AI Infrastructure Engineer – HPC Full-time

Who We Are

Today’s ambitious business environment is more than that – it’s a period of disruption between the pandemic, global business changes, and internal process complexity. For us to focus on simplicity and the best customer experience, we need great talent and the right abilities to be successful. This is now a mantra for our Cisco leadership team and for us.

Cisco’s Information Technology team is changing the way we run Cisco’s operations by improving the power of technology, the best business processes, and outstanding data insights. Together, we will Reinvent the Cisco experience. Show the world how to Reinvent applications and demonstrate the future of the Internet to Showcase the power of Cisco: our people, products, processes, systems, and data. Please join us and make this journey together!

Who You’ll Work With

When you work with us, you will work as part of a hardware and software engineering team that designs and develops Hybrid-Cloud compute platforms and capabilities that are crucial to keeping Cisco’s critical business applications and processes available.

Who You Are

You are an experienced technical leader in artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics, software engineering, and managing complex integrated systems. An excellent collaborator who can partner, lead, teach, and communicate advanced technical concepts. A talented and passionate engineer comfortable working in high-pressure, large-scale enterprise environments.

What You Will Do

Cisco IT is building, developing, and expanding our artificial intelligence platform, which will empower the business to fundamentally change the world. You will be a technical leader in the Infrastructure Services organization, building and managing the internal NVIDIA DGX and Cisco-UCS based AI platforms at Cisco. You will provide leadership in the design and implementation of several GPU compute clusters that run demanding deep learning, high-performance computing, and computationally intensive workloads. You will be responsible for AI hardware analysis, design, procurement, and support. You will be an expert in identifying architectural changes and/or completely innovative approaches for our artificial intelligence platform.

• Technical leader who can lead and motivate teams, present, and communicate complex topics.
• Technical hands-on role in building and supporting NVIDIA & Cisco UCS based artificial intelligence platforms.
• Plan, build, and install/upgrade new systems that support NVIDIA DGX and Cisco UCS hardware and software.
• Automate configuration management, software updates, and maintenance and monitoring of GPU system availability using modern DevOps tools (Ansible, GitLab, etc.).
• Lead the advancement of artificial intelligence platforms and practices.
• Evaluate system performance based on industry-relevant benchmarks.
• Identify and optimize performance bottlenecks to drive system and workflow efficiency.
• Administer Linux systems, ranging from powerful GPU-enabled servers to general-purpose compute systems.
• Collaborate closely with internal Cisco Business Units, application teams, and cross-functional technical domains.
• Create written technical designs, documents, and presentations.
• Stay up to date with AI industry advancements and cutting-edge technologies.
• Accelerate the delivery of AI capabilities across our portfolio.
• Design new tools to monitor alerts that will help discover failures or issues before our customers.
• Maintain services once they are live by measuring and monitoring availability, latency, and overall system health.

Our Minimum Requirements include:

• 7+ years of previous experience deploying and administrating HPC clusters
• Familiar with GPU resource scheduling managers (Slurm (preferred), Kubernetes, and/or RunAI, etc.).
• Proficient in Hybrid Cloud, Virtualization, and Container technologies.
• Experience with provisioning tools like Base Command Manager, Warewulf, Satellite, and/or Ironic.
• Experience with Agile and DevOps operating models, including project tracking tools (e.g., Jira), Git (any Version Control systems), and CI/CD systems (e.g., GitLab, GitHub Actions, Jenkins).
• Experience with automation tools like Ansible, SaltStack, Puppet and/or Chef
• Proficient in general-purpose programming languages (Python, GoLang, Bash and/or C/C++) and development platforms and technologies.

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep understanding of operating systems, computer networks, and high-performance applications.
• Established record of leading technical initiatives, delivering results, and a commitment to fostering a supportive work environment.
• Hard-working, dedicated to providing quality support for your customers.

Why Cisco

#WeAre Cisco, where each person is unique, but we bring our talents to work as a team and make a difference powering an inclusive future for all.

We embrace digital and help our customers implement change in their digital businesses. Some may think we’re “old” (39 years strong) and only about hardware, but we’re also a software company. And a security company. We even invented an intuitive network that adapts, predicts, learns, and protects. No other company can do what we do – you can’t put us in a box! But “Digital Transformation” is an empty buzz phrase without a culture that allows for innovation, creativity, and yes, even failure (if you learn from it).

Day to day, we focus on the give and take. We give our best, give our egos a break, and give of ourselves (because giving back is built into our DNA). We take accountability, bold steps, and take difference to heart. Because without diversity of thought and a dedication to equality for all, there is no moving forward.

So, you have colorful hair? Don’t care. Tattoos? Show off your ink. Like polka dots? That’s cool. Pop culture geek? Many of us are. Passion for technology and world changing? Be you, with us!

Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:

When available, the salary range posted for this position reflects the projected hiring range for new hire, full-time salaries in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including equity or benefits. For non-sales roles the hiring ranges reflect base salary only; employees are also eligible to receive annual bonuses. Hiring ranges for sales positions include base and incentive compensation target. Individual pay is determined by the candidate’s hiring location and additional factors, including but not limited to skillset, experience, and relevant education, certifications, or training. Applicants may not be eligible for the full salary range based on their U.S. or Canada hiring location. The recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.

U.S. employees have to quality medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, short and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance and numerous wellbeing offerings.

Employees receive up to twelve paid holidays per calendar year, which includes one floating holiday (for non-exempt employees), plus a day off for their birthday. Non-Exempt new hires accrue up to 16 days of vacation time off each year, at a rate of 4.92 hours per pay period. Exempt new hires participate in Cisco’s flexible Vacation Time Off policy, which does not place a defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use, but is subject to availability and some business limitations. All new hires are eligible for Sick Time Off subject to Cisco’s Sick Time Off Policy and will have eighty (80) hours of sick time off provided on their hire date and on January 1st of each year thereafter. Up to 80 hours of unused sick time will be carried forward from one calendar year to the next such that the maximum number of sick time hours an employee may have available is 160 hours. Employees in Illinois have a unique time off program designed specifically with local requirements in mind. All employees also have access to paid time away to deal with critical or emergency issues. We offer additional paid time to volunteer and give back to the community.

Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non-quota components. For quota-based incentive pay, Cisco typically pays as follows:

.75% of incentive target for each 1% of revenue attainment up to 50% of quota;

1.5% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 50% and 75%;

1% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 75% and 100%; and once performance exceeds 100% attainment, incentive rates are at or above 1% for each 1% of attainment with no cap on incentive compensation.

For non-quota-based sales performance elements such as strategic sales objectives, Cisco may pay up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.