Job Description

Meet the Team
The Cisco AI team delivers AI products and platform for all Cisco secure products and portfolios so businesses around the world defend against threats and safeguard the most vital aspects of your business with security resilience. We are passionate about making businesses secure and simplify security with zero compromise using AI and Machine Learning. We are seeking a strong Machine Learning Engineer who can make a big difference in the cybersecurity industry.
Your Impact
You are an accomplished and visionary AI Researcher with a track record of leading teams and architecting machine learning solutions that have made a significant impact. You are deeply passionate about machine learning with a proven track record of optimally developing and implementing models that address real-world problems.
What You Will Do

• Model Training & Evaluation: Full cycle of training, fine-tuning, and validating LLMs for virtual assistants, chatbots, and recommendation systems.
• Algorithm Development: Enhance efficiency and accuracy in natural language understanding and generation.
• LLMs in Cybersecurity: Apply models for threat analysis, detection, and automated security responses.
• Deployment Strategy: Partner with engineering teams to ensure scalable, reliable ML model deployment.
• Documentation & Standards: Define best practices and maintain clear records of models, pipelines, and metrics.
• Innovation: Explore emerging technologies, tools, and methods in language model development.
• Mentorship & Collaboration: Guide team members and work cross-functionally for cohesive project delivery.

Basic Qualifications

• Education & Experience: BA/BS or MS with 8+ years in machine learning, proven project portfolio.
• ML Systems & Algorithms: Strong background in ML engineering, deep learning, and statistical modeling; experience building scalable ML solutions.
• LLM Expertise: In-depth knowledge of Transformer-based architectures (e.g., GPT) and training/fine-tuning large-scale models; exposure to Agentic frameworks.
• NLP Skills: Data preprocessing (tokenization, stemming, lemmatization), handling ambiguity and context, and transfer learning for domain/language adaptation.
• Applications: Applied LLMs in chatbots, content generation, semantic search, and related use cases.
• Data & Evaluation: Skilled in data annotation strategies and model evaluation with appropriate metrics.
• Scalability & Deployment: Experience deploying LLMs to production with efficiency, reliability, and scalability.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Computational Linguistics or a related field.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python or R, and experience with machine learning libraries (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch)
• Excellent problem-solving and communication skills, with the ability to explain sophisticated concepts to non-technical partners
• Proven experience to work collaboratively in multi-functional teams

#WeAreCisco
#WeAreCisco where every individual brings their unique skills and perspectives together to pursue our purpose of powering an inclusive future for all.
Our passion is connection, we celebrate our employees' diverse set of backgrounds and focus on unlocking potential. Cisconians often experience one company, many careers where learning and development are encouraged and supported at every stage. Our technology, tools, and culture supports hybrid work trends, allowing all to not only give their best, but be their best.
We understand our outstanding opportunity to bring communities together and at the heart of that is our people. One-third of Cisconians collaborate in our 30 employee resource organizations, called Inclusive Communities, to connect, foster belonging, learn to be advised allies, and make a difference. Dedicated paid time off to volunteer-80 hours each year-allows us to give back to causes we are passionate about, and nearly 86% do!
Our purpose, driven by our people, is what makes us the worldwide leader in technology that powers the internet. Helping our customers reinvent their applications, secure their enterprise, transform their infrastructure, and meet their sustainability goals is what we do best. We ensure that every step we take is a step towards a more inclusive future for all.
#CiscoAIJobs
Cisco is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, genetic information, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis.
Cisco will consider for employment, on a case by case basis, qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:
When available, the salary range posted for this position reflects the projected hiring range for new hire, full-time salaries in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including equity or benefits. For non-sales roles the hiring ranges reflect base salary only; employees are also eligible to receive annual bonuses. Hiring ranges for sales positions include base and incentive compensation target. Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location and additional factors, including but not limited to skillset, experience, and relevant education, certifications, or training. Applicants may not be eligible for the full salary range based on their U.S. or Canada hiring location. The recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.
U.S. employees have to quality medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, short and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance and numerous wellbeing offerings.
Employees receive up to twelve paid holidays per calendar year, which includes one floating holiday (for non-exempt employees), plus a day off for their birthday. Non-Exempt new hires accrue up to 16 days of vacation time off each year, at a rate of 4.92 hours per pay period. Exempt new hires participate in Cisco's flexible Vacation Time Off policy, which does not place a defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use, but is subject to availability and some business limitations. All new hires are eligible for Sick Time Off subject to Cisco's Sick Time Off Policy and will have eighty (80) hours of sick time off provided on their hire date and on January 1st of each year thereafter. Up to 80 hours of unused sick time will be carried forward from one calendar year to the next such that the maximum number of sick time hours an employee may have available is 160 hours. Employees in Illinois have a unique time off program designed specifically with local requirements in mind. All employees also have access to paid time away to deal with critical or emergency issues. We offer additional paid time to volunteer and give back to the community.
Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non-quota components. 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 up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.

Skills Required