Applications are accepted until further notice. The AI Software & Platform Team delivers AI products so businesses around the world defend against threats and safeguard the most important aspects of business with security resilience. We are passionate about making businesses secure and simplifying security with zero compromise. Your Impact As a Lead Researcher, you will play a pivotal role in investigating, analyzing and mitigating emerging threats targeting AI / ML. You will work closely with the Director of AI Threat Intelligence to build a world-class AI threat research capability, delivering actionable intelligence, advancing the state of AI security research, and helping secure Cisco’s AI-driven products and services. You will collaborate with fellow researchers, data scientists, security engineers, and product teams to proactively identify AI-related risks, with a strong focus on securing autonomous AI agents. Key Responsibilities * Lead research into AI/ML-specific threats, including adversarial attacks, prompt injection, model exploitation, data poisoning, model evasion, tool misuse and misuse of generative AI systems. * Conduct threat modeling of AI agents and multi-agent systems, including Model Context Protocols (MCP), A2A — ensuring safe transmission and handling of context, memory, and system metadata across model calls and between AI Agents. * Track evolving threat actor tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) targeting AI/ML ecosystems, particularly those exploiting agentic behavior and context management flaws. * Produce and publish high-quality, actionable threat intelligence reports, technical analysis papers, and internal briefings to inform engineering, product, and executive teams. * Represent Cisco in external research communities, conferences, working groups, and standards organizations where AI security and threat intelligence are advancing. * Mentor junior researchers and contribute to building a center of excellence around AI threat intelligence and adversarial research. Qualifications * 8+ years of experience in cybersecurity threat intelligence, adversarial research, red teaming, or offensive security, with exposure to AI/ML systems preferred. * Strong expertise in AI/ML technologies, particularly generative models, AI agent frameworks, memory-augmented AI, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) designs. * Hands-on experience analyzing vulnerabilities in AI systems, including prompt injections, agentic exploits, and context/memory transmission flaws. * Proficiency in Python or similar scripting languages for prototyping, simulation, and analysis. * Familiarity with threat frameworks such as MITRE ATLAS, ATT&CK for AI, or emerging AI-specific threat models. Preferred Qualifications * Record of contributions to AI security research communities (publications, CVEs, conference presentations, open-source projects, blogs). * Knowledge of responsible AI practices, secure, safe deployment of autonomous and agentic AI systems. * Familiarity with securing agent-to-agent communication protocols, and external tool orchestration in multi-agent environments. * Experience working with AI/ML pipelines in cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP). \#WeAreCisco #WeAreCisco where every individual brings their unique skills and perspectives together to pursue our purpose of powering an inclusive future for all. Our passion is connection—we celebrate our employees’ diverse set of backgrounds and focus on unlocking potential. Cisconians often experience one company, many careers where learning and development are encouraged and supported at every stage. Our technology, tools, and culture pioneered hybrid work trends, allowing all to not only give their best, but be their best. We understand our outstanding opportunity to bring communities together and at the heart of that is our people. One-third of Cisconians collaborate in our 30 employee resource organizations, called Inclusive Communities, to connect, foster belonging, learn to be informed allies, and make a difference. Dedicated paid time off to volunteer—80 hours each year—allows us to give back to causes we are passionate about, and nearly 86% do! Our purpose, driven by our people, is what makes us the worldwide leader in technology that powers the internet. Helping our customers reimagine their applications, secure their enterprise, transform their infrastructure, and meet their sustainability goals is what we do best. We ensure that every step we take is a step towards a more inclusive future for all. Take your next step and be you, with us! Cisco is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, genetic information, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis. Cisco will consider for employment, on a case by case basis, qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.