Software Engineer - Forwarding Plane

Meet the Team

The Cisco Distributed System Engineering (DSE) group is at the forefront of developing products that power the largest networks in the world. The networking industry is going through a massive transformation to build the next generation infrastructure to meet the needs of AI/ML workloads and continuously increasing internet users and application. We are uniquely positioned to capture that market transition. This team builds products by harnessing the potential of open-source technologies while pushing the boundaries on Systems and Silicon Architecture.

You will be working among engineers who are passionate about tackling complex technology, building large scale distributed systems and comfortable working with open-source communities and technologies. You will be part of a fast-paced work environment and responsible for end-to-end product development and production support.

Your Impact

• By developing and maintaining platform adaptation layers, you will ensure seamless integration between SONiC and underlying hardware, enhancing the overall system compatibility and performance
• Collaborating with hardware teams to enable optimal hardware-software interactions will expose hardware capabilities through SONiC interfaces, leading to improved system efficiency and performance
• Writing, reviewing, and optimizing code for critical system modules will support high-performance data planes and control planes, ensuring robust and efficient software solutions
• Learning about SONiC and ASIC capabilities will empower you to contribute more effectively to the team, eventually owning a particular feature and becoming responsible for its end-to-end development
• Closely working with project managers, product managers, and test teams will facilitate the development of new code and the resolution of bugs, fostering a collaborative environment that enhances the team's productivity and innovation

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelors + 7 years of related experience, or Masters + 4 years of related experience, or PhD + 1 year of related experience
• Software development experience with Linux based platforms or other like network operating systems
• Experience with C, or C++ or Python
• Experience with networking protocols such as BGP, OSPF, VLAN, ACL, LACP or others.
• Understanding of packet forwarding in network processing unit (NPU) or ASIC

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with virtualization, containerization, and orchestration frameworks
• Knowledge of SDKs from major networking silicon providers (e.g., Broadcom, Marvell, Mellanox)
• Exposure to SONiC or experience working with the SONiC open-source community
• Understanding of telemetry systems and software-defined networking (SDN)
• Experience in CI/CD pipelines and automated testing frameworks
• Experience leading teams or technical projects in a complex development environment

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