Engineering Technician

Test Technician

This role requires the employee to work onsite at the Carlsbad, CA office location.

Meet the Team

The Common Hardware Group (CHG) creates innovative hardware platforms central to the AI era, powering Cisco's core Switching, Routing, and Wireless products for organizations globally. Our innovations in silicon, optics, and hardware platforms—like Silicon One—are shaping the technology industry.

Join Cisco's Optical Engineering team and collaborate with multidisciplinary groups across product development, from design to manufacturing. You'll partner with silicon design, hardware, test, software/firmware, silicon photonics, packaging, systems, marketing/applications, and manufacturing teams to deliver amazing next-generation optical interconnect solutions.

Your Impact

As a Test Technician, you will support the development, validation, and characterization of next-generation optical transceiver modules and related hardware. This hands-on, lab-focused role is critical to ensuring product quality, reliability, and test efficiency throughout the R&D, DVT, and manufacturing readiness phases.

• Execute functional, parametric, and environmental tests (including thermal cycling and humidity) on optical transceiver modules and supporting hardware.
• Troubleshooting Diagnose complex hardware issues at the module, board, and component level using systematic debug methodologies.
• Lab Management: Configure, calibrate, and maintain complex lab instrumentation (oscilloscopes, network analyzers, optical, environmental chambers, etc.)
• Collect, analyze, and summarize test data to identify trends, anomalies, and failure modes.
• Work closely with hardware, optical, and test engineers to support NPI and validation projects, providing clear technical documentation and failure analysis insights.
• Identify opportunities to improve test efficiency, repeatability, and data quality through improved procedures and automation workflows.

Minimum Qualifications

• Associate's degree in engineering technology, Electronics, Physics, or a related technical field or equivalent experience.
• 5 + years of hands-on experience in a testing, manufacturing, or laboratory environment.
• Experience in reading and interpreting schematics, wiring diagrams, and technical drawings; solid understanding of electronic test principles and measurement techniques.
• Experience working with lab instrumentation (oscilloscopes, network analyzers, DMMs, power supplies, BERTs, traffic generators, and optical test equipment).
• Ability to lift and move equipment up to 25+ lbs. and work in a fast-paced laboratory environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with optical transceivers, fiber interconnects.
• Exposure to high-speed communication products (e.g., pluggable transceiver modules)
• Familiarity with DVT, NPI, or reliability testing environments
• Basic scripting experience for test automation and data logging (e.g., Python)

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 $80,700.00 to $102,100.00 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:

$90,700.00 - $132,900.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$80,700.00 - $117,500.00

* 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.