AI Researcher

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Meet The Team

The Cisco's AI Software and Platform team consists of AI research scientists, data scientists, and network engineers with subject matter expertise who collaborate on both basic and applied research projects. We are motivated by tackling unique research challenges that arise when connecting people and devices at a world-wide scale.

You will join a newly formed, dynamic AI team as one of the core members, and have the opportunity to influence the culture and direction of the growing team. Our team includes AI experts and networking domain experts who work together and learn from each other. We work closely with engineers, product managers and strategists who have deep expertise and experience in AI and/or distributed systems.

Plans, conducts, analyzes, and shares research that advances the field of AI, as it relates to networking, security, programming, human-computer interaction, or other strategic areas in computer science. Utilizes expertise in AI and research methodologies to develop research plans, build models, run experiments, and provide models and solutions to relevant teams. Serves as research strategy liaison to engineers and product managers and works collaboratively with product management, engineering, and design teams to identify business and AI research goals. Summarizes and communicates results to all relevant partners and stakeholders to influence decisions.

• Leads the design, execution, and analysis of AI research initiatives, leveraging expertise in multiple methodologies to advance networking, security, programming, human-computer interaction, and other strategic computer science areas.

• Collaborates with engineering, product management, and design teams to identify research opportunities, define business and AI research goals, and develop long-term research plans that influence product direction and organizational strategy.

• Communicates research findings, develops standards and guidelines for AI adoption, and acts as a liaison and spokesperson for AI research within Cisco and at industry forums.

• Drives integration of emerging technologies and ethical standards, leveraging both internal and external data to optimize business performance and set frameworks grounded in customer insights.

• Mentors peers, facilitates knowledge sharing, and shapes the direction of AI research by synthesizing findings, generating novel hypotheses, and influencing both internal teams and the broader AI community.

• PhD in Computer Science or a relevant technical field and 10+ years of experience within an industry or academic research lab or a Masters Degree and 6+ years of experience within an industry or academic research lab and a minimum of 3 publications within top AI Venues such as ACL, EMNLP, ICLR, ICML, NAACL, NeurIPS

• Experience working with Machine Learning Models (MLMs) and familiarity with associated frameworks, such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, Hugging Face, or equivalent platforms

• Experience driving research projects within an industry or university lab

• Interest in combining representation learning and problem-specific properties

• Experience in building, fine-tuning foundation models including LLMs and multi-modal models or domain specific models

• Ability to maintain cutting-edge knowledge in generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), and multi-modal models and apply these technologies innovatively to emerging business problems, use cases, and scenarios

• Outstanding communication, interpersonal, relationship building skills conducive to collaboration

• Experience working in an industrial research lab (full-time, internship, sabbatical, etc.)

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.