Senior AI Researcher (San Francisco)

The application window is expected to close on: 08/14/2026Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.Meet the TeamAt Foundation AI, we are leading frontier AI research across Cisco. Our mission is to advance the state of artificial intelligence through fundamental research and translate scientific breakthroughs into differentiated technologies that power the next generation of enterprise AI.Our research spans foundation models, agentic AI, multimodal learning, reasoning systems, scalable training algorithms, evaluation science, inference optimization, and AI systems infrastructure. We work at the intersection of cutting-edge research and real-world impact, developing technologies that influence Cisco's AI strategy while contributing meaningfully to the broader AI research community.We believe impactful research should advance both science and products. Our researchers publish at top AI conferences, contribute to open-source projects, collaborate with leading academic institutions, and build production systems that solve challenging enterprise-scale problems.Your ImpactAs a Senior AI Researcher you will operate as a visionary technical leader, architecting and executing frontier AI research that dictates Foundation AI's long-term technical trajectory.You will identify emerging research opportunities, formulate original research hypotheses, and lead ambitious research programs spanning foundation models, agentic AI, reasoning, multimodal learning, and large-scale AI systems. Working closely with engineering and product team members, you will translate scientific advances into scalable technologies that differentiate Cisco's AI platform.Working at the highest technical levels, you will translate scientific advances into scalable paradigms that fundamentally differentiate Cisco's AI platform. Beyond individual technical contributions, you will provide scientific leadership across multiple research initiatives, mentor junior researchers and interns, and influence executive technical strategy. You will represent Cisco externally through top-tier publications, open-source leadership, and active collaboration with the global AI research community.In this role, you willDefine and direct multi-year research programs aligned with Foundation AI's strategic priorities, setting the technical bar and research methodology for the wider team.Invent and pioneer novel architectures and algorithms for foundation model training and inference, complex reasoning agentic AI systems, and multimodal learning.Drive frontier research in advanced domains such as reinforcement learning, mechanistic interpretability, and scaling laws, with applications to the cybersecurity domain. Design and build new evaluation benchmarks and frameworks that improve the reliability, transparency and safety of AI models.Collaborate across research, engineering, product, and security teams to translate research into production AI systems and drive the adoption of the new research across Cisco's AI portfolio.Mentor researchers, engineers and interns, elevating the team's scientific rigor and engineering excellence through code reviews, paper reviews, and architectural guidance.Publish research in top AI conferences and journals, contribute to open-source AI projects, and represent Cisco through invited talks and technical collaborations.Minimum QualificationsPhD in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related technical field, plus 5+ years of relevant research experience, or equivalent demonstrated research impact.Demonstrated track record of sustained, high-impact publications at top-tier machine learning and AI conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, EMNLP, CVPR, ICCV, or equivalent venues).Deep expertise in foundation models, post-training and alignment, LLMs, agentic AI, reinforcement learning, reasoning, efficient inference, or distributed training systems.Expert-level proficiency in Python, PyTorch, distributed machine learning, and modern AI research frameworks.Proven ability to lead complex, ambiguous technical projects from conception to deployment as an individual contributor.Exceptional ability to communicate complex scientific concepts to both highly technical peers and non-technical executive stakeholders.Preferred QualificationsHands-on expertise in high-performance computing environments, with a track record of leading distributed training across thousands of GPUs using frameworks and communication primitives such as CUDA, NCCL, FSDP2, and Megatron-LM.Experience deploying high-performance inference engines such as vLLM and SGLang, and working with cloud-native deployment, Docker, Kubernetes, MLOps pipelines, and major cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure.Experience designing and scaling agentic AI workflows, multi-agent frameworks, and autonomous AI systems.Familiarity with cybersecurity principles, AI systems for security-focused use cases, safety, and robust machine learning.Demonstrated leadership within the global AI research community, specifically serving as an Area Chair or senior program committee member for top-tier AI conferences.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 $212,300.00 to $275,800.00 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:$212,300.00 - $317,100.00Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:$193,800.00 - $282,100.00* 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.Job SummaryJob number: 2018923Date posted : 2026-07-15Profession: OtherEmployment type: Full time