Engineering Lab IT and Automation Hardware Engineer (Onsite)

Location: San Jose, California, US · Onsite Only

The application window is expected to close on: 09/30/2026

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

This position requires that you live within commuting distance of our San Jose, CA office and commute to the office 5 days per week.

Meet the Team

The Common Hardware Group (CHG) creates innovative hardware platforms central to the AI era, powering Cisco’s core Switching, Routing, and Wireless products for organizations globally. Our innovations in silicon, optics, and hardware platforms—like Silicon One—are shaping the technology industry. We're a global team of creative experts, bringing our unique backgrounds and bold ideas to push boundaries and help each other grow. Because full product development—from design to qualification to production—is within our team, we’re able to think differently, experiment more, and work quickly. Join us to power the future of the digital world.

Cisco Silicon One (#CiscoSiliconOne) is a business organization with a long track record of building complex and high-performance Silicon ASICs. Our silicon devices drive the world’s most complex networks and carry over 90% of IP traffic. Cisco Silicon One is the only unifying silicon architecture in the market that enables customers to deploy the best-of-breed silicon from Top of Rack (TOR) switches all the way through web scale data centers and across service provider, enterprise networks, and data centers with a fully unified routing and switching portfolio.

We are a highly specialized ASIC team with experts in all aspects of advanced IC package design and heterogeneous system integration. Our substrates use the latest 2.5D fanout technologies for large-scale integration, using the latest signaling and data transfer technologies. Come join us and take part in shaping Cisco's ground-breaking solutions by designing, developing and testing some of the most complex ASICs being developed in the industry!

Your Impact

Cisco is seeking an Engineering Lab IT and Automation Engineer to support our San Jose Signal Integrity, Power Integrity, and Mechanical Engineering teams by planning, deploying, and sustaining the compute, storage, networking, and automation infrastructure required for engineering applications, lab systems, and remote instrumentation. In this role, you will help optimize infrastructure investments, improve lab productivity, increase automation, and provide the technical foundation needed to support continued engineering growth.

This role is critical to ensuring that engineering teams have reliable, scalable, and efficient infrastructure to support simulation, analysis, lab operations, and data-intensive workflows. By combining deep infrastructure and systems knowledge with hands-on automation to improve productivity, optimize resource utilization, and enable scalable lab operations, the ideal candidate will collaborate closely with engineering teams, tool owners, IT, and finance to assess requirements, recommend solutions, and implement long-term infrastructure strategies.

Compute and Storage Infrastructure

• Forecast compute and data storage requirements based on engineering applications, user headcount, and growth, while evaluating optimal Windows/Linux environments and defining storage solutions that address capacity, performance, cost, security, backup, and archival requirements.

• Analyze application-specific compute requirements for engineering tools such as Ansys Electronics Desktop HFSS, SiWave, CREO, ABAQUS, Cadence Sigrity, Clarity, APD, Orbit, and related platforms.

• Assess infrastructure options across local server farms, cloud resources, and data center environments, providing cost, performance, and schedule analysis to support planning and implementation decisions.

Procurement, Deployment and Support

• Support procurement of hardware, software, and infrastructure required to implement compute and storage solutions, and lead or support infrastructure implementation activities including server deployment, rack integration, software installation, and lab infrastructure readiness.
• Partner with finance to develop budget forecasts, cost estimates, and deployment schedules.
• Provide ongoing lifecycle support and maintenance planning for deployed lab IT systems and engineering infrastructure.

Lab IT & Network Integration

• Connect lab and mechanical devices to the network and ensure operational readiness for engineering use.

• Support stable and secure integration of engineering workstations, graphics systems, and lab devices into the local network environment.

• Enable remote access and connectivity for lab systems and engineering resources as needed.

Automation & Monitoring

• Design, implement, and support automation workflows that improve operational efficiency, reduces manual effort, and increase process accuracy, and develop scripts and automation solutions for data collection, sorting, transfer, and workflow execution.

• Create and manage monitoring tools to track application usage, compute consumption, storage utilization, and overall system performance.

• Use infrastructure and application usage data to improve forecasting accuracy and support future planning.

Lab Instrument Integration

• Manage the integration of remote lab tools and instrumentation, including scanning electron microscopes, vector network analyzers, digital microscopes, CNC machine tools, 3D printers, and graphics and engineering applications/workstations.

• Automate data movement from lab instruments to centralized network-attached storage and downstream processing environments.

• Purchase, install, upgrade and maintain instrument support software applications including MPI Corp. Qalibria, Formfactor WinCal, and Keysight PLTS across all related instruments.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related technical field and 7+ years of relevant experience, or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related technical field and 4+ years of relevant experience, or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related technical field and 1+ years of related experience, or equivalent work experience.

• Experience supporting engineering compute, storage, or lab infrastructure in a technical environment with working knowledge of Windows and Linux systems.

• Experience evaluating or supporting infrastructure across cloud, on-premises server, and data center environments.

• Experience with scripting and automation for system administration, infrastructure management, or workflow optimization.

• Familiarity with network-connected lab systems, remote instrumentation, or engineering workstation environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Problem-solving and cross-functional collaboration skills.

• Experience supporting semiconductor, packaging, SI/PI, or mechanical engineering environments.

• Familiarity with engineering tools such as HFSS, SiWave, CREO, ABAQUS, Cadence Sigrity, Clarity, APD, and Orbit.

• Experience with infrastructure monitoring, reporting, and usage analytics.

• Experience with rack server deployment, NAS environments, and engineering data storage solutions.

• Understanding of data archival, backup, and secure storage practices for engineering workflows.

• Experience integrating and supporting remote lab instrumentation.

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 $165,000.00 to $241,400.00 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:

$165,000.00 - $277,600.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$146,700.00 - $247,000.00

* 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.