Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Chicago)

The application window is expected to close on: 08/25/2026Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.Meet the Team The successful applicant may be performing work in FedRAMP High or IL-5 environments, and therefore, must be a U.S. Person (i.e. U.S. citizen, U.S. national, lawful permanent resident, asylee, or refugee). This position may also perform work that the U.S. government has specified can only be performed by a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil.At Cisco Meraki, we know that technology can connect, empower, and drive us. Our mission is to simplify technology so our customers can focus on what's most meaningful to them: their students, patients, customers, and businesses. We’re making networking easier, faster, and smarter with technology that simply works. In near real time, Cisco Meraki collects massive amounts of data from its devices all over the world. We write nearly 11 million data points each second globally every day. With this data, we help to power Dashboard and allow our customers insight into the state of their networks. Our devices are some of the most popular in the world: there are over 11 million devices online globally. This popularity comes with large scalability challenges: our backend handles more than 10 billion of requests to our devices 24/7/365. Your Impact As a member of the Time Series Data team, you will develop, scale, and maintain the platforms and services which sustain several Cisco services and data platforms, including the flagship Meraki Dashboard product. You will work with many different people within Engineering and throughout Cisco to help build the infrastructure and data pipelines to power their data-driven decisions. In this role you can expect to: Design, build, ship, analyze, and maintain scalable, distributed, enterprise software solutions that support the services which record and consume telemetry data. Build and maintain backend components using C++ in a Linux environment. Focus on increasing reliability, performance, scalability, testability, maintainability, observability, and developer experience. Work with various groups within Cisco to understand their and our customers’ data requirements and requests. Minimum QualificationsDistributed Systems: Experience analyzing, scaling, troubleshooting, and debugging distributed systems. C++ Development: Experience developing software using C++11 or newer standards. CI/CD & Containerization: Experience implementing CI/CD pipelines (GitLab or GitHub) and deploying applications using containerization and Kubernetes. Database Management: Experience designing and querying relational databases using SQL (PostgreSQL or MySQL). Development Lifecycle: Experience utilizing automated testing frameworks and LLM-based coding assistants within the software development lifecycle. Preferred Qualifications Programming experience in Rust, Scala, Python. Experience with observability tooling such as OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana. Experience with feature flagging tools such as Launch Darkly. Experience maintaining database software. Experience or willingness to working in an agile environment (Scrum, Kanban, etc.). Able to comment on the difference between 'prompt engineering', 'context engineering', and 'agentic engineering'. 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 employees1 paid day off for employee’s birthday, paid year-end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by CiscoNon-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 employeesExempt 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 nextAdditional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family membersOptional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteerFor 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%; andOnce 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 - $277,600.00Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:$146,700.00 - $247,000.00* 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.Job SummaryJob number: 2018397Date posted : 2026-07-22Profession: Product and EngineeringEmployment type: Full time