{"id":3073804,"url":"https://alion.io/job/cisco-systems-qa-software-engineer-nc-hybrid-2","title":"QA Software Engineer NC Hybrid","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":"QA","role_family":"QA","seniority":"middle","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Research Triangle Park, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":109000,"max_usd":212000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":307},"experience_years_min":3,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"Agile","optional":false},{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Claude Code","optional":false},{"name":"Copilot","optional":false},{"name":"Cursor","optional":false},{"name":"Git","optional":false},{"name":"GitHub Actions","optional":false},{"name":"Grafana","optional":false},{"name":"GraphQL","optional":false},{"name":"JavaScript","optional":false},{"name":"Jenkins","optional":false},{"name":"JMeter","optional":false},{"name":"k6","optional":false},{"name":"LLM","optional":false},{"name":"Playwright","optional":false},{"name":"Pytest","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Rest API","optional":false},{"name":"Robot Framework","optional":false},{"name":"Selenium","optional":false},{"name":"TypeScript","optional":false},{"name":"AIOps","optional":true},{"name":"Docker","optional":true},{"name":"Fine-tuning","optional":true},{"name":"GCP","optional":true},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":true},{"name":"Prometheus","optional":true},{"name":"Splunk","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\nOur team is part of the Cisco AI and Automation portfolio, responsible for the \"Circuit\" platform-the central AI engine that powers productivity and process automation for all of Cisco. We are a rapidly expanding, high-impact group dedicated to building the vehicle for AI-driven business transformation. We operate at the intersection of applied research and production, ensuring our technology is not only cutting-edge but also optimized for performance, reliability, and functional quality for our 80,000+ monthly users.\nAs an Automation QA Engineer, you are the guardian of that functional quality-owning the automated testing ecosystem that keeps Circuit reliable, scalable, and production-ready across every release. This is a hybrid position.\nYour Impact\nAs an Automation QA Engineer, you will drive the transformation of our regression testing ecosystem, moving beyond manual processes to build AI-driven, fully automated test suites for both new and legacy features. You will design and own end-to-end (E2E), API, and performance test automation that ensures the Circuit platform continues to meet Cisco's high standards for functional quality and performance.\nYou will build and maintain scalable test frameworks, integrate them into CI/CD pipelines for continuous quality feedback, and leverage AI-assisted coding tools (such as Cursor, Copilot, or Claude Code) to generate and maintain tests-while rigorously validating that AI-generated artifacts are stable, correct, and compliant with security standards. This is a high-visibility role where your ability to automate functional quality and reduce technical debt directly ensures Circuit remains a reliable vehicle for process automation across Cisco.\nResponsibilities\nAutomated Regression & E2E Testing: Architect, build, and maintain comprehensive automated regression and end-to-end test suites for the entire Circuit platform using Playwright (TypeScript/JavaScript), Python/Pytest, and Selenium, replacing manual QA with scalable automation.\nAPI Testing: Design and automate REST and GraphQL API test suites covering functional correctness, contract validation, error handling, and performance-including validation of AI/model-serving endpoints under concurrent load.\nPerformance & Load Testing: Plan and execute load, stress, and soak tests using k6 or JMeter,; track response-time percentiles (p95/p99), throughput, error rates, and AI-specific metrics such as Time to First Token (TTFT) and inter-token latency.\nAI-Driven Test Automation: Use AI agents and AI-assisted coding tools (Cursor, Copilot, Claude Code) to generate and maintain regression suites for new and legacy features; read and judge the stability of auto-generated code and ensure it does not violate security standards before it is merged.\nAI Application & Agent Validation: Develop testing approaches for AI/LLM features-validating model response quality, behavior consistency (stability testing), and end-to-end AI agent workflows across both the reasoning and action layers.\nCI/CD Integration & Reporting: Integrate all automated tests into CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or equivalent) for continuous validation; build dashboards and reports (Grafana, Allure) and communicate quality metrics, risk assessments, and defect trends to engineering leadership.\nCross-Functional Leadership: Act as a \"Team Captain\" for automation initiatives-defining standards, mentoring peers, and collaborating with development, product, and UX teams to embed automation-first testing into the core development lifecycle.\nMinimum Qualifications\nBachelor's degree with 5+ years, Master's degree with 3+ years, or PhD with 1+ year of related experience in Computer Science, AI/ML, or a related technical field.\nExperience in test automation and regression framework development, with a deep understanding of functional quality assurance.\nExperience with Playwright (TypeScript/JavaScript) for E2E/UI automation and/or Python with Pytest /Robot Framework; familiarity with Selenium.\nExperience with REST API testing (and familiarity with API contract testing); GraphQL testing a plus.\nSolid conceptual and practical knowledge of software development lifecycles, including CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or similar) and automated testing best practices.\nExperience in AI-assisted coding tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code), critical thinking, and Agile/Git workflows to ensure high-quality, scalable test automation\nPreferred Qualifications\nExperience testing AI/ML-powered web applications, including LLM-based features, chatbots, or AI agent workflows.\nHands-on experience with performance/load testing (k6, JMeter) and AI/LLM performance metrics (TTFT, inter-token latency, token throughput).\nExperience in AI Ops / MLOps, or building/fine-tuning custom LLMs.\nExperience with observability and reporting tools such as Splunk, Grafana, Prometheus,\nFamiliarity with Docker and Kubernetes for test environment management, and with Google Cloud Platform (GCP).\nProven track record of leading technical projects and mentoring junior engineers.\nStrong communication and collaboration skills; ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders.\nExperience building and productizing agentic applications with a focus on evaluation and business acceptance.\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 $128,600.00 to $184,900.00 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$155,000.00 - $256,000.00Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:\n$138,100.00 - $227,900.00* 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":9894,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":3,"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":52}],"liveness":{"score":89,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.891,"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":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/cisco-systems-qa-software-engineer-nc-hybrid-2","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/cisco-systems-qa-software-engineer-nc-hybrid-2.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-24T18:37:56Z","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":27146,"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-qa-software-engineer-nc-hybrid-2"},{"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-qa-software-engineer-nc-hybrid-2"},{"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-qa-software-engineer-nc-hybrid-2"},{"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-qa-software-engineer-nc-hybrid-2\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fcisco-systems-qa-software-engineer-nc-hybrid-2"}]}