Software Engineering Technical Leader (Remote)

This position is fully remote and can be performed from any location within the United States. This role requires reliable internet connection and the ability to work independently in a remote environment.

Meet the Team

You’ll be joining Developer Acceleration, a team passionate about making it easier and faster for engineers across the organization to build test infrastructure and ship phenomenal software.

We lead the C++/Python testing frameworks, developer tooling, CI/CD infrastructure, and quality platforms that product teams rely on every day. That gives our work significant leverage-when we make something faster, simpler, or more reliable, the impact is felt across the entire engineering organization.

You’ll work alongside engineers with deep expertise in build systems, cloud and Kubernetes infrastructure, and test infrastructure. You’ll have real ownership, plenty of autonomy, and a significant voice in shaping technical direction. We value thoughtful technical discussions, strong engineering practices, partnership, and building tools that developers genuinely enjoy using.

There’s a lot of significant work ahead: evolving our testing ecosystem, reducing flaky tests and CI times, and building the next generation of developer infrastructure. It’s a great opportunity to solve sophisticated technical problems while making engineers across the organization more productive. We couldn't be more excited about what's ahead, and we'd love for you to help us build it!

We believe great engineering comes from people with different backgrounds and ways of thinking, and we're committed to building a team where every voice is heard and everyone has what they need to do their best work.

Your Impact

You’ll help set the technical direction for the Python and C++ testing ecosystem that engineering teams across the organization rely on. Your impact will extend beyond the tools you build-you’ll create solutions that teams choose to adopt, helping establish consistent testing practices and higher quality standards across the organization.

• Develop how developers build, test, and ship software by defining and driving the strategy for our C++ testing ecosystem.
• Design reusable testing frameworks, libraries, and developer tooling that reduce duplication and improve engineering quality across teams.
• Integrate effective quality gates into CI/CD pipelines, giving engineers fast, actionable feedback and helping identify issues before they reach production.
• Build platforms that provide clarity into key engineering metrics, including test coverage, flaky-test trends, and pipeline health, enabling teams to make informed, data-driven decisions.
• Mentor engineers and influence technical decisions across teams, sharing testing expertise, promoting engineering standards, and driving alignment without relying on formal authority.

Minimum Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience with expert-level C++ skills and experience using Python or similar languages to build developer tooling, automation, and test infrastructure.
• Consistent record to design and maintain reusable test frameworks or developer tools accepted by multiple engineering teams.
• Expertise with C++ testing and mocking frameworks such as GoogleTest, Google Mock, Catch2, or comparable technologies, along with experience building automation or developer tooling using Python or similar languages.
• Proficiency with build systems and dependency management tools, including Bazel, CMake, or similar technologies.
• Solid grasp of building automated testing and developer tooling into modern delivery workflows, including Kubernetes, containerized environments, and microservices-based architectures.
• Familiarity with public cloud platforms, including AWS, GCP, or Azure.
• Strong debugging and solving skills, with experience using observability and diagnostic tools to identify and resolve sophisticated issues.
• Deep understanding of software design for testability, including dependency injection, interface design, deterministic testing, isolation, and automation standards.
• Consistent track record to influence engineering standards, drive technical adoption across teams, and communicate effectively with technical partners.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building shared testing infrastructure or internal developer platforms.
• Experience modernizing testing frameworks for large-scale C++ applications.
• Experience developing automation, developer tooling, or CI/CD workflows using Python or other scripting languages.
• Experience building multi-language developer platforms supporting C++, Python, Go, or Java.
• Experience designing SDKs, libraries, or testing infrastructure across multiple programming languages.
• Experience with distributed systems, networking, or high-performance software.
• Experience building quality platforms, dashboards, or engineering metrics.
• Experience with contract testing, flaky test management, or automated quality tooling.

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.