Senior Linux Security Engineer

Cisco IT Infrastructure Security Team

Cisco IT is transforming its infrastructure to be secure and programmable. As part of an IT infrastructure security team, you will protect systems and services from both external and internal threats on our private and public cloud infrastructure. You'll work with Agile Scrum teams to securely deliver our programmable infrastructure for private and public cloud solutions.

You will partner with our Prime Security Architects across infrastructure, driving security improvements across compute, storage, containers, AI, and platform services.

You'll collaborate extensively with Infrastructure teams, Global Risk and Compliance, Security and Trust, Networking, and Application teams to create and implement security policy. You will work with engineers and leaders across these areas.

Your Impact

Responsible for security engineering and operations supporting Cisco IT compute and AI infrastructure, actively participating in the Security cross-functional team of Prime Security Advocates to implement security policies across Cisco IT infrastructure. Collaborates with Security and Trust teams to identify improvement areas and develop engineering solutions, validates security posture for AI infrastructure including patching, vulnerability scanning, software development, and open-source software management. Serves as a key point of contact for security issues, incident response, vulnerability management, and implementation of security solutions. Contributes to modernizing Linux Operating System build systems through advanced automation and secure-by-default configurations, acts as a technical resource for embedding security practices into all aspects of Cisco IT engineering including code development, integrated security scanning, and code analytics review to address security issues pre-release. Participates in defining strategy and maintaining the roadmap for adoption, expansion, and integration of security monitoring platforms, and engages in incident response investigations and response activities to support organizational security objectives.

Minimum Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience with Linux security (Sudoers, SELinux, and other hardening principles).
• 6+ years of experience in large-scale IT infrastructure, including compute, network, or storage systems.
• Experience Linux Operating System image / ISO development, hardening, and deployment through CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience with security scanning tools and agents covering SAST, DAST, SCA, and secrets detection.
• Experience working with DevOps Infrastructure-as-Code (IaaS) tooling including Ansible, GitHub, Python, Docker/Podman.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Understanding of private and public cloud infrastructure and what it takes to run infrastructure as code at scale.
• Good understanding of network-based and host-based firewalls.
• Experience with Privileged Access Management (PAM) tools like Delinea, BeyondTrust, or Cyberark.
• Understanding of directory services like Active Directory and LDAP.
• Experienced with agile software development process, vendor engagement, and product evaluations.

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 $118,700.00 to $160,600.00 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:

$147,800.00 - $222,600.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$135,400.00 - $197,100.00

* 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.