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Technical Leader, DPU Networking and AI Infrastructure

Job in Milpitas, Santa Clara County, California, 95035, USA
Listing for: Cisco
Part Time position
Listed on 2026-06-07
Job specializations:
  • IT/Tech
    Systems Engineer, Network Security
Job Description & How to Apply Below
The application window is expected to close on: 07/31/2026

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

This is a Hybrid position located in Milpitas, Ca. Ideally 3 days per week in office.

** Meet the Team*
* Cisco is building a next-generation DPU-enabled networking platform for secure, high-performance infrastructure and large-scale AI clusters. Our team is responsible for designing the foundational networking, security, and programmable services that span host systems, DPUs, Smart

NICs, and cloud-scale control planes. We work at the intersection of systems software, hardware acceleration, distributed security, and AI infrastructure, creating platforms that deliver line-rate performance, strong isolation, operational reliability, and simplified deployment across modern data center environments.

We are looking for a technical leader to define the architecture for host networking, DPU offload, distributed security, and programmable network services across modern DPU and Smart

NIC platforms.

** Your Impact*
* + Lead architecture for DPU-accelerated host networking, security, and network services.

+ Define what runs on the DPU versus the host CPU, including tradeoffs around performance, cost, failure isolation, observability, debuggability, and operational complexity.

+ Architect distributed firewalling, micro segmentation, virtual routing, service chaining, traffic steering, and line-rate policy enforcement.

+ Guide platform decisions across DPU SDKs, programmable pipelines, Linux networking, control-plane services, telemetry, policy distribution, and upgrade models.

+ Design APIs, policy models, configuration flows, state synchronization mechanisms, and recovery behavior for distributed networking systems.

+ Build static-stability and failure-mode thinking into the architecture so the system behaves predictably during partial failures, control-plane loss, upgrades, rollbacks, and fleet-wide rollout.

+ Provide technical leadership for AI cluster networking challenges, including congestion collapse, incast, ECMP imbalance, PFC/ECN behavior, noisy tenants, NIC firmware issues, switch misconfiguration, and GPU under utilization caused by network stalls.

+ Align cross-functional stakeholders across hardware, firmware, product, and customer-facing teams to successfully translate complex architectural visions into shippable software.

+ Elevate engineering standards across the organization through meticulous design reviews, proactively identifying systemic risks to scale, reliability, and security.

+ Mentor senior engineering talent, accelerating team growth and technical depth in packet processing, host networking, and control-plane design.

** Minimum Qualifications*
* + Bachelor's degree with significant related experience, or advanced degree with equivalent experience in networking, systems software, distributed systems, or infrastructure engineering.

+ Deep experience designing and building production networking systems, security platforms, cloud networking, host networking, or large-scale infrastructure software.

+ Proficiency in systems programming experience using C/C++, Go, Rust, Python, or similar languages.

+ Applied skills in Linux networking, packet processing, routing, policy enforcement, virtualization, and production debugging.

+ Demonstrated ability to lead architecture across multiple teams and drive complex technical decisions from concept through production.

** Preferred Qualifications*
* + Hands-on experience with DPU, Smart

NIC, NIC offload, NPU, ASIC, or hardware-accelerated networking platforms.

+

Experience with NVIDIA Blue Field/DOCA, AMD Pensando, DPU SDKs, P4 or P4-like programmable pipelines, DPDK, OVS, tc, eBPF/XDP, SR-IOV, VF/PF, or kernel bypass.

+ Experience architecting firewall, microsegmentation, NAT, virtual routing, VTEP, load balancing, traffic steering, service insertion, or service chaining systems.

+ Proficient understanding of AI/HPC cluster networking behavior, including RDMA/RoCE, PFC, ECN, ECMP, congestion management, telemetry, and failure diagnosis.

+ Experience designing distributed control planes with…
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