Optical Engineering Technical Leader

Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.

Meet the Team

Optical engineers at Cisco design and build the next generation of high-capacity optical communication systems, subsystems, and transmission components. By delivering ground breaking, power-efficient optical transport platforms, our team builds the essential network backbone connecting modern cloud data centers and enterprise infrastructure worldwide. Operating as a dedicated Center of Excellence, our agile engineering team blends deep technical mastery with an open, high-trust, and collaborative environment focused on continuous photonic innovation. What makes our team exciting is having direct access to innovative optical laboratories, working with industry-leading partners to turn breakthrough optical designs into deployed, world-class products.

Your Impact

Convert product requirements into technical design specifications and take accountability for the end-to-end design, testing, and validation of advanced optical transmission systems and subsystems to build the broader Cisco optical portfolio. Drive medium-to-large technical features from concept through completion by selecting, qualifying, and integrating active and passive photonic components to ensure optimal link performance. Lead and implement multi-functional engineering initiatives spanning multiple global teams to align on business needs, verify products against rigorous industry quality standards, and accelerate product release. Analyze lab testing outcomes and benchmarks to determine the root cause of complex technical challenges, implementing innovative solutions for field deployments and next-generation designs.

Minimum Qualifications

• Proven hands-on laboratory experience performing optical measurements, characterization, and validation of optical building blocks using standard optical test instrumentation.
• Experience managing or collaborating with external manufacturing partners, ODM/JDM vendors, or component suppliers.
• Professional working proficiency in English (written and spoken) for international technical collaboration.
• Bachelor's degree or any higher education in Electrical Engineering, Optical Engineering, Photonics, Physics, Telecommunications, or a related technical subject area.

Preferred Qualifications

• In-depth technical familiarity with coherent optical engines, advanced transceivers, and multi-channel optical line system architectures.
• Demonstrated experience collaborating with firmware and software engineering teams to translate optical sub-system behaviors into system-level control features.
• Strong critical thinking and root-cause problem-solving skills to investigate and resolve complex, multi-domain hardware and firmware anomalies.
• Proactive technical leadership and assertiveness to align multi-functional and multi-site teams across global time zones.

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.

For non-sales roles, employees may also be 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.

* 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.