Software Technical Leader

The application window is expected to close on: 10/26/2026

Meet the Team

The Ingest Processor Team is the foundational engine of the Splunk Integrated Data Platform, responsible for the architecture and evolution of high-throughput pipelines that process petabytes of data for real-time observability and security. Our work spans the Cisco and Splunk portfolio and sets the technical direction for mission-critical ingestion capabilities used by global enterprise customers. We are a collaborative engineering organization that values secure and maintainable code, rigorous testing, data-informed decisions, and pragmatic architecture. In this strategic individual contributor role, you will shape technology and engineering priorities across teams while remaining close to the hardest distributed systems problems in the platform.

Your Impact

Translate regional and functional strategy into a long-term technical vision for the ingestion platform, with clear engineering priorities and alignment across teams. Lead major, multi-team initiatives that advance the scale, performance, security, reliability, and cost efficiency of the Splunk platform. Set architectural direction by making whole-system trade-offs and defining new platform capabilities where customer needs require them. Influence product and program priorities, delivery timing, and technical specifications with engineering, product, and cross-functional leaders. Establish standards and sustainable processes for software development, production issue identification, response, and continuous improvement. Mentor and influence senior engineers, strengthen knowledge-sharing practices, and represent the team's technical work within the broader professional community.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field plus 12+ years of related experience; or a Master's degree plus 8+ years; or a PhD plus 5+ years of related experience.

• Expertise in large-scale distributed systems, high-volume data ingestion, streaming architectures, and the performance and reliability patterns required for petabyte-scale production platforms.

• Specialized depth and broad technical acumen in Go or Java, including concurrency, memory management, secure coding, testing, debugging, and performance optimization in complex production systems.

• Experience translating business or product strategy into a technical vision and lead major engineering programs that span multiple teams, a business segment, a function, or a region.

• Experience defining architecture and engineering standards across teams, including observability, incident response, root-cause analysis, risk reduction, and continuous improvement for production systems.

• Experience with cloud-native infrastructure and distributed data technologies, including Kubernetes, microservices, distributed storage, messaging or streaming systems, and public-cloud platforms.

Preferred Qualifications

• Industry or thought leadership in scale, performance, distributed-system design patterns, or real-time data platforms, demonstrated through broad organizational impact, technical publications, or external presentations.

• Exceptional ability to influence technical and product direction, build durable relationships with key stakeholders, and negotiate trade-offs in timing, design, and specifications across organizational boundaries.

• A strong record of mentoring and influencing senior engineers, improving knowledge-sharing systems, and raising technical judgment, code quality, and operational excellence across teams.

• Demonstrated product sense and customer focus, including the ability to define meaningful success metrics, drive adoption, anticipate unmet needs, and apply emerging technologies to create durable customer value.

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.

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. 

Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:

The starting salary range posted for this position is $162,300.00 to $234,800.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits.

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 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. 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:

$214,100.00 - $356,300.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$192,400.00 - $317,200.00

* 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.