Staff Software Engineer, Data & Scalability Platform

Cisco

. Define and drive the multi-quarter technical roadmap for the data platform, including storage, streaming, compute, and measurement tooling .

Posted 10/16/2026full-timeUnited StatesLead💰 $186,900 - $267,700 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates expertise in designing and operating scalable, reliable data-intensive platforms, with a strong focus on performance engineering, observability, and technical leadership. Proficient in backend software engineering and cloud-native technologies, ensuring effective data management and cost efficiency.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Data Platform ArchitecturePerformance EngineeringCloud-Native TechnologiesBackend Software EngineeringTechnical Leadership

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

GoJavaRustC++PythonKubernetesAWSGCPClickHouseOpenTelemetry

Soft Skills

Strong Communication SkillsMentoring

Tools & Technologies

KafkaRabbitMQPulsarKinesisDistributed Task Frameworks

Industry Keywords

Data-Intensive PlatformsScalabilityPerformanceReliabilityMulti-Tenant Isolation

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AWSCloudDistributed SystemsGoogle Cloud PlatformJavaKafkaKubernetesPulsarPythonRabbitMQRustC++Go

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Define and drive the multi-quarter technical roadmap for the data platform, including storage, streaming, compute, and measurement tooling
Lead architecture and evolution of the data plane, including storage-engine selection, sharding, tenancy models, and control/data-plane boundaries
Establish platform-wide standards for schema design, migration safety, data retention, and technical review
Lead capacity and performance modeling and define SLOs
Lead scalability and performance initiatives across data stores, streaming pipelines, and distributed worker fleets
Drive cost efficiency, telemetry unit costs, cost attribution, quotas, and rate limits
Set direction for multi-tenant isolation and noisy-neighbor prevention
Design and build internal load-testing, profiling, benchmarking, and performance frameworks
Establish platform observability standards
Lead production investigations and systemic remediation
Document technology-selection and build-versus-buy decisions with cost, risk, and migration analysis
Partner with engineering leadership and product teams to influence platform direction and investment
Mentor engineers through design reviews, technical standards, and documentation

Requirements

What you’ll need

Bachelor's degree with 8+ years of related experience, or Master's degree with 6+ years, or PhD with 3+ years, in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field
At least 6 years building and/or operating data-intensive backend services and/or platforms
Technical leadership experience setting technical direction, driving multi-quarter initiatives, and/or influencing decisions beyond immediate scope
Experience designing, operating, and/or delivering highly scalable, reliable, production-grade data-intensive platforms
Experience designing large-scale distributed systems and solving scalability, availability, performance, reliability, and/or fault-tolerance problems
Backend software engineering experience with Go, Java, Rust, C++, and/or Python
Experience with cloud-native technologies, Kubernetes, and public cloud platforms such as AWS or GCP
Performance engineering experience including profiling, benchmarking, and load testing
Experience operating and tuning OLTP and analytical, columnar, or time-series databases at production scale
Production experience with streaming or queueing systems such as Kafka, RabbitMQ, Pulsar, or Kinesis
Experience scaling data-processing compute, including concurrency tuning, batching, backpressure, and sustained-load throughput
Experience with ClickHouse or a comparable columnar store at scale
Experience with capacity modeling or FinOps practices
Experience designing multi-tenant isolation and noisy-neighbor mitigation
Experience leading significant production data migrations or storage-engine transitions without customer-visible impact
Experience defining SLOs for data services and driving organizations to meet them
Experience with backup and restore, disaster-recovery drills, RPO/RTO, and data retention or deletion compliance
Experience building observability instrumentation and pipelines, including OpenTelemetry
Experience building or operating performance tooling for other engineers
Experience with distributed task frameworks and worker orchestration at production scale
Familiarity with streaming databases, stream-processing frameworks, distributed query engines, and model-serving infrastructure
Experience supporting stateful systems in cloud/SaaS and air-gapped or on-premises deployments
Experience mentoring senior engineers and raising engineering standards across multiple teams
Strong communication skills for translating performance, capacity, and cost findings into recommendations

Benefits

Comp & perks

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
Cisco restricted stock unit grants may be available
10 paid holidays per full calendar year
1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
1 paid day off for employee’s birthday
Paid year-end holiday shutdown
4 paid days off for personal wellness
16 days of paid vacation for non-exempt employees
Flexible vacation time off program for exempt employees, with no defined limit subject to availability and business limitations
80 hours of sick time on hire date and each January 1st thereafter
Up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward
Additional paid time away for critical or emergency family issues
Optional 10 paid volunteer days per full calendar year
Annual bonuses for non-sales roles, subject to Cisco policies
Incentive compensation for sales-plan employees