Site Reliability Engineer, Linux (Remote)

This is a remote role based out of the US.

The successful applicant may be performing work in FedRAMP High or IL-5 environments, and therefore, must be a U.S. Person (i.e. U.S. citizen, U.S. national, lawful permanent resident, asylee, or refugee). This position may also perform work that the U.S. government has specified can only be performed by a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil.

MEET THE TEAM

The Linux SRE team at Cisco serves as the foundational backbone of our infrastructure, responsible for the OS configuration, automation, and base images that power our global hybrid environment. We manage the critical layer across 6,000 servers as they transition into a modern Kubernetes ecosystem, ensuring stability from the kernel up. Our team is a tight-knit group of systems experts who thrive on solving complex, low-level debugging challenges while maintaining high-velocity automation. We are currently tackling the exciting evolution of our infrastructure, migrating from legacy monoliths to isolated, scalable repositories that define the future of operations. It is a dynamic environment where deep technical ownership is valued and every engineer has the autonomy to shape our operational standards.

YOUR IMPACT

The Site Reliability Engineer (Linux) role is the critical link between our low-level infrastructure and high-level service delivery, ensuring the stability of 6,000+ servers as we transition to Kubernetes. You will take full ownership of our OS configuration and automation strategy, serving as a key driver in reducing operational toil for the entire engineering organization. By working across the full stack-from kernel modules to container orchestration-you will directly influence the reliability and security of the Meraki platform. This role offers the unique opportunity to lead infrastructure modernization projects that move us from legacy management to a scalable, automated future.

• Automate Linux host lifecycle management, including configuration, patching, and image creation, to ensure consistent and reliable deployments across our hybrid environment.

• Migrate Ansible components from our existing monorepo into isolated, purpose-built repositories to improve maintainability and accelerate infrastructure delivery.

• Debug complex production issues across OS, performance, and service layers to minimize downtime and enhance the overall stability of our network services.

• Design, build, and improve infrastructure tooling that increases engineering velocity and streamlines adoption of best practices

• Partner with security and compliance teams to embed FedRAMP requirements into our infrastructure-as-code, ensuring that secure practices are built into every deployment.

• Lead the transition of workloads to Kubernetes clusters by optimizing container base images and host configurations to support our evolving service architecture.

• Own the reliability of critical infrastructure end to end, iterating and adapting as necessary to evolving requirements

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in STEM and 5+ years of relevant experience, or Master's degree in STEM and 3+ years of relevant experience or equivalent related work experience

• 5+ years of experience working with Linux in a production environment.

• Experience with Python or Ruby for infrastructure automation and scripting.

• Experience with Ansible for configuration management at scale.

• Experience debugging complex system issues across OS, performance, and service layers.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience with Kubernetes cluster management and containerization (Docker).

• Knowledge of systems-level languages such as Go or C.

• Familiarity with compliance frameworks like FedRAMP or NIST.

• Ability to lead technical projects from ambiguous requirements to production.

Why Cisco?

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.

Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:

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 of unused sick time carried forward from one calendar year to 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.