Software Engineer

Cisco Optics Software Engineer

This is a hybrid role with three days per week in the Milpitas, CA office.

The Cisco Distributed System Engineering (DSE) group is at the forefront of building next-generation networking systems that power the largest and most demanding infrastructures in the world. As the industry evolves to support AI/ML workloads and ever-increasing bandwidth demands, innovations such as Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) are becoming critical to scaling performance, efficiency, and power optimization.

The SONiC Optics team is passionate about enabling and productizing optics solutions—including CPO—within Cisco's network operating systems. We work at the intersection of hardware, optics, and software, integrating innovative optical technologies into SONiC-based platforms.

You will join a team of engineers passionate about distributed systems, open-source networking, and next-generation optical architectures. This is a fast-paced environment where you will contribute to product development and help bring CPO-based solutions to production.

Your Impact

Software Development & Integration

• Develop and improve software modules within SONiC to support optical subsystems, including pluggable optics and Co-Packaged Optics (CPO).
• Contribute to platform adaptation layers that interface SONiC with hardware components such as ASICs, optical engines, and BMCs.
• Implement and maintain drivers, APIs, and services for optics monitoring, configuration, and lifecycle management.
• Participate in debugging and resolving system-level issues across software and hardware boundaries.

Optics & Platform Enablement

• Support integration of CPO technologies into SONiC-based platforms, including telemetry, diagnostics, and control-plane interactions.
• Work closely with hardware and optics teams to understand device capabilities and expose them through software interfaces.
• Assist in validating performance, reliability, and thermal/power characteristics of optics solutions.

System Design & Quality

• Contribute to the design of scalable and maintainable software components for optics management.
• Help implement telemetry and monitoring solutions for optical modules and CPO subsystems.
• Participate in unit testing, system testing, and automation efforts to ensure high-quality work.

Collaboration & Open Source

• Collaborate with multi-functional teams including hardware, QA, and system integration.
• Engage with the SONiC open-source community, contributing to optics-related features and improvements where applicable.
• Support CI/CD workflows and participate in improving development and test processes.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelors + 7 years of related experience OR Masters + 4 years of related experience OR PhD + 1 year of related experience.
• 5 years of experience in software development.
• Minimum 3 years of experience with Linux-based systems and system-level programming (C/C++/Python).
• 2+ years of experience with networking protocols (L2/L3, switching, routing).
• 3+ years of experience with debugging tools and development in distributed or embedded systems environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Exposure to network operating systems such as SONiC or similar platforms.
• Understanding of optics technologies (e.g., QSFP, OSFP, or CPO concepts).
• Experience with hardware-software interfaces (drivers, SDKs, or platform abstraction layers).
• Familiarity with containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Knowledge of telemetry, monitoring systems, or data plane/control plane interactions.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and automated testing.

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 $165,000.00 to $241,400.00 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: $165,000.00 - $277,600.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state: $146,700.00 - $247,000.00