Staff Software Engineer – AI/Security Platform

Cisco

Staff Software Engineer building Cisco and Splunk’s AI-native cybersecurity platform. Designing distributed systems, AI pipelines, and threat-detection workflows for security operations.

Posted 9/3/2026full-timeSan Francisco • California • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $186,900 - $267,700 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

Use this summary to align your resume positioning with the role.

Demonstrates expertise in designing and implementing distributed systems, particularly in storage systems and data platforms. Proficient in Python development for scalable backend services and experienced in building AI-enhanced threat detection workflows.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Distributed Systems DesignPython DevelopmentCI/CD PipelinesSecurity Telemetry SourcesAI-Powered Feature Integration

ATS Keywords

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Hard Skills

Distributed SystemsData PlatformsPythonAPIsAutomated TestingSecurity TelemetryEvent Storage SystemsLarge Language ModelsGraph Neural NetworksThreat Detection

Soft Skills

CollaborationCommunicationProblem-Solving

Tools & Technologies

GitHubGitLabJiraSplunk APIFAISSPinecone

Industry Keywords

Security OperationsThreat AnalyticsSIEM ArchitecturesSOC AnalystThreat Prediction

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

CloudCyber SecurityDistributed SystemsPythonSplunk

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Design and build systems combining security data, detection signals, context, and foundation models to identify and predict threats
Prototype and test AI features for event and system-environment decoding, anomaly prediction, and threat prediction
Work with security SMEs and security researchers to validate real-world utility
Develop an AI DevOps pipeline for rapid experimentation with knowledge bases, models, and context memory
Define clear, measurable criteria for evaluating iterations
Architect and build a distributed platform correlating trillions of events and signals
Synthesize events and signals into explainable findings and alerts for triage resolution agents
Build a key capability of the Agentic SOC
Collaborate with product and platform teams to co-design scalable AI-enhanced threat detection and prediction workflows
Contribute to the core architecture for AI-native security operations and trusted enterprise automation at Splunk and Cisco

Requirements

What you’ll need

Bachelor's Degree with 8+ years of related experience or Master's with 6+ years of related experience
Experience designing and implementing distributed systems, with emphasis on storage systems and storage access layers
Experience implementing data platforms and/or data lakes and warehouses
Proficiency in Python development for scalable backend services, APIs, and automation workflows
Experience with CI/CD pipelines, GitHub/GitLab, Jira, and automated testing frameworks
Experience designing agent systems that perform coding tasks
Experience partnering with product managers, security SMEs, and engineers
Experience with security telemetry sources including endpoint logs, network traffic, authentication events, or cloud audit trails
Preferred: Experience building and maintaining large-scale security telemetry ingestion, parsing, and normalization pipelines
Preferred: Familiarity with TDIR/SIEM architectures, correlation searches, and threat-hunting support systems
Preferred: Splunk API, internals, or platform development experience
Preferred: Security operations knowledge including attack surface management, threat analytics, detection, triage, investigation, and response
Preferred: Former Tier 3 SOC analyst or equivalent experience automating SecOps workflows and building scalable detection infrastructure
Preferred: Event storage systems or custom cybersecurity embeddings experience
Preferred: Hands-on RAG and GraphRAG pipeline development with databases such as FAISS or Pinecone
Preferred: Experience crafting, testing, and optimizing workloads for large language models or GNNs, GCNs, and GATs
Preferred: Experience shipping AI-powered features or products and integrating models into real-world workflows
Preferred: Ability to design experiments evaluating model accuracy, usability, performance, and cost
Preferred: Background or interest in intuitive AI-assisted analyst workflows focused on usability, trust, and decision support

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
Cisco restricted stock unit grants may be available, subject to eligibility and continued employment
10 paid holidays per full calendar year
1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
Paid employee birthday day off
Paid year-end holiday shutdown
4 paid personal wellness days
16 days of paid vacation per full calendar year for non-exempt employees
Flexible vacation time off program for eligible exempt employees
80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter
Up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward
Additional paid time away for critical or emergency family issues
Optional 10 paid volunteer days per full calendar year
Annual bonuses for non-sales roles, subject to Cisco policies
Performance-based incentive pay for sales-plan employees