AI Software Engineer II - (United States)

Meet the Team

The mission of Security & Trust Organization (S&TO) is to secure products and services, protect Cisco and its employees, and cultivate trust with our customers, partners, and regulators.

Thrive on our dynamic and collaborative FAST and AMULET teams where you'll work closely with a diverse network of internal and external stakeholders to drive essential security initiatives. You'll have the opportunity to collaborate with teams across Cisco, including IT, Product, Customer Experience (CX), and nearly every business unit, to deliver critical security solutions.

Your Impact

As an AI Security Engineer II, you will help advance the secure adoption of artificial intelligence across testing platforms, pipelines, and processes. Working at the intersection of AI, security, and software engineering, you will partner with engineering, product, and security teams to develop automated security controls and validation mechanisms, and contribute to secure development practices for AI-enabled systems. You will also research emerging AI attack techniques and defensive strategies, help build reusable enablement resources to support the responsible deployment of AI technologies across the team and the larger organization.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's with 3+ years of professional experience , Master's degree with 1-2+years of professional experience in relevant fields include: Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning.

• Foundation in security engineering (application/product security, secure SDLC, threat modeling) and/or AI/ML engineering -  strong in one area with working exposure to the other with demonstrated adversarial thinking.

• Proficiency in Python and experience developing scripts, automation, applications, or security tooling.

• Demonstrated analytical and problem-solving skills with an interest in adversarial thinking, emerging technologies, and securing AI-enabled systems.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience securing or evaluating Large Language Models (LLMs), including prompt injection defenses, guardrails, insecure output handling, RAG, or agentic AI systems.

• Familiarity with AI security frameworks and standards such as OWASP LLM Top 10, OWASP Agentic Top 10, MITRE ATLAS, NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001, or the EU AI Act.

• Experience with AI security testing, red teaming, evaluation frameworks, Cisco AI Defense, NVIDIA Garak, or similar AI security tools.

• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, MCP, agent-to-agent integration patterns, or AI-assisted development tools.

• Demonstrated passion for security through applied projects, security tooling contributions, CTF participation, published research, or open-source contributions.

• Solid communications and organizational skills, and ability to work successfully in a team environment .

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:

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:

$123,600.00 - $200,100.00Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$109,900.00 - $181,600.00* 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.