Electrical Engineering Technical Leader

Electrical Engineer Technical Leader

The role can be performed either at the San Jose, California office or at the RTP (Research Triangle Park) office.

Join Cisco's renowned Electrical Engineering team, responsible for shaping the future of networking, compute, and systems platforms. This team delivers technical vision and architectural leadership that influence both Cisco's internal product direction and the broader industry landscape. Operating globally, the team collaborates across multiple business units and technical domains, creating a culture of innovation, mentorship, and engineering excellence. What's exciting about this team is its direct impact on setting new standards, driving advanced research, and influencing the next generation of technology worldwide.

As an Electrical Engineer Technical Leader, you will drive the technical vision, architectural leadership, and industry influence for next-generation Cisco platforms. You will have a pivotal role in shaping product strategies, solving complex engineering challenges, and representing Cisco at the highest levels of the industry.

• Technical Strategy & Architecture
• Define multi-generation Electrical Engineering strategies spanning board, power, signal integrity, packaging, and system-level architectures, aligned with evolving product and business needs.
• Influence end-to-end hardware architectures, from component selection and power delivery networks to high-speed interfaces, thermal constraints, and system integration.
• Provide deep technical guidance to senior leaders, translating complex engineering trade-offs into clear architectural and business implications.
• Represent Cisco in technical forums, standards bodies, and industry consortia; influence emerging standards, ecosystems, and technology directions.

• Advanced Engineering & Innovation
• Lead the resolution of ambiguous, high-impact technical challenges involving signal integrity, power integrity, EMI/EMC, reliability, and high-speed design.
• Initiate and guide advanced lab experimentation, modeling, and simulation to validate novel architectures, materials, and design approaches.
• Drive design decisions across the full product lifecycle, from concept and architecture through NPI, production ramp, and sustainment.
• Lead technically driven value engineering initiatives that balance performance, cost, reliability, and manufacturability at scale.

• Manufacturing, Quality & Reliability
• Define and champion Design for Manufacturing (DFM), Design for Test (DFT), and Design for Reliability (DFR) standards across global manufacturing partners.
• Guide root-cause analysis and corrective actions for complex field, factory, and reliability issues, ensuring robust, scalable solutions.
• Partner with component suppliers, ODMs, and manufacturing teams to co-develop next-generation technologies and processes.

• Technical Leadership & Mentorship
• Serve as a go-to technical expert and reviewer for critical architecture and design decisions across the organization.
• Mentor senior engineers and architects, raising the overall technical bar and fostering a culture of engineering excellence.
• Work closely with silicon, mechanical, thermal, firmware, manufacturing, and system teams to deliver cohesive, optimized solutions.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Good understanding of high speed signal design, PCB materials, and associated components; DFM/DFT for PCBA and risk assessment of new technologies; manufacturing processes and industry standards
• Excellent debug experience of PCBAs
• Proven experience with statistical process control
• Experience with cost reduction activities for existing designs

Preferred Qualifications:

• Track record of influencing technical direction across large engineering organizations and external partners
• Ability to clearly communicate complex engineering concepts to technical and non-technical audiences
• Publications, patents, standards contributions, or visible leadership within the engineering community
• Strong mentorship and knowledge sharing capabilities
• Experience collaborating across silicon, mechanical, thermal, firmware, manufacturing, and system teams

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 $191,400.00 to $281,400.00 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:

$191,400.00 - $323,600.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state: