Systems Hardware Engineer

Meet the Team

Join our high-impact Systems & Optics (SaO) team within Cisco's Common Hardware Group (CHG), providing essential support across key verticals including SP Routing, Enterprise Routing, and Switching. Our team is a foundational partner across CHG-driving innovation, advancing design reliability, and enabling scalable hardware solutions that power Cisco's most critical products.

Your Impact

You will help shape next-generation system technologies by driving advanced simulation, experimental validation, and cross-functional optimization. Working closely with System Architects, Silicon Design, Supply Chain, Optical and Electrical Design teams, your contributions will directly influence reliability, performance, and manufacturability across programs-while also supporting long-term technology roadmaps and industry leadership. Specific responsibilities include:

• Develop and apply novel simulation and experimental methods to enable and optimize advanced hardware technologies. This includes but is not limited to scalable system reliability analysis to predict availability and establish failure rate targets at the system, module and component level.
• Partner with team members to design and execute DOEs/test vehicles and computational analyses to establish design guidelines and optimize material, geometry, and architecture.
• Drive and evaluate system level tradeoffs across performance (power, thermal, signal-integrity etc.), reliability, manufacturability and cost using modeling and analysis.
• Define failure limits and reliability testing requirements through both physical validation and accelerated testing models.
• Act as the technical lead on one (or more) projects, coordinating crossfunctional contributors.
• Collaborate with academic and industry partners; contribute to standards bodies, conferences, IP development, and peer-reviewed publications.

Minimum Qualifications:

• MS or PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering or similar.
• 6+ years of experience in statistical analysis and advanced system level lifetime prediction.
• Strong background in mechanical design, reliability, and simulation of complex structures, with a deep understanding of board-level and system-level failure modes (e.g., warpage, CTE mismatch, delamination, fatigue).
• Proficiency in advanced simulation tools such as Reliasoft Weibull++ and Blocksim, with a track record of validating models through experimental methods.
• Demonstrated expertise in reliability testing, lifetime prediction methodologies, and characterization of real-world use conditions.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with Hyper-scaler architecture systems and tradeoffs
• Knowledge of simulation and data-driven risk assessments to steer architecture choices and long-term reliability
• Track record of contributions to the industry in the field of system reliability analysis and experience with developing system level design for reliability guidelines
• Strong cross-functional collaboration skills with experience working closely with design, manufacturing, and research teams.

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. Simply put - we power the future.

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.