Backend Senior Software Engineer, CX Engineering(Hybrid)

This role follows a hybrid work model, with in-office attendance of at least two days per week in Research Triangle Park (RTP), NC or San Jose, CA.

About the role

Cisco’s Customer Experience (CX) Engineering organization is one of the company's fastest-growing and most innovative teams, crafting a first-in-class digital experience for customers and partners wherever they connect with Cisco. CX Platform supports the diverse needs of the CX organization through a platform-centric approach and is being built with emerging technologies, including predictive AI and generative AI, to drive greater customer success. The team sits at the center of developing modern, cloud-native technologies that help Cisco stay agile and adaptable in a rapidly evolving market. As pioneers in this space, the team helps customers maximize value through a simple, unified Cisco experience that accelerates time to impact. The culture is fast-moving, highly collaborative, data-driven, and grounded in ownership, accountability, quality, and urgency.

As a Senior Software Engineer, you will join our growing team to design and deliver robust, scalable software solutions that enable customers to maximize the value of their Cisco technology investments. You will own the full software development lifecycle—from technical design and backend architecture to deployment—while ensuring high reliability and fault tolerance in distributed systems. Beyond technical execution, you will collaborate closely with internal stakeholders to drive deployment and optimization strategies while mentoring junior engineers to elevate the team’s collective technical expertise. This role is uniquely exciting as it places you at the intersection of complex cloud-native engineering and direct customer impact, allowing you to solve mission-critical challenges at scale. You will serve as a technical anchor, balancing high-level architectural contributions with hands-on development to build lasting solutions for our global customer base.

Responsibilities

• Design and deliver robust, scalable software solutions that enable customers to maximize the value of their Cisco technology investments.
• Own the full software development lifecycle—from technical design and backend architecture to deployment.
• Ensure high reliability and fault tolerance in distributed systems.
• Collaborate closely with internal stakeholders to drive deployment and optimization strategies.
• Mentor junior engineers to elevate the team’s collective technical expertise.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science (or equivalent field) with 7+ years of experience in the full software development lifecycle (build, test, deploy), or
• Master’s degree with 4+ years of related experience, or
• PhD with 1+ year of related experience.
• Experience in backend development coding in Python, Go, Node.js, Java, or Rust.
• Experience developing REST or GraphQL APIs, relational or NoSQL databases including schema design and query optimization.
• Experience with messaging or event-streaming technologies such as Kafka or AWS SQS/SNS.
• Experience with CI/CD workflows, including building or maintaining pipelines and resolving deployment failures.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure and container orchestration, specifically AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, and infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, CloudFormation).
• Demonstrated experience applying AI-assisted development tools or AIOps practices to improve engineering efficiency.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in software development within distributed production environments.
• Expertise in large-scale data ingestion, transformation (ETL/ELT), and real-time streaming/Change Data Capture (CDC) technologies.
• Strong familiarity with observability practices, including metrics, logging, distributed tracing, and alerting for complex systems.
• Proficiency in modern frontend technologies and frameworks (e.g., Angular, React).

Pay

The starting salary range for this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations is $167,700.00 to $245,200.00. Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training.

The applicable full salary ranges for this position, by specific state, are listed below:

• New York City Metro Area: $167,700.00 – $282,000.00
• Non-Metro New York State & Washington State: $149,100.00 – $250,900.00

Benefits

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
• Basic life insurance
• Grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time
• Paid time away:
  • 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
  • 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 a rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees
  • Exempt employees participate in Cisco’s flexible vacation time off program with no defined limit on how much vacation time may be used (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
  • Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer