Security Research Engineering Technical Leader

This is a remote role and work may be performed anywhere in the contiguous United States.

Meet the Team

We're the team behind the security of Cisco's platforms, tools, and applications. Our portfolio spans applications, networking platforms, cloud solutions, and automation platforms. We're AI-forward. We're building a framework that puts AI to work at every step, a framework that drives a risk-based Security Development Lifecycle and clears away the manual bottlenecks that slow security down, so security scales right alongside the business. We own software security across the full range of product technology in scope, spanning application, cloud, identity, data, and supply chain. We act as a strategic partner to Product Management, Engineering, and Product leadership. Together, we keep software security risk understood, managed, and aligned with Cisco's broader business risk posture.

Your Impact

As a Security Research Engineering Technical Leader, you are the security authority for the product portfolio. You are the person engineering and platform teams turn to when security, architecture, and delivery pressures collide. Earning that trust requires a sharp, risk-based instinct and the independence to act on it. You will be responsible for the full arc of portfolio risk, maintaining a current, data-backed view of security posture. You will translate threat trends, architectural shifts, and security debt into priorities that product and engineering leadership can act on, while advising and influencing across Product Management, Engineering, IT/Enterprise Operations, and Business Information Security Officer partners to align security priorities with business objectives. You will set the architecture bar, reviewing and approving secure designs across the portfolio, adapting "security by design" and "security by default" to each context, and making architecture trade-off calls. You will lead threat modeling portfolio-wide, adjusting depth and technique to the system at hand, ensuring every model is defensible, evidence-based, and tied directly to design decisions. AI adds a new frontier, and you will meet it head-on by integrating AI securely into in-scope platforms, applying Software Security AI frameworks, and advocating for AI capabilities that strengthen security outcomes. You will threat-model and think like an attacker, coordinating Security SMEs in areas like cryptography and identity, and presenting prioritized lists of unmitigated security risks at release or delivery. Finally, you will define and lead all aspects of the security engineering metrics that drive the portfolio, including risk reduction, mean time to remediate, security debt, and developer adoption, turning data into sharper decisions.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelors + 8 years of related experience, or Masters + 6 years of related experience, or PhD + 3 years of related experience, or equivalent related work experience.
• Proven experience leading threat modeling and secure design/architecture reviews for complex software systems, including AI- and LLM-enabled features.
• Demonstrated experience interpreting SAST, DAST, and SCA results and translating findings into risk-based, evidence-backed remediation guidance.
• Extensive experience integrating security controls into modern CI/CD pipelines and cloud-native environments, including Kubernetes and containers.
• Validated ability to influence engineering and product leadership and drive security outcomes across teams without direct authority.

Preferred Qualifications

• Depth in one or more specialized areas: identity and access management, cryptography, data security, application security, or software supply chain security (including SBOM generation, artifact signing, and SLSA-aligned practices).
• Experience partnering with internal information technology, operations, or platform engineering teams on applications and workflow/automation platforms.
• Experience defining and using security metrics to influence roadmap and investment decisions.
• Advanced knowledge of emerging security threats, vulnerability research, and industry-standard security frameworks.
• Relevant industry certifications such as CISSP, CSSLP, CCSP, or GIAC.

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:

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.