Machine Learning Engineer (Hybrid)

Applications are accepted until 1/12/2026

Who We Are

Join us at Cisco to shape the future of enterprise AI. We are building an AI Platform Team focused on creating the next-generation foundation that powers intelligent, secure, and scalable AI solutions across Cisco’s ecosystem. This team is at the forefront of bridging research innovation with real-world application, addressing some of the most fundamental challenges in AI from advancing large language model capabilities and building agentic frameworks to optimizing data pipelines and ensuring trustworthy AI deployment at scale.

As part of this pioneering effort, you’ll collaborate with leading AI researchers, data scientists, and engineers to design, develop, and operationalize AI systems that drive measurable business impact for millions of users worldwide. If you’re passionate about solving hard technical problems and shaping how AI transforms enterprise security and networking, this is where you’ll make it happen.

What You Will Do

As a Machine Learning Engineer for our AI Software & Platform team, you will be responsible for ML model development and delivery:

• Model Training, and Evaluation: This encompasses the complete cycle of training, fine-tuning, and validating language models. You will be designing and adapting LLMs for use in virtual assistants, automated chatbots, content recommendation systems, etc. You will come up with evaluations for the solutions and iterate on improvements.
• Algorithm Development for Enhanced Language Understanding: Focusing on the development or refinement of algorithms to improve the efficiency and accuracy of language models and understanding and generation tasks.
• Experimentation with Emerging Technologies and Methods: Actively exploring new technologies and methodologies in language model development, including experimental frameworks and software tools.

Basic Qualifications

• Education & Experience: BA/BS with 3+ years or MS in machine learning, proven project portfolio.
• ML Systems & Algorithms: Strong background in ML engineering, deep learning, and statistical modeling; experience building scalable ML solutions.
• LLM Expertise: In-depth knowledge of Transformer-based architectures (e.g., GPT) and training/fine-tuning large-scale models; exposure to Agentic frameworks.
• NLP Skills: Data preprocessing (tokenization, stemming, lemmatization), handling ambiguity and context, and transfer learning for domain/language adaptation.
• Data & Evaluation: Skilled in data annotation strategies and model evaluation with appropriate metrics (LLM as judges, RAG and Agent evaluations and so on).
• Scalability & Deployment: Experience deploying LLMs to production with efficiency, reliability, and scalability.
• Applications: Applied LLMs in chatbots, content generation, semantic search, and related use cases.

Preferred Qualifications

• Degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Computational Linguistics or a related field.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python or R, and experience with machine learning libraries (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch)
• Excellent problem-solving and communication skills, with the ability to explain sophisticated concepts to non-technical partners
• Proven experience to work collaboratively in multi-functio

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 $160,100.00 to $207,900.00 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

$160,100.00 - $239,000.00

Non-Metro New York State & Washington State

$146,200.00 - $212,800.00

• 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.