Lead Backend Engineer, Studio; Hybrid

This is a Hybrid role out of Cisco's San Jose office.

Studio is the experience where anyone—engineers, non-technical builders, and AI agents—can go from a prompt to a running, production-grade app. It brings together an App Builder and a bring-your-own coding-agent path, with the docs and resources to build and manage apps your own way. We're building the platform for AI app development, and Studio is the craft-defined surface on top of it.

Pioneers in our field, AISP enables Cisco product teams, customers, and partners to maximize value with a simple, unified Cisco AI experience, driving accelerated time to impact.

As a Technical Lead , you will serve as a recognized expert, driving architectural strategy and high-impact engineering initiatives for the Studio platform. You will lead cross-functional efforts to bridge the gap between AI research and production-grade software, ensuring our infrastructure meets the rigorous demands of global enterprise scale. Your work will directly influence the direction of our business by resolving unique, highly complex technical challenges and setting the standard for our AI-powered ecosystem.

• Lead the architectural design and development of scalable backend platform technologies for Cisco's next-generation AI products.
• Spearhead multi-functional engagements to architect, build, validate, and deploy AI/ML infrastructures and AI-powered networking and security solutions.
• Drive the resolution of highly complex technical challenges, applying ingenuity to novel situations that impact the direction of the business.
• Collaborate with product and research teams to transform groundbreaking AI strategies into robust, production-ready systems.
• Act as a technical thought leader, influencing internal and external stakeholders by communicating complex engineering strategies to senior leadership.

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science + 8 years of related experience, or Master's degree + 6 years of related experience, or PhD + 3 years of related experience.
• Experience building and scaling backend platforms in a production environment.
• 5+ years of professional programming experience using Python and/or Go.
• Experience deploying and managing services on major cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• Prior experience with containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes) and microservices architectures.

• Direct experience integrating and building with Generative AI technologies and LLM frameworks.
• Deep understanding of modern AI tools, ML methodologies, and data pipelines.
• Proven track record of driving technology innovation by translating industry trends into scalable backend execution.
• Strong passion for designing highly reliable, maintainable, and distributed backend systems.
• Experience mentoring engineering teams and leading cross-functional platform initiatives.

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…