Technical Lead Jobs in San Francisco, CA

The application window is expected to close on: 12/13/2026

Meet the Team

Join Cisco's Network Platform Technical Marketing Engineering team, which helps customers, partners, and sales teams use Catalyst Center and Meraki Dashboard APIs, automation, and integrations at enterprise scale. We work with Product Management, Engineering, Support, Customer Experience, and account teams to validate customer outcomes and turn technical findings into reusable guidance and product feedback. Our team values hands-on testing, clear explanations, and collaborative problem solving as network operations evolve.

Your Impact

Lead hands-on validation of Catalyst Center and Meraki Dashboard API use cases for enterprise customers and partners. Build and troubleshoot integrations with ITSM, CMDB, and telemetry platforms, including ServiceNow and Splunk, to make automation patterns reliable and reusable. Develop Python examples and infrastructure as code workflows with Ansible and Terraform that help field teams operate at scale. Prototype and evaluate MCP-based AI agent and AgenticOps for network triage and remediation. Resolve complex escalations with Engineering, Product Management, TAC, and Customer Experience, then turn the findings into improved API behavior and reusable technical guidance that helps customers adopt automation at scale.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, networking, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience; 12+ years of relevant experience or Master’s degree + 8 years of related experience or PhD + 5 years of related experience.
• Experience building and troubleshooting integrations with Cisco Catalyst Center or similar management platform.
• Experience integrating network controllers with ITSM, CMDB, or telemetry platforms.
• Experience with automating workflows with Ansible, Terraform or similar frameworks.
• Experience developing or prototyping AI agent workflows that invoke network APIs.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with ServiceNow Service Graph Connector, ITSM/ITOM and CMDB workflows, or Splunk integrations.
• Experience with Catalyst Center 2.3.7.x, 3.x, and Meraki Dashboard API behavior, release migrations, API contract review, and SDK usability.
• Cisco DevNet Professional or Expert or CCIE certification, or contributions to network automation projects and technical content.
• Experience leading cross-functional customer escalations, presenting to technical and executive audiences, and mentoring engineers.
• Python development experience with REST and OpenAPI, JSON/YAML payloads, authentication, and model-driven network interfaces such as NETCONF, RESTCONF, or YANG.

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 $194,600.00 to $285,700.00 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:

$194,600.00 - $328,600.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$179,000.00 - $294,000.00

• 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.