Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Cisco is a leading technology company focused on creating solutions that connect and protect organizations in the AI era. They are seeking a Principal Machine Learning Engineer to define the strategic vision for AI and foundation models, lead research and deployment for large-scale models, and mentor technical talent across teams.
Responsibilities
- Set and Drive Vision: Define and champion the strategic vision for AI and foundation models across Splunk and Cisco platforms, shaping the research and technology roadmap to anticipate and address industry‑defining challenges
- Architect and Lead Breakthroughs: Lead the end‑to‑end lifecycle of research, design, and deployment for large‑scale foundation models targeting machine‑generated data, with deep focus on logs and complementary modalities (time series, traces, events)
- Influence at Scale: Partner with executive leadership, engineering, product, and data science teams to ensure AI solutions align with broader organizational objectives, product strategies, and customer needs
- Mentorship and Thought Leadership: Cultivate organizational excellence by mentoring senior technical talent, fostering research communities, and driving best practices in AI across global teams
- Foster Innovation: Embed cutting‑edge research and technological advances into products, driving sustained competitive advantage and transformation at enterprise scale
Skills
- PhD in Computer Science, or related quantitative field, plus 7+ years of industry research experience
- Proven track record in at least one of the following areas: large language modeling for both structure and unstructured data, deep learning‑based time series modeling, advanced anomaly detection, and multi-modality modeling
- Solid proficiency in Python and deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow)
- Experience translating research ideas into production systems
- Deep NLP & Domain‑Adapted LLMs: Background in building and adapting large‑scale language models (e.g., T5, BERT, LLaMA, GPTs) for specialized domains including structured/unstructured logs, text, and event sequences
- Log Analytics Expertise – In‑depth knowledge of structured/unstructured system logs, event sequence analysis, anomaly detection, and root cause identification
- Advanced Anomaly Detection – Experience creating robust, scalable approaches (statistical, deep learning, or hybrid) for high‑volume, real‑time logs data
- Multi‑Modal AI Modeling – Strong track record fusing logs, time series, traces, tabular data, and graphs for foundation models tackling complex operational insights
- Large‑Scale Training & Optimization – Experience optimizing model architectures, distributed training pipelines, and inference efficiency to minimize cost and latency while preserving accuracy
- MLOps & Continuous Learning – Fluency in automated retraining, drift detection, incremental updates, and production monitoring of ML models
- Strong Research Track Record – Publications in top AI/ML conferences or journals (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, AAAI, CVPR, ACL, KDD) demonstrating contributions to state‑of‑the‑art methods and real‑world applications
Benefits
- Medical, dental and vision insurance
- A 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution
- Paid parental leave
- Short and long-term disability coverage
- Basic life insurance
- Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.
- 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.
Company Overview
Company H1B Sponsorship