Hardware Compliance Regulatory Engineer

About the role

Common Hardware Group (CHG) Compliance team supports regulatory approval across various products like Cisco wireless access points, cellular routers, sensors, and many others. You will collaborate with various functions like Hardware Design and Test, ASIC Design and Test, Power Engineering, Signal Integrity, EMC / EMI, and Mechanical Design, expanding the breadth of your knowledge, designing power, and delivering amazing products to the market.

Responsibilities

• Partner with hardware, RF/antenna, firmware/software, product security, and compliance teams to develop regulatory strategies and support EMC/RF validation.
• Work with external test laboratories to ensure products achieve certification readiness and meet global regulatory requirements.
• Define EMC and RF regulatory requirements for global markets (FCC, CE, IC, RED, MIC).
• Define performance monitoring metrics during EMC/EMI testing.
• Develop compliance strategies early in the product design lifecycle to minimize certification risk.
• Review schematics and recommend filtering, shielding, grounding, and ESD protection solutions.
• Cover RF designs meeting regulatory requirements for wireless technologies (WiFi, Bluetooth, 5G NR, LTE, etc.).
• Plan and complete pre-compliance testing including radiated, conducted emissions, surge, ESD, EFT/B, Radiated immunity, Conducted immunity.
• Collaborate with hardware, RF, mechanical, antenna design and manufacturing teams to ensure compliant product design.
• Ensure RF designs meet regulatory requirements for wireless technologies (WiFi, Bluetooth, 5G NR, LTE, etc.).
• Configure test setups including cabling, grounding, support equipment, and worst-case operating modes.
• Configure traffic generators to create representative data loads and route traffic through DUT interfaces during testing.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, electronics engineering, RF Engineering, or related field with 7+ years of experience; or master’s degree with 4+ years of experience or PhD with one year of experience.
• Experience with RF regulatory test requirements such as DFS (Dynamic Frequency Selection), Adaptivity, Receiver Blocking, and AFC (Automatic Frequency Control).
• Experience with EMC compliance requirements and test methods for the test cases such as radiated and conducted emissions, immunity testing, and evaluation of product functional performance.
• Experience configuring test modes, monitoring RF performance degradation, and supporting compliance validation for Wi-Fi and other intentional radiator devices.
• Experience using spectrum analyzers, EMI receivers, vector network analyzers (VNA), signal generators, oscilloscopes, near-field probes, LISNs, and RF power meters.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with power electronics, power supply, or analog design, including knowledge in high-efficiency power topologies such as buck, buck-boost and flyback.
• Knowledge of component selection and materials affecting EMC performance.
• Familiarity with environmental and reliability standards impacting EMC performance such as temperature, humidity, vibration, and aging effects.
• Familiarity with system-level test automation tools such as Python, LabVIEW, MATLAB, or similar tools.
• Familiarity with cybersecurity and regulatory compliance frameworks impacting connected electronic products, including EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), India Commsec (Communication Security) requirements, and other applicable global cybersecurity standards.
• Experience developing automated test scripts or traffic profiles to monitor product performance during EMC immunity testing.

Benefits

The starting salary range posted for this position is $152,400.00 to $221,800.00 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.

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 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.

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