AI Researcher Technical Lead, Security AI Full-time

The application window is expected to close on January 3, 2025
Who We Are

The Cisco Security AI team delivers AI products and platform for all Cisco secure products and portfolios so businesses around the world defend against threats and safeguard the most vital aspects of business with security resilience. We are passionate about making businesses secure and simplify security with zero compromise using AI and Machine Learning. We are dedicated to harnessing data both at rest and in streaming, to drive innovation and empower organizations to make informed decisions about security.
What You Will Do

As an AI Researcher Technical Lead for our Security AI team, you will be responsible for leading an innovative team focused on the following:

• Model Training, Optimization, and Evaluation: This encompasses the complete cycle of training, fine-tuning, and validating language models. You will be designing and adapting LLMs for use in virtual assistants, automated chatbots, content recommendation systems, etc.
• Algorithm Development for Enhanced Language Understanding: Focusing on the development or refinement of algorithms to improve the efficiency and accuracy of language models and understanding and generation tasks.
• Applying LLMs to Cybersecurity: Tailoring language models for cybersecurity purposes, such as analyzing threat intelligence, detecting cyber threats, and automating responses to security incidents.
• Experimentation with Emerging Technologies and Methods: Actively exploring new technologies and methodologies in language model development, including experimental frameworks and software tools.
• Mentoring and Collaboration: Providing mentorship to team members and working collaboratively with disparate teams to ensure cohesive development and implementation of language model projects.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree with 8+ years or Master’s degree with 6+ years or PhD with 3+ years of software development experience to include industry experience in machine learning and AI research.
• 4+ years of experience in natural language processing tools to include experience with large language models (LLMs), text classification, sentiment analysis and natural language generation.
• 2+ years of experience in Generative AI (GenAI) to include experience with prompt engineering, fine tuning of LLMs, and reasoning-based systems.
• 2+ years of experience leading, coaching and mentoring engineering teams in a direct or indirect capacity

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in security focused Saas providers
• Experience scaling cloud based solutions at an enterprise level
• Experience in applied science/research
• Skilled in data preprocessing, cleaning, and analysis, with the ability to work with large datasets and extract meaningful insights.
• Bbackground in conducting research, designing experiments, publishing papers, and keeping current with the latest advancements in LLMs.
• The capacity to think critically and tackle complex, innovative problems in the field.
• A willingness to continuously learn and adapt, crucial in the ever-evolving field of AI.

Why Cisco Secure

We’re global, we’re adaptable, we’re diverse, and our security portfolio is as extensive as it is groundbreaking. Have you heard of Threat, Detection & Response, Zero Trust by Duo, Common Services Engineering, or Cloud & Network Security? Those are only a few of our product teams! The only thing we’re missing is YOU.

Join an enterprise security leader with a start-up culture, committed to driving innovation and giving you the opportunity to make an impact. We #InnovateToWin and we know we’re better together, that’s why we’re dedicated to inclusivity, collaboration, and diversity in everything we do.

We’re proud to be the Best Small and Mid-Size Enterprises Security Solution Cisco Secure continues to grow and evolve year after year with 100% of Fortune 100 Companies using our products, and we’re excited to see the new heights we’ll reach with your passion for security, your customer focus, and your desire to change things up!

There are so many amazing reasons to join Cisco. Learn more !

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.