Principal AI Researcher

Meet the Team  The AI Software & Platform Group builds Cisco's enterprise AI platforms and models, bringing together AI with Cisco's networking, security, and observability portfolio. Our research team is working on a fundamental problem: Can we build models that understand how networks behave well enough to operate them autonomously? We are developing world models of networks that learn from topology, telemetry, configuration, traffic, events, and operational history. The goal is to build models that can understand the current state of a network, predict what happens next, simulate the impact of an action, and provide the foundation for self-driving networks.

As a Principal AI Researcher, you will lead research on world models and learning-based approaches for autonomous networks.  Develop world models that learn the state and dynamics of large-scale network environments.  Build models that predict network behavior and the impact of configuration and operational changes. Develop model-based reinforcement learning approaches for network optimization, troubleshooting, and remediation.  Build simulation environments for training and evaluating models and agents before they operate on production networks.  Explore new approaches to representation learning, planning, and sequential decision-making for network environments.  Develop methods to evaluate the reliability and safety of learned policies before deployment.  Work with networking experts and engineers to evaluate research on real network data and systems. Publish research at leading AI/ML conferences and contribute to open-source projects.

Masters in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Autonomous Systems, or a related field, with 8+ years of relevant research experience, or equivalent demonstrated research impact. Research experience in one or more of world models, reinforcement learning, model-based RL, representation learning, planning, or sequential decision-making. 3+ years of hands-on experience building, training, and optimizing deep learning models using PyTorch, JAX, or comparable frameworks, including at least 2 models trained and evaluated at production or research scale. Demonstrated track record of research through publications at leading AI/ML conferences or equivalent research contributions. Ability to take a research problem from an idea through experimentation and working prototype.

Experience building world models, learned simulators, or model-based RL systems. Experience with offline or online reinforcement learning, simulation, or learning from large-scale trajectories. Experience with graph learning or modeling complex dynamic systems. Experience in networking, distributed systems, robotics, autonomous systems, or embodied AI. Experience applying research to real-world systems at scale.   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 $296,300.00 to $374,800.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this