Site Reliability Engineer

The application window is expected to close on: 07/03/2026

Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received .

This role requires a hybrid work schedule with on-site attendance at the RTP, North Carolina campus.

Meet the Team

We are an agile team inside Cisco IT, building the next generation NoSQL and Vector Databases on cloud platforms that will be demonstrated by all of Cisco as we move to cloud native applications. This is a small team of highly motivated individuals demonstrating Agile scrum methodology. Our team is responsible for building and operating Hybrid Cloud Database services in a DevSecOps model. We move at a fast pace and are passionate about cloud and automation. We have a history of building clouds at a large scale and are looking for someone who as passionate about it as we are.

Your Impact

In this role, you will ensure production services are scalable, resilient, high-performing, and secure. You’ll support uptime through an On-Call rotation, monitoring, and alerting to meet SLOs and SLAs. Reliability is strengthened by conducting Disaster Recovery drills and managing incidents—investigating root causes, applying remediation, and driving continuous improvement. You’ll define reliability and security requirements for systems and components to meet company, customer, and regulatory objectives. Operational efficiency is enhanced by automating repetitive tasks and mitigating failure points. You’ll also develop tools and techniques for early detection of issues in products, packaging, processes, and product reliability.

• Serves as an experienced professional resource, independently applying best practices and business knowledge to improve products or services while guiding and supporting less experienced colleagues.

• Understands project and/or department needs and establishes relationships with appropriate cross-functional partners to gather input, collect information, and complete work steps.

• Designs and deploys small to mid-size or moderately complex solutions to optimize reliability, availability, latency, and performance.

• Builds automated platforms and applies design, deployment, and coding expertise to enhance reliability, scalability, and velocity; designs and tests high availability and disaster recovery measures across regions and customers.

• Forecasts and builds reports to determine at what point resources will be at capacity.

• Designs and implements tools to monitor and provide transparency into the performance and reliability of our infrastructure; collaborates with Developers and Ops to identify issues, serves as on-call SRE, and leads post mortems and root cause analyses.

• Builds and ensures security controls are in place in architectural design, collaborates with security in designing or reviewing security controls, and may actively contribute in security incident response.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field

• 5+ years of technical expertise with cloud databases and experience with Vector databases (such as Pinecone, Weaviate, or Milvus) and/or with at least two of the following: PostgreSQL, MySQL, or MongoDB

• Experience with AI frameworks (OpenAI API, Langchain, etc)

• Experience with designing, administering, and maintaining Vector DB or Cloud DB architecture, including provisioning, upgrades, operations, backups, security, and performance

• Experience with CI/CD framework and tools like Git/Github, Jenkins

• Experience with automating DB tasks using Python, Database Lifecycle Management

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with public cloud like AWS, GCP, or Azure, or container technologies like Kubernetes and Openshift

• Backend experience with Python or other programming skills

• Demonstrated experience in building scalable databases on hybrid cloud infrastructure

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 $137,000.00 to $200,500.00 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

• 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.

Cisco is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, genetic information, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis.

Cisco will consider for employment, on a case by case basis, qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.