Hardware Design Engineer

Hardware Engineer

This role requires the employee to work onsite at the San Jose, CA office location.

The Common Hardware Group (CHG) creates innovative hardware platforms central to the AI era, powering Cisco's core Switching, Routing, and Wireless products for organizations globally. Our innovations in silicon, optics, and hardware platforms—like Silicon One—are shaping the technology industry.

The High-End Routing hardware team develops the groundbreaking routers deployed in Service Providers and Data Centers worldwide. We are inventors in our field, using powerful technologies to design a new class of innovative routers supporting the Internet of the Future. Join us and participate in this exciting journey towards the future of connectivity!

• As a Hardware Engineer, you will develop high-performance board designs for Cisco's next-generation networking hardware. These products range from high-density access switches to massive-scale service provider routers and AI infrastructure.

• This individual will contribute to the hardware development team and be responsible for the full lifecycle of board design, complex debugging, and schematic and layout verification processes.

• Participate in the design and sustenance of complex, high-speed multi-layer PCBs, incorporating high-speed serial links and advanced power delivery networks.

• Perform root-cause analysis on complex hardware failures, including signal integrity issues, power rail instabilities, and component-level degradation.

• Develop and execute test plans for upcoming designs and document procedures, plans, and specifications used by the engineering team.

• Perform and lead design reviews of schematics, BOMs, layout, and routing using internal automation tools.

• Perform and review failure analysis (FA), root cause analysis (RCA), and corrective action reports (CAR) to improve long-term product reliability.

• Bachelor's degree in electrical or computer engineering + 5 years of related experience OR Master's degree in electrical or computer Engineering + 3 years of related experience

• Experience in schematic capture and PCB layout oversight for high-complexity systems.

• Experience with hardware debugging using high-speed such as oscilloscopes, VNAs, or logic analyzers.

• Experience with tools such as Concept, Allegro, LTspice, or similar industry-standard hardware design suites.

• Automation skills using python or perl is highly preferred

• Experience writing hardware functional specifications

• Experience with control interfaces such as PCIe, MDIO, SPI, I2C

• Experience designing systems with DDR4/DDR5 DIMMs and storage products

• Experience with tackling signal integrity issues and board mounted power design and distribution techniques

• Experience working with programmable devices such as FPGAs, CPLD

• Prior experience with shipping products

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.

The starting salary range posted for this position is $ to $ 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,…