Software Engineering Technical Leader

About the role

The Developer Platforms team builds the internal tools, frameworks, and platforms that enable more than 3,000 Splunk engineers to build, test, and release world-class products at scale. The team works across developer productivity, quality systems, release engineering, build platforms, infrastructure automation, and AI-enabled engineering workflows.

We are looking for a Senior Staff Software Engineer to join the AI Platform team within Developer Platforms. This team is responsible for building the internal platform that enables Splunk engineers to create, deploy, and operate AI agents safely and effectively. The team is also actively building high-impact AI agents and systems that reduce engineering toil, improve developer productivity, and help Splunk engineering teams keep pace with increasing software delivery velocity. This is a hands-on engineering role for someone who enjoys building scalable platforms, working with emerging AI technologies, and creating practical solutions that improve the daily experience of other engineers.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate internal platform capabilities that enable engineers to create and run AI agents at scale.
• Develop services, frameworks, and tooling that make it easier for teams to build reliable, secure, and maintainable AI-powered workflows.
• Build high-impact AI agents and automation systems that reduce engineering toil and improve developer productivity.
• Partner with engineers across Splunk to understand use cases, gather feedback, and deliver platform capabilities that solve real developer problems.
• Contribute to the architecture and implementation of AI platform services, including integrations with internal systems, infrastructure, and developer tools.
• Help establish patterns and best practices for building, testing, deploying, and operating AI agents within Splunk.
• Improve platform reliability, observability, security, and usability through thoughtful design, implementation, and operational ownership.

Requirements

• Strong software engineering experience, with a track record of designing, building, and operating production-grade systems.
• Experience with backend services, distributed systems, APIs, infrastructure platforms, developer tooling, or internal platforms.
• Experience in AI-enabled systems, AI agents, LLM-based applications, prompt workflows, or machine-learning platform concepts.
• Strong understanding of modern software development practices, including testing, CI/CD, observability, reliability, and secure engineering.
• Ability to work across teams, understand developer needs, and turn ambiguous problems into practical technical solutions.
• Experience building platforms, frameworks, or tools used by other engineers is highly desirable.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with engineers, technical leads, product managers, and stakeholders.
• Passion for improving developer experience, engineering productivity, automation, and the responsible use of AI in software engineering.

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.

Pay

The starting salary range for this position is $174,700.00 to $253,400.00 for new hires 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.

For certain locations, the full salary range is listed below:

• New York City Metro Area: $210,600.00 - $350,800.00
• Non-Metro New York State & Washington State: $189,300.00 - $312,200.00

For quota-based sales roles on Cisco’s sales plan, the ranges provided include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 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 for defined periods
• 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
  • 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 vacation time (subject to availability and business limitations)
  • 80 hours of sick time off provided 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 critical or emergency family issues
  • Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer
• Annual bonuses for non-sales roles, subject to Cisco’s policies
• For sales roles, performance-based incentive pay split between quota and non-quota components:
  • Quota-based incentive pay:
    • 0.75% 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%
    • Once performance exceeds 100% attainment, incentive rates are at or above 1% for each 1% of attainment with no cap
  • Non-quota-based sales performance elements: 0% up to 125% of target

Employees in Illinois, whether exempt or non-exempt, will participate in a unique time off program to meet local requirements.