AI/ML Engineering Tech Lead - CX

Meet the Team

CX AI Incubation team is part of CX and is focused on identifying and building breakthrough emerging solutions to support the diverse requirements of the CX organization and our customers.

Are you ready to be at the forefront of AI innovation? At Cisco CX, you will design and develop transformative AI capabilities and AI-driven solutions that redefine how customers interact with technology. From delivery intelligence to network automation and intelligence on edge, your work will power next-generation AI applications that make a tangible difference.

You will collaborate with passionate experts to build scalable, responsible, and cutting-edge AI models, including Large and Small Language Models, leveraging the latest advances in generative AI, various post training techniques including reinforcement learning, and more. This is your chance to push the boundaries of AI technology and accelerate your career in a vibrant, inclusive environment that celebrates creativity and impact.

Your Impact

Join Cisco's Customer Experience (CX) AI Incubation team to design and develop innovative AI-driven solutions that transform customer engagement and operational efficiency. You will work on cutting-edge use cases including delivery intelligence, knowledge management, network test automation, infrastructure testing, intelligence on edge, and DevOps automation. This role requires strong expertise in AI/ML, software development, and a passion for applying AI to real-world challenges.

Join us to shape the future, cultivate lasting relationships, and ensure every interaction counts.

What You'll Do

• Contribute to the design and development of AI-ML based services collaborating with product management and engineering teams to deliver impactful, scalable AI solutions.
• Analyze data, develop, validate, and deploy machine learning models that drive measurable improvements in operational efficiency and automation.
• Build and fine-tune model architectures for natural language and perception-based tasks, applying best practices in model optimization and evaluation.
• Work with techniques such as transformer architecture, distillation, and reinforcement learning to improve model performance, scalability, and reliability.
• Support the training and fine-tuning of Large and Small Language Models (LLMs and SLMs) for domain- and task-specific applications.
• Collaborate on the development and deployment of AI agents and applications, ensuring responsible, safe, and explainable AI behavior.
• Stay current with emerging AI technologies and research to continuously improve solution quality and technical capability.
• Contribute to best practices in model development and deployment.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Mathematics, Statistics, or related field with 7+ years of engineering experience, or Master's in Computer Science in a related field with 5+ years of engineering experience.
• Experience in Python, Java, C++, or similar languages, with experience in data analysis, model development, training, deployment, and evaluation using modern deep learning frameworks.
• Experience with Large Language Models (LLMs), Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Generative AI techniques.
• Lead, innovate, and deliver in fast-paced environments; known for collaborative decision-making, problem-solving, and effective cross-functional execution.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with AI agent evaluation
• Experience with Cisco networking and security technologies
• Strong verbal and written communication skills; equally effective engaging with technical teams and senior business leaders
• Excellent problem-solving skills, thinking outside of the box!

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 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 ofunused sick timecarried forwardfrom one calendar yearto 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:

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

* 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.