Hardware Engineer, System and Board Failure Analysis

  • Location:
    San Jose, California, US
  • Area of Interest
    Engineer - Hardware
  • Compensation Range
    149600 USD - 214100 USD
  • Job Type
    Professional
  • Technology Interest
    Networking
  • Job Id
    1442932
The application window is expected to close on: 06/03/2025

Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.

Meet the Team
We are a close-knit team focused on hardware quality and failure analysis, within al arger hardware engineering organization which designs, implements, and delivers leading Switching and Routing products. The Common Hardware Group (CHG) delivers the silicon, optics, and hardware platforms for Cisco's core Switching, Routing, and Wireless products. We design the networking hardware for Enterprises and Service Providers of various sizes, the Public Sector, and Non-Profit Organizations across the world. Cisco Silicon One (#CiscoSiliconOne) is the only unifying silicon architecture in the market that enables customers to deploy the best-of-breed silicon from Top of Rack (TOR) switches all the way through web scale data centers and across service provider, enterprise networks, with a fully unified routing and switching portfolio.

Your Impact
In this highly visible role as Hardware Engineer, System and Board Failure Analysis, you will lead failure analysis effort on switches and routers. You will be responsible for performing in-depth root cause analysis, and determination of contributing factors and corrective actions for improvement of field product hardware quality. You will perform fault reproduction, troubleshooting, system characterization, and root cause analysis of product issues, while ensuring efficient bug tracking and resolution. You will prepare comprehensive technical reports for customers and Cisco leadership detailing findings from product failure investigations.
You have a passion for technical failure investigations, hardware debug, root cause analysis and quality engineering. You possess an in-depth knowledge of hardware system and board design, networking products and high speed serdes interfaces. You are an excellent communicator and can present information to groups.

Minimum Qualifications
  • Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering or computer engineering or related degree
  • 6+ years of experience in hardware board circuit and system design, troubleshooting, or failure analysis
  • Experience with design for high-speed signals with SerDes / serial transmission technologies
  • Experience with electrical diagnostics and measurement equipment - oscilloscopes, digital multimeter, Logic Analyzers, Network Traffic generators (Ixia, Spirent), etc.

Preferred Qualifications
  • Experience with CPUs/embedded CPUs, FPGAs/PLDs and good understanding of control interfaces such as PCIe, MDIO, SPI, I2C
  • Experience with MS Excel and data collection
  • Familiarity with Python, PERL or similar scripting and execution languages

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. Simply put – we power the future.  
 
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. 



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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