Software Technical Leader, Test Automation, Splunk

About the role

We are seeking a visionary Technical Leader to architect the bold roadmap for our AI-agentic Security Operations Center (SOC). Together, we define the strategic direction that secures the absolute reliability and performance of our most complex systems. We work to mentor world-class engineering talent, drive the adoption of groundbreaking benchmarking, and catalyze the evolution of our quality ecosystems. Join us as we work to transform high-level challenges into scalable, high-impact solutions.

Responsibilities

• Define and oversee the architectural roadmap for PQ foundations and evaluation frameworks, ensuring robust assessment capabilities for AI agents, complex workflows, and underlying system processes.
• Identify systemic gaps in testing methodologies and lead the development of AI-based solutions or agents to proactively mitigate risk and enhance system integrity.
• Drive the technical culture by mentoring engineering talent, conducting architectural reviews, and guiding teams through the validation of complex technical hypotheses.
• Oversee the lifecycle of proof-of-concepts (POCs), establishing rigorous standards for experimentation and the validation of novel testing paradigms.
• Ensure that testing processes consistently deliver reliable, high-quality outcomes at scale, maintaining alignment with enterprise-level quality standards.
• Set the technical standard for groundbreaking validation techniques, including LLM-as-judge methodologies, tenant isolation probes, and behavioral regression suites.
• Partner with engineering leadership to enforce rigorous contract testing, audit log validation, and security compliance, ensuring seamless integration of quality across the development lifecycle.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree plus 10+ years of experience in software development and test automation, to include experience architecting large-scale testing ecosystems.
• Demonstrated experience in programming, to include Python and Go, with a demonstrated ability to design scalable, maintainable, and high-performance testing infrastructure.
• Demonstrated experience with security compliance frameworks.
• Demonstrated experience with modern performance testing methodologies.
• Demonstrated experience using AI to build automation (writing AI skills to build test automation).

Preferred Qualifications

• Leadership & Problem-Solving: Exceptional capacity to translate complex, ambiguous quality challenges into structured, actionable, and long-term architectural strategies.
• Strategic Vision: Proven ability to innovate within the AI/ML landscape, applying modern tooling to drive detection efficacy and system reliability.
• Test Automation: Go, Python, Contract testing frameworks, Playwright.
• Security & Compliance: OCSF validation libraries, vacuum linter, Caldera, tenant isolation probes, and audit log validation.
• AI/ML Testing: Deep expertise in LLM APIs (Claude, Codex), prompt engineering, and the design of agentic workflows. Proficiency in demonstrating LangChain and LangSmith to ensure model reliability, AI behavioral regression, and LLM-as-judge frameworks.
• Performance Testing: K6, Terra VM (Security Suite), and JMeter.

Pay

The starting salary range for this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations is $186,900.00 to $267,700.00, 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.

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

• New York City Metro Area: $186,900.00 – $307,800.00
• Non-Metro New York State & Washington State: $166,300.00 – $274,100.00

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 (vesting over defined employment periods)
• 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
• 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year for non-exempt employees (accrued at 4.92 hours per pay period)
• Flexible vacation time off program with no defined limit for exempt employees
• 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter (up to 80 hours may be carried forward)
• Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer
• Annual bonuses for non-sales roles (subject to Cisco’s policies)