Software Technical Leader, Test Automation, Splunk

About this role

The application window is expected to close on: 09/17/2026 Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received .

Meet the Team Are you ready to shape the future of AI-powered quality? We are seeking a visionary Technical Leader to architect the bold roadmap for our AI-agentic Security Operations Center (SOC)! Together, we define the strategic direction that secures the absolute reliability and performance of our most complex systems. We work to mentor world-class engineering talent, drive the adoption of groundbreaking benchmarking, and catalyze the evolution of our quality ecosystems. Join us as we work to transform high-level challenges into scalable, high-impact solutions.

Your Impact This role is designed for a strategic innovator who translates high-level quality challenges into scalable architectural solutions, driving engineering efficiency through sophisticated evaluation strategies and multi-functional leadership. In this role, you will mentor top-tier engineering talent and implement groundbreaking benchmarking protocols that redefine technical performance! Responsibilities include: • Architectural Leadership: Define and oversee the architectural roadmap for PQ foundations and evaluation frameworks, ensuring robust assessment capabilities for AI agents, complex workflows, and underlying system processes.

• Strategic Innovation: Identify systemic gaps in testing methodologies and lead the development of AI-based solutions or agents to proactively mitigate risk and enhance system integrity.

• Technical Mentorship & Oversight: Drive the technical culture by mentoring engineering talent, conducting architectural reviews, and guiding teams through the validation of complex technical hypotheses.

• Experimental Governance: Oversee the lifecycle of proof-of-concepts (POCs), establishing rigorous standards for experimentation and the validation of novel testing paradigms.

• Quality Ecosystem Management: Ensure that testing processes consistently deliver reliable, high-quality outcomes at scale, maintaining alignment with enterprise-level quality standards.

• Advanced Validation Strategy: Set the technical standard for groundbreaking validation techniques, including LLM-as-judge methodologies, tenant isolation probes, and behavioral regression suites.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with engineering leadership to enforce rigorous contract testing, audit log validation, and security compliance, ensuring seamless integration of quality across the development lifecycle.

Minimum Qualifications • Bachelor’s degree plus 10+ years of experience in software development and test automation, to include experience architecting large-scale testing ecosystems.

• Demonstrated experience in programming, to include Python and Go, with a demonstrated ability to design scalable, maintainable, and high-performance testing infrastructure.

• Demonstrated experience with security compliance frameworks.

• Demonstrated experience with modern performance testing methodologies.

• Demonstrated experience using AI to build automation (writing AI skills to build test automation)

Preferred Qualifications • Leadership & Problem-Solving: Exceptional capacity to translate complex, ambiguous quality challenges into structured, actionable, and long-term architectural strategies.

• Strategic Vision: Proven ability to innovate within the AI/ML landscape, applying modern tooling to drive detection efficacy and system reliability. 

• Test Automation: Go, Python, Contract testing frameworks, Playwright.

• Security & Compliance: OCSF validation libraries, vacuum linter, Caldera, tenant isolation probes, and audit log validation.

• AI/ML Testing: Deep expertise in LLM APIs (Claude, Codex), prompt engineering, and the design of agentic workflows. Proficiency in demonstrating LangChain and LangSmith to ensure model reliability, AI behavioral regression, and LLM-as-judge frameworks.

• Performance Testing: K6, Terra VM (Security Suite), and JMeter.

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, and our power starts with you. 

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

The starting salary range posted for this position is $186,900.00 to $267,700.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits. Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training. The full salary range for certain locations is listed below. For locations not listed below, the recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.

U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco’s plan eligibility rules, which include medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability coverage, and basic life insurance. Please see the Cisco careers site to discover more benefits and perks.  Employees may be eligible to receive gra

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