AI Researcher

The application window is expected to close on: 09/21/2026 Meet the Team Join Cisco's AI Platform Team to shape the future of enterprise AI. We're building next-generation infrastructure that powers intelligent, secure, and scalable AI solutions across Cisco's ecosystem—from advancing Small Language Model capabilities and building Agentic frameworks to ensuring trustworthy AI deployment at scale. You'll join as a core member of our team, working with AI researchers, data scientists, and engineers to transform research into real business impact. In this role, you'll translate cutting-edge AI research into production solutions for internal business units and external customers. If you're passionate about solving hard technical problems and shaping how AI transforms the enterprise, this is where you'll make it happen.

As an Applied AI Researcher, you will work with other AI researchers to take methods from paper and prototype into production models on NeuralFabric—domain models, RL, and agent simulation that Cisco and customers can actually use. Partner with AI researchers to design, train, and fine-tune Small Language Models for network, security, observability, and operations problems using current post-training techniques. Advance reinforcement learning, Auto Gym, and agent-simulation methods with the research team, and turn those methods into reusable training and evaluation recipes on the platform. Define evaluation methods and promotion gates with researchers and engineers so model quality is measurable and repeatable. Stay current with LLMs, SLMs, multi-modal models, and agents, and apply that research to internal and customer use cases through technical deep-dives—not as a dedicated forward-deployment owner.

PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field with 5+ years of experience in applied AI/ML research or engineering. Experience independently designing, training, and fine-tuning language models for production or applied research use. Previous use of Python and deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX, or Hugging Face Transformers. Experience with advanced post-training methods such as LoRA, QLoRA, PEFT, instruction tuning, supervised fine-tuning, or reinforcement learning from human or AI feedback. Track record of leading applied AI projects from research through production deployment, with documented outcomes across more than one domain or problem.

Publications in top AI conferences such as ACL, EMNLP, ICLR, ICML, NAACL, or NeurIPS. Experience with Small Language Models, efficient architectures, model compression, reinforcement learning, gym-style training environments, or agent evaluation harnesses. Familiarity with networking, cybersecurity, observability, or IT operations domains. Experience with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), advanced evaluation methodologies, and model promotion or lineage gates. Ability to work closely with other AI researchers and engineers, explain technical work and collaborate with business-unit or customer partners when a use case requires it. 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,