Software Engineering Technical Leader -- Secure Workload Agent

Application window closes on August 11, 2026, or earlier if the position is filled or sufficient applications are received.

About the Team

Isovalent, now part of Cisco, was founded by the creators of Cilium and eBPF and is building the next generation of cloud-native networking and security technologies. Within Cisco Security, the Secure Workload engineering team develops the Unified Agent that provides runtime visibility, workload protection, and policy enforcement across physical servers, virtual machines, cloud infrastructure, and containerized environments. As the platform footprint continues to expand, the team is investing in support for additional operating systems and processor architectures, including IBM AIX on Power, IBM System z, Solaris/SPARC, and other specialized enterprise platforms. This work enables Cisco to support some of the world’s largest financial institutions, government organizations, and enterprise customers running mission-critical infrastructure.

This is a highly technical engineering team where software engineers work close to the operating system, compilers, and kernel. Team members own complex platform enablement efforts, collaborate closely with engineers across the Secure Workload and Isovalent organizations, and contribute to technologies that power runtime security for modern infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and optimize low-level software components for the Secure Workload Unified Agent using C, with a focus on operating system and kernel-level functionality.
• Develop and maintain support for enterprise operating systems and architectures including Linux, IBM AIX, IBM Power, IBM System z, Solaris, and other supported platforms.
• Diagnose complex software issues using crash dump and core dump analysis, debugging tools, and operating system internals to improve product reliability and performance.
• Collaborate with engineers across Secure Workload, Tetragon, and Isovalent to deliver runtime security capabilities and platform enhancements for enterprise customers.
• Mentor junior engineers through technical guidance, design discussions, and code reviews while driving engineering excellence across the team.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree with 12+ years of related experience, or Master’s degree with 8+ years of related experience, or PhD with 5+ years of related experience.
• Experience developing software in C for Linux or UNIX-based operating systems.
• Experience with operating system internals, kernel programming, or kernel driver development.
• Experience with compilers, cross-platform compilation, and debugging techniques including crash dump or core dump analysis.
• Experience developing software for enterprise operating systems or multiple processor architectures.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience developing software for IBM AIX.
• Experience developing software for IBM Power (PowerPC) and/or IBM System z (s390x) architectures.
• Experience developing software for Solaris or other UNIX operating systems.
• Experience developing host-based security, endpoint, networking, or systems software that interacts with operating system kernels.
• Experience mentoring software engineers and leading technical design or implementation efforts across complex engineering projects.

About 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

The starting salary range for this position is $214,100.00 to $309,800.00 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.

Full salary ranges for specific U.S. locations:

• New York City Metro Area: $214,100.00 - $356,300.00
• Non-Metro New York State & Washington State: $192,400.00 - $317,200.00

For quota-based sales roles, the ranges include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) plan with Cisco matching contribution
• Paid parental leave
• Short and long-term disability coverage
• Basic life insurance
• 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 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
• Performance-based incentive pay for sales roles, split between quota and non-quota components
• Eligibility for grants of Cisco restricted stock units, vesting after continued employment