Senior Software Engineer; Hybrid- SDWAN

The application window is expected to close on: 05/22/2026. Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.

This is a hybrid role with three days per week at Cisco’s RTP office.

Cisco is a global leader in networking and IT, dedicated to transforming how people connect, communicate, and collaborate. To provide best-in-class technologies to our customers, we've created an unrivaled company culture for our employees. One that is collaborative, empathetic, and provides employees with the autonomy to develop technology that's intuitive, secure, and simple for everyone to use.

Our Routing SD-WAN Group is at the forefront of innovation, delivering intelligent, secure, and scalable WAN edge solutions that empower enterprises to connect and protect their networks from the edge to the cloud.

Our Routing Platform Software team within Routing SD-WAN builds industry-leading headend SD-WAN and edge routing platforms. We are reinventing the WAN with controller-based, intent-driven networking that delivers secure connectivity to users and devices across cloud, on-prem, and SaaS applications. You will join a high-energy group working on next-generation routing and services at global scale, connecting thousands of devices and millions of users.

We are looking for a software engineer to develop various networking (routing / forwarding) functionalities for our industry leading SD-WAN and routing solution. Some of the key areas of focus will be segmentation, segment routing, multicast, IPv6, quality-of-service, and various general networking concepts. Your work will span controllers and edge network appliances. In this role, you will collaborate with product management, technical marketing, and various cross functional teams that power the Cisco innovation.

You will have the opportunity to define new architectures or enhance existing ones to provide solution to our customers. If you are passionate about solving complex system level problems and influencing network behavior at scale, we would love to meet you. You’ll leverage modern AI tools to enhance software development practices to help drive greater efficiency, quality, and innovation across the team.

• Network software development: full stack software development for our industry leading networking stack.
• Work with cross functional teams to plan, design, implement and integrate the solution keeping in mind the scaling and tight performance requirements.
• You will be part of the full stack team (controller and dataplane) and will be enabled to work across domains.
• You will also work with our partner teams such as security, analytics, and NMS to deliver the end-to-end solution for SDWAN and Enterprise routing.
• Use modern AI tools and technologies to achieve highest level of efficiency in product development and solution delivery.
• You will work with key stakeholders to explore areas of innovation and improvement to drive product evolution.

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience, 5-10 years of industry experience with end-to-end software development in networking stack, including control plane, data plane, and controller architecture.
• Technical Expertise:
  Strong proficiency in C/C++ with a focus on systems programming and Linux environments.
• Have expertise or experience in multicast, IPv6, quality-of-service, segmentation, segment routing, in addition to general networking concepts.
• Networking Knowledge:
  Solid understanding of routing architectures and Layer 2 networking protocols.
• Past experience working in a controller driven architecture is a plus.
• Problem-Solving:
  Ability to debug complex system level issues spanning various software domain and boundary.
• Experience with LAN/WAN communication interfaces and Layer 2/Layer 3 technologies.
• Experience with AI/ML techniques and tools for development (e.g., codex, copilot, code assistants, static analysis tools, test automation platforms).

• Knowledge of Routing protocols, data plane and packet processors, and experience in industry deployed networking stacks.
• Network…