{"id":2279824,"url":"https://alion.io/job/cisco-systems-senior-software-engineer-ai-cluster-networking-performance-engineer","title":"Senior Software Engineer, AI Cluster Networking Performance Engineer","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":91,"open_postings":288,"ghost_share":0.014,"stale_share":0.479,"repost_share":0.063,"time_to_fill_p50_days":16,"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"}},"role":"AI/ML","role_family":"AI/ML","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Milpitas, United States","San Jose, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":167700,"max":245200,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":245200},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":4,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":false},{"name":"NCCL","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Wireshark","optional":false},{"name":"InfiniBand","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-07T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-07","last_verified_at":"2026-10-17T21:25:18Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":11,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":11},"description":"The application window is expected to close on: 11/29/2026Meet the Team\nCisco Validated Infrastructure Services (CVIS) establishes and proves the performance of large AI clusters before they are handed over to customers. We deploy each cluster, validate it against performance baselines, and deliver the evidence that it is ready for service. The platform behind that work is full stack. It combines workflow and API services, network and infrastructure automation, and the UI used to run validation across labs and customer environments.\nYour Impact\nAs a Senior Software Engineer, you will be responsible for things like debugging, profiling and optimizing the full AI cluster networking and GPU performance stack, from boot-time and PCIe behavior through Linux kernel, SmartNIC/DPU, RDMA, NCCL, and application-level collective communication. You will:\nInvestigate kernel-level failures, boot-time anomalies, PCIe link issues, driver behavior, and network latency. \nDiagnose and tune RDMA/RoCEv2, NCCL, SmartNIC/DPU, NIC queues, congestion, throughput, and collective communications. \nRead and correlate unified hardware traces across host CPUs, PCIe switches, SmartNICs, and GPU compute streams. \nCapture and analyze Wireshark packets, system logs, NVIDIA support logs, traces, profiles, and observability data. \nPartner with hardware and software teams to eliminate end-to-end bottlenecks. \nMinimum Qualifications:\nBachelors + 7 years of related experience, or Masters + 4 years of related experience, or PHD +1 year of related experience or equivalent related work experience. \n4+ years of experience working with Linux kernel, networking, GPU, and distributed-systems debugging skills. \nExperience writing code with C/C++/Python and experience with user-mode and kernel-mode drivers. \nExperience with Linux network stack, RDMA/RoCEv2, NCCL, PCIe, and performance profiling. \nPrior experience working with reason from packet captures, traces, counters, logs, and reproducible benchmarks. \nPreferred Qualifications:\nSmartNIC/DPU optimization and DOCA SDK experience. \nCisco switching, AI cluster network fabrics, multi-plane/ToR designs, and high-speed Ethernet or InfiniBand environments. \nFamiliarity with NVIDIA diagnostic tooling, Nsight/profiling tools, kernel tracing, and observability platforms. \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 $167,700.00 to $245,200.00 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$167,700.00 - $282,000.00Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:\n$149,100.00 - $250,900.00* 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":6824,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":4,"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":["Cybersecurity","Government","Endpoint Security","Observability & APM"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-11T11:07:32Z"}],"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":613}],"liveness":{"score":72,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.799,"p_room":0.9,"age_days":10,"expected_fill_days":16,"reasons":["conf:1","velocity","win:mid","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":245200,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/cisco-systems-senior-software-engineer-ai-cluster-networking-performance-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/cisco-systems-senior-software-engineer-ai-cluster-networking-performance-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-18T01:04:39Z","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":1772,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-19T00:00:00Z"}},"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-senior-software-engineer-ai-cluster-networking-performance-engineer"},{"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-senior-software-engineer-ai-cluster-networking-performance-engineer"},{"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-senior-software-engineer-ai-cluster-networking-performance-engineer"},{"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-senior-software-engineer-ai-cluster-networking-performance-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fcisco-systems-senior-software-engineer-ai-cluster-networking-performance-engineer"}]}