Kubernetes Platform Engineer - AI Infrastructure

Kubernetes Platform Engineer – AI Infrastructure

Hybrid role - requires some work activity to be on-site in San Jose CA office

Join our Platform Engineering team to design, build, and operate large-scale, on-prem Kubernetes infrastructure powering next-generation AI/ML platforms, including GPU-enabled environments for traditional models and LLMs. You will lead the technical direction of scalable, reliable systems, managing the Kubernetes control plane and extending platform capabilities through custom controllers and operators. You'll architect ML platforms, implement Infrastructure as Code with Golang, and drive MLOps best practices. Partnering closely with data scientists and ML engineers, you'll enable high-performance AI workloads while leveraging AIOps for automation and reliability. This role requires strong hands-on on-prem Kubernetes experience and offers opportunities to mentor engineers and influence platform strategy in a hybrid environment.

Your Impact / Responsibilities as a Kubernetes Platform Engineer, you will:

• Design, build, and operate large-scale on-prem Kubernetes platforms (OpenShift/Anthos), with ownership of control plane, etcd, and cluster lifecycle.
• Architect scalable, multi-tenant platform infrastructure as the foundation for AI/ML and GenAI workloads.
• Enable and optimize AI/ML workloads, including GPU-based environments for training, inference, and model deployment.
• Partner with data scientists and ML engineers to onboard and scale ML pipelines and workflows.
• Build platform capabilities using Kubernetes controllers, operators, CRDs, and Golang/Python services.
• Implement Infrastructure as Code, automation, and AIOps-driven self-healing using platform telemetry and observability.
• Ensure reliability through performance tuning (scheduling, resource utilization) and participate in on-call support and incident response.

Minimum Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience, including supporting AI/ML or GPU-based workloads on Kubernetes platforms
• 3+ years operating Kubernetes in production with control plane ownership, preferably in on-prem or self-managed environments
• Strong experience with etcd management (backup, restore, recovery) and Kubernetes cluster upgrades
• Proficiency in Go with experience building Kubernetes controllers/operators, CRDs, and webhooks
• Deep understanding of Kubernetes internals (API server, scheduler, controller loops, reconciliation patterns)
• Proven ability to debug and operate large-scale distributed systems in production environments, including participation in on-call rotations

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with bare-metal or on-prem infrastructure at scale
• Experience enabling or supporting GPU-based workloads in Kubernetes environments
• Familiarity with AI/ML platforms, pipelines, or tooling (e.g., model training, inference, or orchestration)
• Experience building internal developer platforms or platform-as-a-service (PaaS) capabilities
• Exposure to AIOps, including automation, anomaly detection, or self-healing systems
• Experience applying statistical or ML techniques to operational data for reliability, performance, or capacity planning

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 $152,500.00 to $219,200.00 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:

$152,500.00 - $252,000.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$135,800.00 - $224,400.00

* 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.