Skip to content
Level

Cisco

Senior Cloud Engineer (DBRE)

Cisco is hiring a Senior Cloud Engineer (DBRE). It pays $168k-$245k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Cisco.

Level's read on this job

  • Level rates this role Little AI ●○○○: aI is not part of the work.
  • Tools and skills the posting cites include Cassandra, Kafka and Opensearch.
  • Level classifies it as a senior role.
  • Level lists 1,500+ other open roles at Cisco.

AI in this role

Architect and deploy resilient, large-scale data solutions and automated cloud infrastructure across hybrid environments.

cassandrakafkaopensearchterraformansiblekubernetespythonaws
database-reliability-engineeringcloud-infrastructuredistributed-systemsci-cd
The application window is expected to close on: 10/26/2026

Meet the Team 

Cisco’s Collaboration Business Unit empowers people and organizations worldwide to connect, communicate, and innovate seamlessly. You will collaborate with a global team of software engineers and SREs responsible for delivering extraordinary collaboration experiences at scale. Our team supports backend services deployed worldwide and works closely with development, product, and operations partners to ensure reliability and performance.

Webex is powering the shift to the hybrid workforce, helping people stay connected in a rapidly evolving digital world. We cultivate a startup-like culture that values innovation, ownership, and collaboration, while offering the scale and impact of a global technology leader.

Your Impact  

As a distributed big data enthusiast, you’ll architect and deploy resilient, large-scale data solutions across Cassandra, Kafka, and OpenSearch in hybrid AWS and private cloud environments. You’ll automate cloud infrastructure with Terraform, Ansible, and Kubernetes, optimize high-throughput systems for scale and performance, and strengthen reliability through automated backups, security patching, and incident management. As a trusted technical partner, you’ll also guide application teams on data access patterns and cloud migration strategies.

Minimum Qualifications

  • Bachelors and 8+ years hands on experience (deploy, monitor, scale, and upgrades) with a distributed database technology such as CassandraDB, Opensearch, Kafka, PostgreSQL, or Redis.

  • 5+ Years  managing AWS infrastructure at scale. 

  • 5+ Years experience with infrastructure automation and DevOps practices such as CI/CD tools (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI) and Infrastructure as Code tools (Terraform, Ansible, Kubernetes), Python 

  • 5+ years experience supporting live production systems for customer facing software as a service 

  • 3+ years of experience leading technical projects, including responsibility for task estimation, milestone tracking, and stakeholder communication processes. 

Preferred Qualifications 

  • Exposure to modern data platforms including data pipelines, streaming systems, AL/ML and GenAI workloads 

  • Experience writing data driven applications in Java or Python and familiarity with data access patterns in software 

  • Experience in regulated US Federal environments 

Why Cisco? 

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. 

Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:

The starting salary range posted for this position is $167,700.00 to $245,200.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits.

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:

$167,700.00 - $282,000.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$149,100.00 - $250,900.00

* 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.

How we rate this

Senior Cloud Engineer (DBRE) at Cisco rates 0 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Little AI. AI is not part of the work.

  1. ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
  2. ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
  3. ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
  4. ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

Database Reliability EngineeringCloud InfrastructureDistributed SystemsCI/CDCassandraKafkaOpensearchTerraform

Questions you could be asked

  1. Tell me about a project where database reliability engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
  2. Tell me about a project where cloud infrastructure was part of your work. What did you do?
  3. Tell me about a project where distributed systems was part of your work. What did you do?
  4. Tell me about a project where ci/cd was part of your work. What did you do?
  5. Walk me through how you've used Cassandra in your day-to-day work.

Adapt your resume

  • List these exact terms on your resume: Database Reliability Engineering, Cloud Infrastructure, Distributed Systems, CI/CD, and Cassandra. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
  • Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.

Want an expert to read your CV for this job?

Free. Send your CV and the role you want next. We reply by email within 2 to 4 business days.

Get new software engineering jobs by email

One email a week with the new software engineering jobs, each rated for how much AI is in the work. No recruiter spam, unsubscribe in one click.

Free. One email a week. Unsubscribe in one click.

Similar roles

Software Engineering roles that involve little AI, at other companies.

What kind of AI work fits you?

Answer 12 practical questions in about three minutes. Get a simple profile, the work it points to, and live roles to explore next.

Find my next step

More jobs at Cisco

Related searches

Same AI level