Systems Application Engineer (SAE)

The application window is expected to close on 12/23/2025

The job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.

This is a hybrid position requiring you to work onsite at Cisco's Seattle office location 3 to 4 days per week, with the remaining 1 to 2 days spent at customer locations within the Seattle area.

Join the Acacia team, which takes pride in providing and fostering a collaborative environment to ensure success and personal growth. The Acacia Communications team designs intelligent transceivers using advanced signal processing and photonic integration for the 100G, 400G, 1T bit speed and beyond fiber optic transmission market deployed in data centers, metros, long-haul, and ultra-long-haul telecommunication networks. You will collaborate with our entire R&D teams (e.g., DSP, ASIC, Optics, Software, Photonics, and Hardware)

• You will be a member of the SAE team working to support all coherent and non-coherent products.

• Work closely with our customers' internal R&D teams to ensure the highest level of customer satisfaction with our highly complex, coherent optical products.

• Influence future product feature development and current product modifications.

• Provide technical guidance, educate, and partner with our customers to ensure successful application of Acacia products.

• Work closely with Technical Marketing to provide vital technical information about our customers' use cases and system needs.

• Advocate and communicate internally for customer product needs and standard-based features.

• Author application notes, product specifications, and Python scripts; contribute to technical presentations and marketing documents.

• Provide full life cycle technical support for Acacia products in HW and SW, including future roadmap discussions, alpha sample test support, host card development, system verification, and field issue resolution.

• Enabling our customers and partners to ensure their successful development and deployment of next-generation telecom systems for carriers, network operators, and data centers.

• Bachelor's degree in electrical or computer science or optical engineering with 6+ years of experience in optical communications, Master's degree with 4+ years of experience, or a PhD with 2+ years of experience or equivalent experience.

• Experience in OTN or optical network and Ethernet technologies

• Experience with managed electrical/optical components, inter and intra-function operations in switch and router platforms and Data Center Infrastructures.

• Familiar with CMIS, and various 3rd party host platforms and network management tools.

• Coding/scripting experience (e.g., C++, Python, and JSON).

• Direct experience with electrical transceiver applications, including backplane and cable communications

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.

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 ofunused sick timecarried forwardfrom one calendar yearto 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:

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

* 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.