Cisco

Overview

As a Lead AI Researcher, you will serve as a foundational architect for Cisco's proprietary intelligence, directly influencing how we secure and automate the global network. You will bridge the gap between cutting-edge generative AI research and real-world infrastructure.

About 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.

Requirements & Eligibility

• Bachelor’s degree in STEM with 12+ years of experience or a Master’s degree in STEM with 8+ years of experience, or a PhD in STEM or a related technical field with 5+ years of relevant research experience
• Experience leading or contributing to at least one full-cycle pre-training, distillation based pre-training or continual pre-training project for a Large Language Model (LLM) or foundational model
• Minimum of 3 peer-reviewed publications in top-tier AI venues such as ACL, EMNLP, ICLR, ICML, NAACL, or NeurIPS
• 3+ years of experience utilizing PyTorch or TensorFlow to implement and train models on distributed computing clusters
• 2+ years of experience applying machine learning models to networking, data center, security, or observability datasets

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the development of purpose-built large language models to secure and optimize Cisco’s proprietary networking, security, data center, and observability infrastructure
• Drive advanced pre-training initiatives to build foundational models that provide unique, competitive value across our product portfolio
• Conduct innovative research in generative AI to improve model capabilities for networking automation and human-computer interaction
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams of engineers and strategists to integrate research breakthroughs into tangible business solutions
• Establish Cisco as a global thought leader by publishing research in top-tier AI venues and contributing to the broader scientific community