Lead Backend Engineer, Studio (Hybrid)

This is a Hybrid role out of Cisco's San Jose office.

Meet the Team

Studio is the experience where anyone—engineers, non-technical builders, and AI agents—can go from a prompt to a running, production-grade app. It brings together an App Builder and a bring-your-own coding-agent path, with the docs and resources to build and manage apps your own way. We're building the platform for AI app development, and Studio is the craft-defined surface on top of it. Pioneers in our field, AISP enables Cisco product teams, customers, and partners to maximize value with a simple, unified Cisco AI experience, driving accelerated time to impact.

Your Impact

As a Technical Lead , you will serve as a recognized expert, driving architectural strategy and high-impact engineering initiatives for the Studio platform. You will lead cross-functional efforts to bridge the gap between AI research and production-grade software, ensuring our infrastructure meets the rigorous demands of global enterprise scale. Your work will directly influence the direction of our business by resolving unique, highly complex technical challenges and setting the standard for our AI-powered ecosystem.

• Lead the architectural design and development of scalable backend platform technologies for Cisco's next-generation AI products.
• Spearhead multi-functional engagements to architect, build, validate, and deploy AI/ML infrastructures and AI-powered networking and security solutions.
• Drive the resolution of highly complex technical challenges, applying ingenuity to novel situations that impact the direction of the business.
• Collaborate with product and research teams to transform groundbreaking AI strategies into robust, production-ready systems.
• Act as a technical thought leader, influencing internal and external stakeholders by communicating complex engineering strategies to senior leadership.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science + 8 years of related experience, or Master's degree + 6 years of related experience, or PhD + 3 years of related experience.
• Experience building and scaling backend platforms in a production environment.
• 5+ years of professional programming experience using Python and/or Go.
• Experience deploying and managing services on major cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• Prior experience with containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes) and microservices architectures.

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct experience integrating and building with Generative AI technologies and LLM frameworks.
• Deep understanding of modern AI tools, ML methodologies, and data pipelines.
• Proven track record of driving technology innovation by translating industry trends into scalable backend execution.
• Strong passion for designing highly reliable, maintainable, and distributed backend systems.
• Experience mentoring engineering teams and leading cross-functional platform initiatives.

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.

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. 

Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training. The full salary range for certain locations is listed below. For locations not listed below, the recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.

U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco’s plan eligibility rules, which include medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability coverage, and basic life insurance. Please see the Cisco careers site to discover more benefits and perks.  Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.

U.S. employees are eligible for paid time away as described below, subject to Cisco’s policies:

• 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, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco

• Non-exempt employees** receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees

• Exempt employees participate in Cisco’s flexible vacation time off program, which has no defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use (subject to availability and some business limitations)

• 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, and up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward from one calendar year to the next

• Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members

• Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer

For non-sales roles, employees are also eligible to earn annual bonuses subject to Cisco’s policies.

Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non-quota components, subject to the applicable Cisco plan. 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 0% up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.

The applicable full salary ranges for this position, by specific state, are listed below:

New York City Metro Area:

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

* For quota-based sales roles on Cisco’s sales plan, the ranges provided in this posting include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.

** Employees in Illinois, whether exempt or non-exempt, will participate in a unique time off program to meet local requirements.