# Lead AI Researcher

**Company**: Cisco
**Location**: Seattle or San Jose
**Work arrangement**: hybrid
**Experience**: senior
**Job type**: full-time
**Salary**: $216,300.00 - $280,800.00
**Category**: Engineering
**Industry**: Technology

**Apply**: https://cisco.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Cisco_Careers/job/Milpitas-California-US/Lead-AI-Researcher--Hybrid-_2022010?utm_source=yubhub.co&utm_medium=jobs_feed&utm_campaign=apply
**Canonical**: https://yubhub.co/jobs/job_67262d35-e68

## Description

The Cisco AI Research team is seeking a Lead AI Researcher to serve as a foundational architect for Cisco's proprietary intelligence. You will lead the development of purpose-built large language models to secure and optimize Cisco's proprietary networking, security, data center, and observability infrastructure.

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.

Minimum Qualifications:

- 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, including dataset curation, tokenization strategy, and training pipeline execution.

- 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 (e.g., environments utilizing 100+ GPUs).

- 2+ years of experience applying machine learning models to networking, data center, security, or observability datasets to solve complex system-level problems.

Preferred Qualifications:

- Experience working in an industrial research lab environment, driving projects from conceptual research to practical application.

- Subject matter expertise in networking, cybersecurity, or observability, and the ability to apply AI to these complex domains.

- Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to influence technical direction and build consensus among stakeholders.

- Proven ability to translate abstract research findings into innovative, scalable product features.

Benefits:

- Medical, dental, and vision insurance

- 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution

- Paid parental leave

- Short and long-term disability coverage

- Basic life insurance

- Paid time away (vacation, holidays, sick time)

- Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer

Salary Range: $216,300.00 - $280,800.00

## Skills

### Required
- PyTorch
- TensorFlow
- Large Language Models
- Generative AI
- Networking Automation
- Machine Learning

### Nice to have
- Industrial Research Lab Environment
- Networking
- Cybersecurity
- Observability
- Communication Skills

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Source: [Apply at cisco.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com](https://cisco.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Cisco_Careers/job/Milpitas-California-US/Lead-AI-Researcher--Hybrid-_2022010?utm_source=yubhub.co&utm_medium=jobs_feed&utm_campaign=apply)