Technical Leader - CX Engineering Productivity
Cisco · San Jose, United States · 1d ago
***This is a hybrid role and we are looking for candidates local to RTP, NC or San Jose, CA only***
Meet the Team
The Engineering Productivity team makes Cisco CX Engineering faster, safer, and more effective at scale. We own the developer platform, build and test infrastructure, CI/CD, developer tooling, and AI-assisted development — the systems every engineer touches from the first keystroke to production. We eliminate toil, shorten feedback loops, and build paved roads that engineers choose because they're the fastest way to ship. We're the connective tissue across Platform, Application, Product, Security, and Operations, and we bridge those silos through deep technical expertise, strong relationships, and a relentless focus on developer experience. If you thrive where your work directly determines how quickly and confidently engineers build, test, and release software — including AI/ML systems — and where you can shape technical strategy across the organization, this is the team for you.
Your Impact
As an Engineering Productivity Technical Leader, you'll serve as a key technical liaison and force multiplier across the organization:
Strategic Leadership
Drive Productivity Strategy: Shape technical strategy across the developer platform, CI/CD, build and test infrastructure, tooling, and AI-assisted development — aligning initiatives with business objectives in an AI-first world.
Build Bridges: Connect Platform, Application, Product, Security, and Operations to find and remove the friction that slows engineers down, delivering solutions that transcend organizational boundaries.
Champion a Productivity Culture: Evangelize measurement (DORA, SPACE), golden paths, and continuous improvement of the developer experience across traditional and AI/ML workflows.
Technical Excellence
Build the Internal Developer Platform: Design self-service platforms, golden paths, and paved roads that let teams provision, build, and deploy without waiting on anyone.
Optimize the Inner Loop: Deliver fast local and cloud development environments, dev containers, and quick feedback so engineers spend less time waiting and more time building.
Modernize CI/CD and Build Systems: Deliver fast, reliable pipelines with build caching and incremental builds, merge queues, and quality gates that catch problems early without slowing delivery.
Instrument Developer Productivity: Establish metrics and observability for the whole software delivery lifecycle — DORA metrics, cycle time, build and test health, and DevEx signals — so decisions are grounded in data.
Integrate AI into Development: Bring AI code assistants, AI-assisted review, test generation, and agentic development workflows into the everyday toolchain to accelerate productivity.
Ensure Platform Reliability: Keep the productivity platform, CI/CD, and developer tooling themselves resilient and performant, with ambitious availability targets for the systems engineers depend on daily.
Influence & Collaboration
Partner Externally: Build relationships with vendors, open-source communities, and industry peers to stay ahead of emerging tools and bring innovations to Cisco.
Partner Internally: Build relationships across Platform, Application, Security, Operations, and Product teams to understand technical and business needs. Gather and prioritize requirements from engineering and security stakeholders, run feedback loops on developer experience and tooling adoption, and lead technical reviews and knowledge-sharing initiatives to drive continuous improvement in productivity, automation, and quality.
Mentor & Develop: Provide technical leadership and coaching, elevating capabilities in platform engineering, developer experience, and automation.
Stay Future-Ready: Keep abreast of emerging trends in developer productivity, platform engineering, build systems, and AI-assisted and agentic development. Be ready to rapidly implement and iterate on cutting-edge solutions that make engineers more productive.
Minimum Qualifications:
10+ years in engineering productivity, developer platforms, DevOps, build/release, or infrastructure engineering with demonstrated technical leadership progression
BS or MS in Engineering, STEM or related field
Proven track record designing and implementing developer platforms, tooling, or CI/CD and build systems that serve multiple teams
Preferred Qualifications:
Experience building internal developer platforms, platform-as-a-service offerings, or developer portals (e.g., Backstage)
Experience in productivity measurement and delivery practices, including DORA metrics, SLOs, quality gates, and CI/CD
Cross-organizational influence with the ability to build consensus and drive adoption of technical strategies and tooling
Expertise with CI/CD and GitOps platforms (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, ArgoCD, Flux) and modern build systems (Bazel, monorepo tooling, remote/build caching)
Depth in test infrastructure — fast and reliable test suites, flaky-test management, and test observability
Proficiency with IaC tools (Terraform, CloudFormation) and cloud-native platforms (Kubernetes, AWS, Azure, GCP)
Proficiency in Python, Go, or Java with strong scripting and automation skills
Experience instrumenting the SDLC with observability tooling (Splunk, OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana) for build, test, and delivery health
Hands-on experience integrating AI-assisted and agentic development tools (code assistants, AI-driven review, test generation) into engineering workflows
Familiarity with DevEx research methods (developer surveys, SPACE framework) to quantify and improve developer experience
Strong communication skills with the ability to influence technical decisions across organizational levels
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 $214,100.00 to $309,800.00 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:
$214,100.00 - $356,300.00Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:
$192,400.00 - $317,200.00* 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.