Software Engineer Embedded Systems II

Meet the Team

Join a vibrant community of passionate professionals from around the world, working together in Engineering, IT, Supply Chain, Customer Experience, Security & Trust, and more. Our team brings diverse perspectives, skills, and backgrounds-unified by a shared commitment to innovation and making technology accessible for everyone. Here, you'll collaborate with dedicated colleagues on exciting projects in cloud, mobile, desktop, and security. No matter your role, you'll have the chance to learn, grow, and make an impact-building solutions that help people connect, learn, and thrive in new ways.

Together, we're shaping the future-one idea at a time.

As a Software Embedded Systems II, you will take ownership of designing, developing, and optimizing high-performance embedded software, firmware, and low-level platform features. Collaborate with cross-functional engineering teams to build resilient device drivers, kernel components, and hardware-software interfaces that power mission-critical platforms and intelligent connected systems. Architect and implement robust system-level test automation and diagnostic tools using Python and modern CI/CD pipelines to validate complex platform interactions and ensure product reliability.

Apply systems programming expertise to diagnose intricate platform-level issues, optimize memory and CPU performance, and support production triage. Success in this full-time role means independently delivering resilient, scalable embedded software and driving technical excellence across the entire software development lifecycle.

• Meet one of the following (completed within the past 3 years or expected to be completed within the next 12 months): A Master's degree with 0 years of work experience;
  Bachelor's degree with 2 years of work experience;
  An educational or workforce development program (e.g., Associate's, Apprenticeship, Boot camp, or Certification) with 3 years of work experience;
  High school diploma (or equivalent) with 4 years of work experience. Qualifying education and work experience should be in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, or a related field.

• Strong proficiency in C or C++ systems programming, with practical experience developing software in embedded Linux, RTOS, or POSIX-compliant operating system environments.

• Deep understanding of operating systems concepts, multithreading, concurrency, memory management, and low-level hardware-software interfaces.

• Familiarity with standard software development workflows in Linux environments, debugging tools (e.g., GDB, Valgrind), and Git version control.

• Hands-on experience developing low-level device drivers, kernel modules, Board Support Packages (BSPs), or bootloaders (U-Boot, UEFI).

• Demonstrated knowledge of networking principles, layered communication architectures (TCP/IP, OSI model), or routing and switching protocols (e.g., Ethernet, BGP, OSPF).

• Experience writing automation tooling or test frameworks in Python or Bash, integrated with modern CI/CD automation pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, Git Hub Actions).

• Familiarity with hardware bring-up, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) validation, or lab instrumentation (logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, JTAG debuggers).

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.

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…