AI Researcher Hybrid at Cisco in San Jose, CA

AI Researcher Hybrid Location: San Jose, California, US The application window is expected to close on: 07/06/2026 Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received. Meet the Team Join Cisco’s Enterprise AI team, the core group enabling Generative AI powered experiences across Cisco. Our mission is to build secure, scalable AI platforms that empower teams to safely develop, deploy, and operationalize AI-powered solutions. We operate at the intersection of applied AI, cloud infrastructure and security —partnering across engineering, security, compliance, and product teams to bring trusted AI to life at enterprise scale. We are a fast-growing, highly collaborative team of platform engineers, AI engineers, and data scientists who value technical depth, ownership, and pragmatic execution. What makes this team exciting is the opportunity to define how secure Generative AI is built and governed inside a global technology leader. Your Impact Plans, conducts, analyzes, and shares research that advances the field of AI, as it relates to networking, security, programming, human-computer interaction, or other strategic areas in computer science. Utilizes expertise in AI and research methodologies to develop research plans, build models, run experiments, and provide models and solutions to relevant teams. Serves as research strategy liaison to engineers and product managers and works collaboratively with product management, engineering, and design teams to identify business and AI research goals. Summarizes and communicates results to all relevant partners and stakeholders to influence decisions. Core Responsibilities 1. Research Strategy and Execution Lead and execute end-to-end AI research initiatives, from long-term planning and proposal development to the design and implementation of experiments and prototypes. Define and manage research roadmaps, ensuring alignment with business objectives and project complexity. 2. AI Technical Development and Innovation Utilize advanced AI tools, models, and data structures to build, train, and iterate on solutions. Identify and evaluate emerging AI technologies and methodologies to optimize research processes and solve novel business problems. Apply rigorous ethical standards to all research approaches and technical deployments. 3. Data Synthesis and Strategic Insights Synthesize complex data across multiple studies and customer journeys to uncover actionable themes and insights. Conduct meta-analyses to identify broader connections, providing data-driven recommendations that directly influence product decisions and strategy. 4. Collaboration and Influence Partner with cross-functional teams to understand business challenges, develop hypotheses, and manage risk. Lead collaboration sessions and communicate research outcomes through structured presentations, scientific papers, and patent filings. 5. Mentorship and Knowledge Sharing Serve as a subject matter expert, mentoring peers and interns while providing guidance to less-experienced colleagues. Represent Cisco by sharing research perspectives and industry breakthroughs in internal forums and at top-tier AI conferences. Minimum Qualifications Bachelor’s and 5 years of related experience, or Masters + 4 years of related experience Experience designing, executing, and leading end-to-end AI research initiatives, including the development of research roadmaps and experimental prototypes Experience with AI/ML frameworks and experience in Python for building, training, and evaluating models Experience leading cross-functional projects to translate business problems into technical research goals Demonstrated ability to independently structure and deliver technical presentations to diverse audiences, including executive stakeholders and technical peers. Preferred Qualifications Deep understanding of network protocols, cybersecurity architectures, or cloud-native infrastructure, and the ability to apply AI/ML to solve problems within these specific domains. Experience in designing AI-driven interfaces or conducting user-centric research to improve the usability and adoption of complex technical solutions. Experience in fine-tuning, evaluating, and deploying Large Language Models (LLMs) or generative architectures for enterprise-scale applications. Experience in MLOps pipelines (e.g., Kubeflow, MLflow) and experience deploying AI models into production environments at scale. Ability to proactively identify and mitigate risks associated with AI deployment, including bias, data privacy, and security vulnerabilities. Track record of leadership in industry research forums, including serving as a program committee member or reviewer for top-tier AI conferences. 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 $199,700.00 to $254,600.00 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 compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process. U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco’s plan eligibility rules, which include medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability coverage, and basic life insurance. Please see the Cisco careers site to discover more benefits and perks.  Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time. U.S. employees are eligible for paid time away as described below, subject to Cisco’s policies: 10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees 1 paid day off for employee’s birthday, paid year-end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco Non-exempt employees** receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees Exempt employees participate in Cisco’s flexible vacation time off program, which has no defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use (subject to availability and some business limitations) 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, and up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward from one calendar year to the next Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer For non-sales roles, employees are also eligible to earn annual bonuses subject to Cisco’s policies. Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non-quota components, subject to the applicable Cisco plan. For quota-based incentive pay, Cisco typically pays as follows: .75% of incentive target for each 1% of revenue attainment up to 50% of quota; 1.5% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 50% and 75%; 1% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 75% and 100%; and Once performance exceeds 100% attainment, incentive rates are at or above 1% for each 1% of attainment with no cap on incentive compensation. For non-quota-based sales performance elements such as strategic sales objectives, Cisco may pay 0% up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid. The applicable full salary ranges for this position, by specific state, are listed below: New York City Metro Area: $199,700.00 - $292,800.00 Non-Metro New York state & Washington state: $174,500.00 - $260,500.00 * For quota-based sales roles on Cisco’s sales plan, the ranges provided in this posting include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined. ** Employees in Illinois, whether exempt or non-exempt, will participate in a unique time off program to meet local requirements. Additional Locations: RTP, North Carolina, US