AI Researcher

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  • Location:
    Offsite, San Jose, California, US
  • Alternate Location
    Remote, United States
  • Area of Interest
    Security
  • Compensation Range
    135500 USD - 225900 USD
  • Job Type
    Professional
  • Technology Interest
    AI or Artificial Intelligence
  • Job Id
    1439881

The application window is expected to close on April 28, 2025.
Note: This job posting may close earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.

Meet the Team 

The AI Software & Platform Team delivers AI products so businesses around the world defend against threats and safeguard the most important aspects of business with security resilience. We are passionate about making businesses secure and simplifying security with zero compromise. 

Who You Are 

Join the Cisco AI Team, where you’ll help design and develop intelligent systems that drive the next generation of AI-powered products. You’ll work hands-on with machine learning models, data pipelines, and AI infrastructure to build solutions that are scalable, reliable, and impactful. 

In this role, you’ll collaborate with engineers, product managers, and researchers to move ideas from concept to implementation. You’ll contribute to building and refining AI models, integrating them into products, and continuously improving their performance in real-world environments. 

We’re looking for someone who is technically strong, curious, and eager to work on meaningful AI-driven features. Experience with Python, ML frameworks, and data-centric development is important, along with a desire to grow and work collaboratively in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment. 

This is an opportunity to help shape the future of AI at Cisco and beyond —developing responsible, innovative solutions that make a global impact. 

 

What You Will Do 

    • Design, implement, and optimize machine learning models for NLP and multimodal (text, image, audio) data to solve key business challenges. 
    • Collaborate with senior engineers and architects to evaluate solution architectures, assess feasibility, and scope technical efforts. 
    • Develop and iterate on robust ML pipelines, including data preprocessing, feature extraction, model training, and deployment. 
    • Work cross-functionally with data scientists, ML engineers, and product teams to embed AI capabilities into customer-facing applications. 
    • Build and maintain scalable infrastructure for training and serving deep learning models across diverse data types. 
    • Fine-tune large language models (LLMs) and contribute to the design of agentic AI systems for interactive, context-aware use cases. 
    • Explore and apply techniques in representation learning, attention mechanisms, and multimodal fusion to improve model performance. 
    • Stay current with the latest research in NLP, vision-language models, and foundation model architectures, bringing insights into production work. 
    • Write clean, modular, and well-documented code following engineering best practices, and participate actively in code reviews and design discussions. 
    • Present technical solutions clearly to both technical peers and non-technical stakeholders, supporting data-driven decision-making. 
    • Support experimentation, A/B testing, and model performance evaluations in real-world settings. 
    • Contribute to internal knowledge sharing through demos, design reviews, and technical documentation. 

 

Qualifications 

    • 3–6 years of experience in software development, with a strong focus on AI, machine learning, or deep learning projects across different data types (text, image, etc.). 
    • Hands-on experience building and deploying ML models or AI-driven features in real-world applications. 
    • Proven experience developing and supporting AI models in a production environment, including monitoring, performance tuning, and lifecycle management. 
    • Solid understanding of core machine learning algorithms, deep learning architectures (e.g., CNNs, RNNs, Transformers), and their practical applications. 
    • Proficiency in Python and experience with ML frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or Keras. 
    • Strong analytical thinking and problem-solving abilities, with a focus on practical, scalable solutions. 
    • Comfortable working in cross-functional teams and communicating technical ideas clearly to peers and stakeholders. 
    • Exposure to MLOps or DataOps tools and workflows for managing models and data pipelines. 
    • Experience working within Agile development teams and familiarity with DevOps concepts. 
    • Self-motivated, curious, and eager to stay up to date with the latest advancements in AI and related technologies. 

 


Preferred Qualifications 
 

    • A BS, MS or PhD degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning / Mathematics / Data Science or equivalent work experience in a field utilizing the same subject matter 
    • Passion for exploring LLM and agentic AI systems, and uncovering vulnerabilities like prompt injection and jailbreaking.  



Why Cisco?

#WeAreCisco

#WeAreCisco where every individual brings their unique skills and perspectives together to pursue our purpose of powering an inclusive future for all.

Our passion is connection-we celebrate our employees' diverse set of backgrounds and focus on unlocking potential. Cisconians often experience one company, many careers where learning and development are encouraged and supported at every stage. Our

technology, tools, and culture pioneered hybrid work trends, allowing all to not only give their best, but be their best.

We understand our outstanding opportunity to bring communities together and at the heart of that is our people. One-third of Cisconians collaborate in our 30 employee resource organizations, called Inclusive Communities, to connect, foster belonging, learn to be informed allies, and make a difference. Dedicated paid time off to volunteer-80 hours each year-allows us to give back to causes we are passionate about, and nearly 86% do!

Our purpose, driven by our people, is what makes us the worldwide leader in technology that powers the internet. Helping our customers reimagine their applications, secure their enterprise, transform their infrastructure, and meet their sustainability goals is what we do best. We ensure that every step we take is a step towards a more inclusive future for all. Take your next step and be you, with us

Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:

When available, the salary range posted for this position reflects the projected hiring range for new hire, full-time salaries in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including equity or benefits. For non-sales roles the hiring ranges reflect base salary only; employees are also eligible to receive annual bonuses. Hiring ranges for sales positions include base and incentive compensation target. Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location and additional factors, including but not limited to skillset, experience, and relevant education, certifications, or training. Applicants may not be eligible for the full salary range based on their U.S. or Canada hiring location. The recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.

U.S. employees have access to quality medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, short and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance and numerous wellbeing offerings.

Employees receive up to twelve paid holidays per calendar year, which includes one floating holiday (for non-exempt employees), plus a day off for their birthday. Non-Exempt new hires accrue up to 16 days of vacation time off each year, at a rate of 4.92 hours per pay period. Exempt new hires participate in Cisco’s flexible Vacation Time Off policy, which does not place a defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use, but is subject to availability and some business limitations. All new hires are eligible for Sick Time Off subject to Cisco’s Sick Time Off Policy and will have eighty (80) hours of sick time off provided on their hire date and on January 1st of each year thereafter.  Up to 80 hours of unused sick time will be carried forward from one calendar year to the next such that the maximum number of sick time hours an employee may have available is 160 hours. Employees in Illinois have a unique time off program designed specifically with local requirements in mind. All employees also have access to paid time away to deal with critical or emergency issues. We offer additional paid time to volunteer and give back to the community.

Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non-quota components. For quota-based incentive pay, Cisco typically pays as follows:

.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%; and once performance exceeds 100% attainment, incentive rates are at or above 1% for each 1% of attainment with no cap on incentive compensation.

For non-quota-based sales performance elements such as strategic sales objectives, Cisco may pay up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.

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