Technical Leader, DPU Networking, AI Infrastructure

Cisco

Technical Leader defining architecture for DPU networking and AI infrastructure solutions. Collaborating across teams for high-performance, secure networking in modern data centers.

Posted 6/5/2026full-timeMilpitas • California • 🇺🇸 United StatesSenior💰 $183,800 - $263,600 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

CloudDistributed SystemsGoLinuxPythonRust

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Lead architecture for DPU-accelerated host networking, security, and network services.
Define what runs on the DPU versus the host CPU, including tradeoffs around performance, cost, failure isolation, observability, debuggability, and operational complexity.
Architect distributed firewalling, micro segmentation, virtual routing, service chaining, traffic steering, and line-rate policy enforcement.
Guide platform decisions across DPU SDKs, programmable pipelines, Linux networking, control-plane services, telemetry, policy distribution, and upgrade models.
Design APIs, policy models, configuration flows, state synchronization mechanisms, and recovery behavior for distributed networking systems.
Build static-stability and failure-mode thinking into the architecture so the system behaves predictably during partial failures, control-plane loss, upgrades, rollbacks, and fleet-wide rollout.
Provide technical leadership for AI cluster networking challenges, including congestion collapse, incast, ECMP imbalance, PFC/ECN behavior, noisy tenants, NIC firmware issues, switch misconfiguration, and GPU underutilization caused by network stalls.
Align cross-functional stakeholders across hardware, firmware, product, and customer-facing teams to successfully translate complex architectural visions into shippable software.
Elevate engineering standards across the organization through meticulous design reviews, proactively identifying systemic risks to scale, reliability, and security.
Mentor senior engineering talent, accelerating team growth and technical depth in packet processing, host networking, and control-plane design.

Requirements

What you’ll need

Bachelor’s degree with significant related experience, or advanced degree with equivalent experience in networking, systems software, distributed systems, or infrastructure engineering.
Deep experience designing and building production networking systems, security platforms, cloud networking, host networking, or large-scale infrastructure software.
Proficiency in systems programming experience using C/C++, Go, Rust, Python, or similar languages.
Applied skills in Linux networking, packet processing, routing, policy enforcement, virtualization, and production debugging.
Demonstrated ability to lead architecture across multiple teams and drive complex technical decisions from concept through production.
Hands-on experience with DPU, SmartNIC, NIC offload, NPU, ASIC, or hardware-accelerated networking platforms.
Experience with NVIDIA BlueField/DOCA, AMD Pensando, DPU SDKs, P4 or P4-like programmable pipelines, DPDK, OVS, tc, eBPF/XDP, SR-IOV, VF/PF, or kernel bypass.
Experience architecting firewall, microsegmentation, NAT, virtual routing, VTEP, load balancing, traffic steering, service insertion, or service chaining systems.
Proficient understanding of AI/HPC cluster networking behavior, including RDMA/RoCE, PFC, ECN, ECMP, congestion management, telemetry, and failure diagnosis.
Experience designing distributed control planes with attention to consistency, state ownership, upgrade safety, rollback, policy convergence, and fleet operations.

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, 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 determined by Cisco
16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees
flexible vacation time off program for exempt employees
up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward from one calendar year to the next
optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer

ATS Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

CC++GoRustPythonLinux networkingpacket processingroutingpolicy enforcementvirtualization

Soft Skills

technical leadershipmentoringcross-functional collaborationdesign reviewsrisk identificationteam growthcommunicationproblem-solvingdecision-makingstakeholder alignment