Embedded Software Engineer
Cisco — Bengaluru, Karnataka
2+ yrs exp · Full-time · hybrid
HireSetu listing reference e3fd05 — confirm requirements below, then apply on the employer site.
Quick answer: A BSP and diagnostics role inside Cisco's Common Hardware Group, writing kernel and user-space drivers for switch and router hardware in Bengaluru. The degree lines stay loose; what decides it is real Linux bring-up and driver experience.
From Cisco's job posting
Meet the Team
The Common Hardware Group (CHG) at Cisco is seeking skilled software engineers to join our Diagnostic/BSP team, responsible for ensuring the reliability and performance of our world-class hardware. Our team develops software for Cisco’s network switches and routers, which feature advanced application awareness to build a flexible and agile network infrastructure. These capabilities support multi-layered responses to the diverse workload demands of AI and ML. This is a unique opportunity to grow your technical skill set and gain visibility and recognition across cross-functional teams within Cisco. We value motivated individuals who enjoy solving complex challenges and thrive in a collaborative, innovative environment.
Your Impact
- Design, and develop, BSP, and Diagnostics for Cisco Core and Edge routing products.
- Design, develop, and test kernel and user space device drivers for FPGA and networking peripherals.
- Develop and execute software test plans.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to debug prototypes and validate software.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering, Computer Science, or related field with 2+ years experience, or Master’s degree with 1+ years experience.
- Proficient in C, C++, and Python programming.
- Strong hardware and device driver development background, including experience with Linux hardware bring-up.
- Demonstrated experience in hardware and device driver development, including Linux hardware bring-up, multi-threading, event handling, and state machine implementation.
- Skilled in developing, debugging, and validating embedded systems and device drivers for protocols such as I2C, SPI, UART, PCIe, and/or GPIO.
Preferred Qualifications
- Proficient in kernel debugging tools such as GDB and KGDB.
- Experience developing software from concept through delivery for large-scale, high-bandwidth systems.
- Ability to troubleshoot software defects from kernel modules to applications.
- Experience with collaborative system design, specification writing, and requirements review.
- Commitment to quality, mentoring, and continuous learning in networking, optics, and embedded systems.
- Experience with AI/ML.
- Knowledge of Layer 2/3 network protocols.
- Strong troubleshooting and debugging skills.
- Experience with network processors and optical networking.
- Familiarity with secure-boot, open-source tools, CMIS, and SFF standards (SFP, QSFP).
- Strong communication skills and knowledge of software quality processes.
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
Why Cisco?
We are Cisco, and our power starts with you.
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Text from Cisco's official job posting, formatted by HireSetu. The employer's own page is the final word on details.
HireSetu's note
Driver work is the gate
Two entry routes: a bachelor's with two years behind you, or a master's with one. What filters the pile is Linux hardware bring-up and device driver development. C, C++ and Python are listed as proficiency, and the buses named, I2C, SPI, UART, PCIe and GPIO, are the ones you meet at board level, writing drivers that make an FPGA or a peripheral respond.
Multi-threading, event handling and state machines sit in the same requirement, so this isn't a single loop reading a register. If your two years went into application software, even in C++, that's a gap you'd be closing on your own time.
Bench days and desk days
Hybrid in Bengaluru, and on a driver team that means part of the week at a desk and part of it beside the board. The loop you'll live in: a prototype misbehaves, you read the schematics, watch the bus on a scope or a logic analyser, fix the driver, rerun. Test plans and validation get written alongside the code, and you'll sit with hardware and validation engineers when something only fails on real silicon.
Debugging runs from kernel modules up to applications, so GDB and KGDB are the tools of this trade, not extras.
Lead your resume with the buses
Start with Linux kernel and user-space driver work: which buses, which hardware you brought up, how many boards, what ran at what speed. C and C++ next, and keep Python visible, since it turns up in test and tooling work.
Then the preferred list, where CMIS, SFF standards such as QSFP and SFP, Layer 2/3 protocols, optical networking and network processors all sit. Any of those on your CV separates you from someone with generic driver experience, so put them on page one even if they were a small slice of your last job.
Drafted with AI from Cisco's job posting and checked by Prashanth Jakkula before publishing. See our Editorial Policy.
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