The application window is expected to close on:

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

2018319 – Software Engineer (Remote)

• The application window is expected to close on: August 18, 2026
• Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.
• This role is remote and can be performed from anywhere in the U.S.

Meet the Team

The Cryptographic Services Team develops and maintains Cisco’s core backend PKI and secrets management services, enabling secure operations for multiple customer-facing and business-critical applications across the company. We are redefining the way product teams secure products and services through innovative technology. As part of the team, you’ll support globally deployed services that are highly critical to Cisco and our customers.

Your Impact

As a Cloud Engineer, you will contribute to building, operating, and improving our containerized services. Working alongside experienced engineers, you’ll be directly involved with all of our cloud technologies, automation, and container platforms, supporting the delivery of high-availability security services at scale. You will:

• Build and maintain infrastructure-as-code (Terraform / Terragrunt or similar) for cloud infrastructure: networking, compute, Kubernetes clusters, storage, encryption keys, and databases.
• Deploy and manage workloads on Kubernetes using Helm and GitOps (ArgoCD or equivalent) and build container and machine images via automated build pipelines (Docker, Packer/Ansible, or similar).
• Develop and maintain CI/CD pipelines (GitLab CI or comparable), including short-lived/credential-less authentication patterns and secrets retrieval at runtime.
• Author and test policy-as-code governance controls and help implement least-privilege and compliance requirements across environments.
• Write operational tooling and automation (Go, Python, and/or Bash) for tasks like auditing, lease/token management, migrations, health checks, and incident response.
• Improve observability: metrics, logging, dashboards, and alerting; help author and implement runbooks.
• Participate in upgrades, capacity planning, hardening, and reliability work for a production security-critical service.
• Write clear documentation and contribute to a culture of secure-by-default engineering.

Minimum Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional experience in platform engineering, DevOps, SRE, cloud infrastructure, or a closely related field.
• Practical experience with at least one major cloud provider. Familiarity with core services such as compute, networking/VPC, IAM, Kubernetes, object storage, and key/secrets management.
• Familiar with infrastructure-as-code — Terraform strongly preferred; equivalent experience with Terragrunt, Pulumi, CloudFormation, or similar is acceptable.
• Knowledge of Kubernetes and Helm (or comparable container orchestration and packaging).
• Experience building or maintaining CI/CD pipelines (GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or similar) and comfort with Git-based workflows.
• Scripting/automation proficiency in at least one of: Go, Python, or Bash.
• Proven grasp of security and identity fundamentals such as authentication vs. authorization, role-based access, TLS/PKI basics, and the principle of least privilege.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with GitOps delivery (ArgoCD, Flux, or similar) and ApplicationSet/multi-source patterns.
• Experience with policy-as-code (HashiCorp Sentinel, OPA/Rego, Kyverno, or similar).
• Familiarity with PKI / certificate lifecycle, encryption-as-a-service, or dynamic secrets.
• Image build automation with Packer + Ansible and hardened Linux base images.
• Observability stack experience: Prometheus/Grafana, Telegraf, Fluent Bit, Splunk, or cloud-native analytics (Athena/Glue/QuickSight).

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 $128,600.00 to $184,900.00 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:

$155,000.00 - $256,000.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$138,100.00 - $227,900.00

* 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.