Senior Software Engineer (Identity Engineering - SSO)

The application window is expected to close on: 12/13/2026 Preferred candidates will be based in Ann Arbor, MI or Austin, TX. Remote candidates will be considered

Meet the Team

Cisco’s Identity Engineering organization is building a unified foundation for connecting, managing, and securing identity across Cisco products and diverse enterprise identity systems.

The platform will support identity lifecycle management and consistent security enforcement for workforce users, service identities, and emerging AI agents.

You will join the squad responsible for the platform’s core SSO and identity-brokering capabilities. The team works on authentication, federation, and identity orchestration across heterogeneous systems, solving complex distributed-systems and cross-product integration challenges.

Your Impact

In this role, you will help build the authentication and federation foundation of Cisco’s identity platform. Key responsibilities include:

Identity Platform Engineering & SSO: Design and develop secure, scalable SSO and identity-broker services using Python. Build APIs and platform capabilities that support authentication, federation, identity orchestration, and integration across Cisco products.

Technical Design & Ownership: Own complex software components from design through implementation, testing, and delivery. Evaluate tradeoffs involving security, scalability, performance, and extensibility, and document significant decisions through technical designs and Architecture Decision Records.

AI-Native, Spec-Driven Development: Turn ambiguous requirements into clear technical specifications, acceptance criteria, and incremental implementation plans. Use AI-assisted development tools throughout the software development lifecycle while independently validating the security, correctness, and maintainability of the resulting software.

Engineering Excellence & Collaboration: Deliver high-quality software through automated testing, code reviews, and sound development practices. Collaborate with engineering, product, and architecture partners to solve cross-product integration challenges and strengthen engineering practices across the squad.

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree with 7+ years of related experience, master’s degree with 4+ years of related experience, or PhD with 1+ years of related experience.

Professional experience building enterprise or customer-facing backend services and APIs using Python.

Experience designing components within distributed systems and communicating technical decisions and tradeoffs.

Experience delivering quality software through automated testing and modern software development practices.

Experience using AI-assisted development tools as part of day-to-day software engineering while validating the security, correctness, and maintainability of the resulting work.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with spec-driven development practices.

Experience building REST APIs using OpenAPI specifications and related code-generation workflows.

Knowledge of identity and federation protocols such as SAML, OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.0, SCIM, or WS-Federation.

Experience with AWS, SQL, Redis, asynchronous Python, or event-driven architectures.

Experience with React and TypeScript.

Experience writing technical specifications, design documents, or Architecture Decision Records.

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.