Software Engineer Technical Leader – Network Data Plane – Hypershield at Cisco
Nashville, TN
$210,600–$305,100from the description
Jul 24, 2026
Nashville, TN
Jul 26, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior individual-contributor engineering role focused on building data plane software for a new Smart Switch platform that uses Data Processing Units. Day-to-day work spans writing production C/C++ code on Linux, packet processing, performance tuning, debugging, and architecture reviews. Suited to engineers with deep networking protocol knowledge and extensive systems programming experience, ideally including DPDK or DPU/SmartNIC development.
Senior level · 10+ years · San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA · Bachelor's required · Full-time
Advertised as Staff, but the requirements read as Senior.
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 8 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 660 people in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 170–860
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $217,796 (middle half $177,469–$231,052). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (9)
The title 'Software Engineer Technical Leader' is Cisco's internal framing for a senior individual contributor tech lead (explicitly described as 'highly technical, hands-on individual contributor role'), not a people manager — 15-1252 Software Developers is the right fit.
Advertised seniority is set to Staff based on the 'Technical Leader' framing and cross-team technical influence described, but the actual requirements (10–12+ years, component-level ownership) are consistent with a Senior band; the role does not demonstrate genuine org-wide authority typical of a Staff/Principal designation.
The JD states a degree requirement with tiered experience offsets: Bachelor's + 12 yrs, Master's + 10 yrs, or PhD + 7 yrs. The minimum total experience floor is 10 years (Master's path); the degree requirement is set to Bachelors as the lowest qualifying degree, and the overall years minimum reflects the lowest experience gate (10 years).
C and C++ are listed together ('C or C++') in the requirements; they are emitted as separate skills since both are distinct languages used in the stack, but each carries the other as an alternative to reflect the 'or' framing in the JD.
DPDK is listed with 'networking stacks, or similar technologies' — no other specific tool is named, so no alternatives are populated beyond the open-ended qualifier.
Layer 2 and Layer 3 networking knowledge are required but are protocol/domain knowledge rather than named tools; they are included because the JD explicitly gates on them as distinct knowledge areas.
DPU/SmartNIC experience and P4 appear under 'Preferred Qualifications' and are marked accordingly.
The salary range ($210,600–$305,100) is the general US/Canada base range stated in the posting; state-specific ranges (NYC metro up to $350,800; non-metro NY/WA up to $312,200) are also noted but the general range is used for the comp fields. The posting notes this excludes incentive compensation and equity.
No specific work location city is stated in the posting; Cisco's Security Business Group is headquartered in San Jose, CA, which is used as the default CBSA.
Read the full posting
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