Principal Software Engineer (Security & Policy Platform) (Remote)

Meet the Team

You will join Cisco’s Security and Policy Platform Group, a foundational organization responsible for transforming Cisco’s Security products from single point products to comprehensive security outcomes, as a Principal Engineer. The team delivers secure, scalable capabilities enabling customers to control and security policies across Cisco and third-party products. This work spans cloud and client infrastructure, security, policy and networking, with a strong emphasis on reliability, interoperability, and long-term scalability.

Your Impact

• Innovate, develop, and drive unique software and technology solutions with global impact across Cisco’s broader product portfolio and multiple technology and business groups.
• Act as an internal, external, and industry expert, applying deep technical expertise to provide mentorship and consultation on sophisticated challenges.
• Serve as a domain expert or cross-domain integrator, leveraging breadth of knowledge to connect emerging technology trends and assess their impact on Cisco products.
• Guide and set standards for the technical direction of Cisco’s software and technology solutions, influencing industry trends, business leaders, and Cisco’s technical community.
• Ensure the development, execution, and enablement of technology strategies that deliver long-term business impact.
• Stay ahead of evolving technology and industry trends, shaping innovation and enabling Cisco to maintain a strong competitive advantage.
• Partner across engineering, product, and business teams to translate strategic vision into scalable, high-impact solutions.
• Mentor and influence senior technical leaders, driving architectural consistency and engineering excellence across the organization.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field with 12+ years of experience designing and developing large-scale software, platform, or distributed systems.
• Experience building and scaling highly available, secure, and distributed systems in cloud or hybrid environments.
• Experience writing high-quality, production-grade code using modern programming languages (e.g., Go, Rust, or C++).
• 5+ years of experience with security, privacy, and data protection principles as applied to policy and platform systems.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree (Master’s or Ph.D.) in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
• Recognized technical leadership as a domain expert or cross-domain integrator influencing architecture across multiple product lines or business units.
• Experience driving platform strategy in large-scale enterprise or cloud environments.
• Experience integrating systems with broader platform services such as observability, data platforms, or AI/ML-driven systems.
• Track record of influencing technical direction and aligning stakeholders across a large, matrixed organization.
• Experience defining technical architecture and driving end-to-end system design across multiple teams or organizations.
• Contributions to industry standards, open-source projects, patents, or publications.
• Ability to translate emerging technology trends into long-term strategic direction and business impact.

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.

Pay & Benefits

This is a fully remote opportunity open to candidates located anywhere in the United States. The starting salary range for this position is $250,600.00 to $362,600.00, reflecting the projected range for new hires in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation, equity, or benefits. Individual pay is determined by hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training. U.S. employees are offered 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, and may be eligible for grants of Cisco restricted stock units. U.S. employees receive 10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday, 1 paid day off for their birthday, a paid year-end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness. Non-exempt employees receive 16 days of paid vacation per full calendar year; exempt employees participate in Cisco’s flexible vacation time off program. Employees receive 80 hours of sick time off on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, with up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward. Additional paid time away may be requested for family emergencies, and employees may take 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer. Non-sales roles are eligible to earn annual bonuses. Sales roles earn performance-based incentive pay on top of base salary. The full salary range for New York City Metro Area is $250,600.00 – $416,900.00; for Non-Metro New York State & Washington State it is $241,400.00 – $371,000.00.