Technical Lead Threat Intelligence - AI Defense - Remote, U.S.

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  • Location:
    Offsite, San Jose, California, US
  • Area of Interest
    Engineer - Software
  • Compensation Range
    158400 USD - 264000 USD
  • Job Type
    Professional
  • Technology Interest
    AI or Artificial Intelligence
  • Job Id
    1438892

Applications are accepted until further notice.

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.

Your Impact

As a Lead Researcher, you will play a pivotal role in investigating, analyzing and mitigating emerging threats targeting AI / ML. You will work closely with the Director of AI Threat Intelligence to build a world-class AI threat research capability, delivering actionable intelligence, advancing the state of AI security research, and helping secure Cisco’s AI-driven products and services. You will collaborate with fellow researchers, data scientists, security engineers, and product teams to proactively identify AI-related risks, with a strong focus on securing autonomous AI agents.

Key Responsibilities

  • Lead research into AI/ML-specific threats, including adversarial attacks, prompt injection, model exploitation, data poisoning, model evasion, tool misuse and misuse of generative AI systems.
  • Conduct threat modeling of AI agents and multi-agent systems, including Model Context Protocols (MCP), A2A — ensuring safe transmission and handling of context, memory, and system metadata across model calls and between AI Agents.
  • Track evolving threat actor tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) targeting AI/ML ecosystems, particularly those exploiting agentic behavior and context management flaws.
  • Produce and publish high-quality, actionable threat intelligence reports, technical analysis papers, and internal briefings to inform engineering, product, and executive teams.
  • Represent Cisco in external research communities, conferences, working groups, and standards organizations where AI security and threat intelligence are advancing.
  • Mentor junior researchers and contribute to building a center of excellence around AI threat intelligence and adversarial research.

Qualifications

  • 8+ years of experience in cybersecurity threat intelligence, adversarial research, red teaming, or offensive security, with exposure to AI/ML systems preferred.
  • Strong expertise in AI/ML technologies, particularly generative models, AI agent frameworks, memory-augmented AI, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) designs.
  • Hands-on experience analyzing vulnerabilities in AI systems, including prompt injections, agentic exploits, and context/memory transmission flaws.
  • Proficiency in Python or similar scripting languages for prototyping, simulation, and analysis.
  • Familiarity with threat frameworks such as MITRE ATLAS, ATT&CK for AI, or emerging AI-specific threat models.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Record of contributions to AI security research communities (publications, CVEs, conference presentations, open-source projects, blogs).
  • Knowledge of responsible AI practices, secure, safe deployment of autonomous and agentic AI systems.
  • Familiarity with securing agent-to-agent communication protocols, and external tool orchestration in multi-agent environments.
  • Experience working with AI/ML pipelines in cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP).

#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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