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