Principal Software Engineer

Cisco

Principal Engineer with Cisco building solutions for workload security. Leading a motivated team to improve performance, reliability, and security in backend services architecture.

Posted 5/30/2026full-timeMilpitas • California • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $231,400 - $331,800 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AWSAzureCloudGoGoogle Cloud PlatformJavaKubernetesReact

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

work with and provide technical leadership to a team of highly motivated engineers
work on solutions to ship or deploy for our customers
focus on improving Scale, Performance, Reliability, Robustness, and Security
act as a SME, advising on technical vision, roadmaps, leadership
make architectural contributions in backend services
Collect and process telemetry at scale from data sources in customer environments
React to changes in environment and render policies in a highly scalable manner
Implement API endpoints that need to respond with minimal latencies

Requirements

What you’ll need

At least 10+ years' experience building software systems in one or more programming languages such as Go, C++, or Java.
At least 5+ years in a technical leadership role in a software engineering environment
Masters + 10 years related experience, or Bachelors + 12 years of related experience, or PhD + 5 years related experience or equivalent related work experience; degree to be in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field.
Agile experience
Proficiency in Computer Science foundational areas, including algorithms, systems, databases, performance engineering and security architecture
Schema/Data modeling design experience
Experience with large-scale event processing architectures
Experience in systems programming and performance engineering
Experience working with security architecture and database design
Kubernetes experience
Experience programming using cloud APIs for AWS, Azure, or GCP.

Benefits

Comp & perks

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
10 paid holidays per full calendar year
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
flexible vacation time off program for exempt employees
80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter
additional paid time away may be requested for family emergencies
optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer
eligibility to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

GoC++JavaAgilealgorithmssystems programmingperformance engineeringsecurity architectureschema designdata modeling

Soft Skills

technical leadershipcommunicationproblem-solvingteam collaborationadvisingarchitectural contributions

Certifications

Masters in Computer ScienceBachelors in Computer SciencePhD in Computer Science