead highly complex, cross-functional initiatives spanning multiple business units from concept through delivery.\nMentor and influence senior and principal engineers, elevating technical leadership and architectural consistency across teams.\nRepresent Cisco externally through industry forums, standards bodies, patents, publications, and strategic partnerships.\nMinimum Qualifications\nBachelor’s degree with 15+ years of related experience, Master’s degree with 12+ years of related experience, or PhD with 10+ years of related experience designing and developing large-scale software, platform, or distributed systems.\nExperience defining and influencing architecture and technical strategy across multiple teams, organizations, or product lines.\n10+ years of experience in policy, platform, or security systems, or demonstrated success operating as a cross-domain technology leader.\n8+ years of experience building and scaling highly available, secure, and distributed systems in cloud or hybrid environments.\nPreferred Qualifications\nProven track record of driving company-wide or industry-level technical impact across large, sophisticated organizations.\nRecognized industry leadership through patents, publications, conference speaking, or contributions to standards bodies.\nExperience defining and driving platform or policy strategy at enterprise or industry scale.\nDeep understanding of security, policy, privacy, and data protection principles within large-scale platform systems.\nExperience integrating across platform services such as observability, data platforms, AI/ML systems, and security infrastructure.\nTrack record of leading highly complex, multi-functional initiatives with significant business impact.\nExperience influencing senior leadership, including executives, on technical direction and business strategy.\nStrong ability to align diverse stakeholders and drive consensus across large, matrixed organizations.\nProven track record to translate emerging technology trends into long-term strategic direction and measurable business outcomes.\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 $293,900.00 to $406,800.00 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$293,900.00 - $467,900.00Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:\n$285,600.00 - $432,300.00* 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":8375,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":15,"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","Network Equipment","Observability & APM"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-10T22:24:25Z"}],"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":"2026-10-03T21:08:04+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":747}],"liveness":{"score":11,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.377,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":60,"expected_fill_days":16,"reasons":["conf:2","velocity","win:tail","crowd:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-12T06:55:09Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":467900,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/cisco-systems-distinguished-software-engineer-remote","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/cisco-systems-distinguished-software-engineer-remote.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-13T00:40:05Z","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":1147,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-14T00:00:00Z"}},"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-distinguished-software-engineer-remote"},{"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-distinguished-software-engineer-remote"},{"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-distinguished-software-engineer-remote"},{"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-distinguished-software-engineer-remote\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fcisco-systems-distinguished-software-engineer-remote"}]}