Sr. Data Plane Engineer - Technical Lead - Military Veterans

Application window has been extended and expected to close by 09/09/2024

Who We Are:

The Cisco Distributed System Engineering (DSE) group is at the forefront of developing products that power the largest networks in the world. The networking industry is going through a massive transformation to build the next generation infrastructure to meet the needs of AI/ML workloads and continuously increasing internet users and application. We are uniquely positioned to capture that market transition.

Who You'll Work With:

This team builds products by harnessing the potential of open-source technologies while pushing the boundaries on Systems and Silicon Architecture. They are developers and leaders who are passionate about tackling complex technology, building large scale distributed systems and comfortable working with open-source communities and technologies. You will be part of a fast-paced work environment and responsible for end-to-end product development and production support.

Who You Are:

You are curious and a problem solver. You love to learn and grow and work in an environment that is constantly evolving. You are a self-starter that thrives on learning information quickly and uses resources to research and resolve issues. You are comfortable working with multi-disciplinary, multicultural, and geographically dispersed teams. You are a technologist at heart and a leader in practice that is passionate about building and delivering data plane and control plane software. You are experienced building 'forwarding' and 'services' data plane feature sets and are diligent with an automation first focus and experienced with scripting languages and test frame works.

What You'll Do:

As a Data Plane Engineer, you'll join an agile team engaged in the design, development and testing data-center features set in Cisco 8000 Platform using SONiC network operating system. In this role you'll have opportunity to design and develop multiple feature sets including:

• Layer 2 [Vlan, Port Channel, MCLAG]


• Layer 3 [V4, V6]


• QoS [Queuing, Policers, WRED, PFC, ECN]


• ACL [L2, L3, Ingress, Egress, ACL based forwarding]

Basic Qualifications:

• MS/BS degree in CS/EE/CE or technical equivalent.


• 8+ years of relevant software development experience.


• 5+ year's embedded software development experience using C, C++ and/or Python.


• 3+ years' data plane experience working with in NPU, DPU or software data plane.


• 3+ years' experience in data-plane forwarding technologies such as L2, L3, VXLAN, segment Routing and/or MPLS.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Network Operating Systems in the Linux user space.


• GIT, Jira, Jenkins, and CI/CD pipeline tools.


• Virtualization and container technologies including KVM/Qemu, Docker and/or Kubernetes.


• Experience in data-plane services including ACL and queuing techniques like WRED, Policers, PFC, ECN and/or Alpha.


• Strong performance tuning skills.


• Team Lead experience.

Why Cisco?

#WeAreCisco. We are all unique, but collectively we bring our talents to work as a team, to develop innovative technology and power a more inclusive, digital future for everyone. How do we do it? Well, for starters - with people like you!

Nearly every internet connection around the world touches Cisco. We're the Internet's optimists. Our technology makes sure the data traveling at light speed across connections does so securely, yet it's not what we make but what we make happen which marks us out. We're helping those who work in the health service to connect with patients and each other; schools, colleges, and universities to teach in even the most difficult of times. We're helping businesses of all shapes and sizes to connect with their employees and customers in new ways, providing people with access to the digital skills they need and connecting the most remote parts of the world - whether through 5G, or otherwise.
We tackle whatever challenges come our way. We have each other's backs, we recognize our accomplishments, and we grow together. We celebrate and support one another - from big and small things in life to big career moments. And giving back, it's in our DNA (we get 10 days off each year to do just that).
We know that powering an inclusive future starts with us. Because without diversity and a dedication to equality, there is no moving forward. Our 30 Inclusive Communities, that bring people together around commonalities or passions, are leading the way. Together we're committed to learning, listening, caring for our communities, whilst supporting the most
vulnerable with a collective effort to make this world a better place either with technology, or through our actions.
So, you have colorful hair? Don't care. Tattoos? Show off your ink. Like polka dots? That's cool. Pop culture geek? Many of us are. Passion for technology and world changing? Be you, with us!
#WeAreCisco
#LI-VS1

Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:

When available, the salary range posted for this position reflects the projected hiring range for new hire, full-time salaries in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including equity or benefits. For non-sales roles the hiring ranges reflect base salary only; employees are also eligible to receive annual bonuses. Hiring ranges for sales positions include base and incentive compensation target. Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location and additional factors, including but not limited to skillset, experience, and relevant education, certifications, or training. Applicants may not be eligible for the full salary range based on their U.S. or Canada hiring location. The recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.

U.S. employees have access to quality medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, short and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance and numerous wellbeing offerings. Employees receive up to twelve paid holidays per calendar year, which includes one floating holiday, plus a day off for their birthday. Employees accrue up to 20 days of Paid Time Off (PTO) each year and have access to paid time away to deal with critical or emergency issues without tapping into their PTO. We offer additional paid time to volunteer and give back to the community. Employees are also able to purchase company stock through our Employee Stock Purchase Program.

Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non-quota components. 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 up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.