Software Development Engineer – Routing Platforms

Overview

Develop and evolve forwarding and platform software for Cisco's SD-WAN and edge routing solutions. Collaborate with ASIC, hardware, and cross-functional engineering teams to define architectures, implement high-performance packet forwarding, and deliver production-ready features.

What you'll do

• Collaborate with hardware engineering teams to bring up new platforms, develop low-level drivers, and integrate Network Interface Modules (NIMs).
• Design, implement, and maintain ROMMON and bootloader software for secure and reliable system initialization.
• Develop and tune high-performance forwarding plane software for secure routing environments.
• Implement and optimize Layer 2 networking protocols and features within the platform stack.
• Perform deep-dive analysis into performance bottlenecks at the kernel and hardware-abstraction layers, including the control plane.
• Utilize modern development workflows, including AI-assisted coding tools such as GitHub Copilot, Claude, or Codex and IDEs like VSCode, to accelerate development and improve code quality.

What you'll need

• 8-12 years of industry experience with end-to-end software development in networking.
• Experience across platforms, system software, kernel/user-space drivers, bootloaders, BIOS, and performance tuning spanning control-plane and data-plane.
• Strong proficiency in C/C++ with a focus on systems programming and Linux environments.
• Proven experience developing device drivers, working with RTOS/Linux kernels, and understanding hardware-software interfaces.
• Solid understanding of routing architectures and Layer 2 networking protocols, including Ethernet, VLANs, and STP.
• Experience with bootloaders, including ROMMON, hardware bring-up, and board support packages (BSP).
• Demonstrated ability to debug complex issues spanning hardware, firmware, and software layers.
• Experience with LAN/WAN communication interfaces and Layer 2/Layer 3 technologies.
• Experience with AI/ML techniques and tools for development, including code assistants, static analysis tools, and test automation.

Nice to have

• Knowledge of high-speed interfaces, including PHY, MAC, and MACSEC, and DPDK.
• Platform/system expertise such as kernel bring-up, driver development, platform/network management software, and cloud networking.
• Debugging experience with i2c, i2c trace analysers, and PCIe.
• Knowledge of x86 or ARM assembly code, instruction sets, and ABIs.
• Experience debugging with hardware and software debuggers such as GDB, Arium, and BDI.

Details

• Location: Bangalore, India.