Senior Software Engineer, AI Cluster Networking Performance Engineer

The application window is expected to close on: 11/29/2026

Meet the Team Cisco Validated Infrastructure Services (CVIS) establishes and proves the performance of large AI clusters before they are handed over to customers. We deploy each cluster, validate it against performance baselines, and deliver the evidence that it is ready for service. The platform behind that work is full stack. It combines workflow and API services, network and infrastructure automation, and the UI used to run validation across labs and customer environments.

Your Impact  As a Senior Software Engineer, you will be responsible for things like debugging, profiling and optimizing the full AI cluster networking and GPU performance stack, from boot-time and PCIe behavior through Linux kernel, SmartNIC/DPU, RDMA, NCCL, and application-level collective communication. You will:
Investigate kernel-level failures, boot-time anomalies, PCIe link issues, driver behavior, and network latency. Diagnose and tune RDMA/RoCEv2, NCCL, SmartNIC/DPU, NIC queues, congestion, throughput, and collective communications. Read and correlate unified hardware traces across host CPUs, PCIe switches, SmartNICs, and GPU compute streams. Capture and analyze Wireshark packets, system logs, NVIDIA support logs, traces, profiles, and observability data. Partner with hardware and software teams to eliminate end-to-end bottlenecks.

Minimum Qualifications:

  Bachelors + 7 years of related experience, or Masters + 4 years of related experience, or PHD +1 year of related experience or equivalent related work experience. 4+ years of experience working with Linux kernel, networking, GPU, and distributed-systems debugging skills. Experience writing code with C/C++/Python and experience with user-mode and kernel-mode drivers.

Experience with Linux network stack, RDMA/RoCEv2, NCCL, PCIe, and performance profiling. Prior experience working with reason from packet captures, traces, counters, logs, and reproducible benchmarks.

Preferred Qualifications:

SmartNIC/DPU optimization and DOCA SDK experience. Cisco switching, AI cluster network fabrics, multi-plane/ToR designs, and high-speed Ethernet or Infini Band environments. Familiarity with NVIDIA diagnostic tooling, Nsight/profiling tools, kernel tracing, and observability platforms. 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 $ 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, 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…