Principal Software Engineer
Cisco Systems
Listing collected from Cisco Systems's career site. NextChapter is independent of Cisco Systems.
San Jose, CA · Posted September 30, 2026
Just laid off? Start here: a plan for the first weeks
See every open role at Cisco Systems
More in California job market · All Principal Software Engineer jobs (356) · Technology & Software · Engineering jobs
More roles at Cisco Systems
- Sr. Director of Data Center Networking Infrastructure Product Marketing · San Jose, CA
- Principal Corporate Counsel: Data Governance & Regulatory · Research Triangle Park, NC
- Partner Sourcing Manager - Hybrid · San Jose, CA
- Director, Associate General Counsel: Product Legal · Research Triangle Park, NC
- Director, Pricing Strategy and Monetization ( Remote) · San Jose, CA
- Senior Director, Communications Orchestration & AI Transformation · San Jose, CA
Similar jobs
- Principal Software Engineer – Front-end Developer · RTX · san jose, CA
- Principal Electrical Engineer Firmware · RTX · goleta, CA
- Principal Software Engineer · Trinzic · El Segundo, CA
- Principal Program Systems Integration Engineer · Trinzic · El Segundo, CA
- Principal Software Engineer, Embedded (RIS) · Hewlett Packard Enterprise · Sunnyvale, CA
- XR - Principal Software Engineer · Qualcomm Inc/De · San Diego, CA
Where San Jose, CA ranks
Where San Jose, CA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #1Best cities for marketing pay after cost of living$204k · of 16
- #1Best cities for aerospace and defense pay after cost of living$187k · of 19
- #2Best cities for security pay after cost of living$220k · of 10
- #3Best cities for technology pay after cost of living$205k · of 80
- #5Best cities for technology jobs1,449 openings · of 100
- #5Cities with the most jobs that do not need a four-year degree in the West Coast162 jobs · of 47
Rankings about engineering jobs
- Best cities for software and engineering jobs #1 San Francisco (3,412 openings)
- Best cities for engineering pay after cost of living #1 San Mateo ($216k)
- Most requested AI skills in engineering jobs #1 AI tools in daily work (6.1%)
- AI tools named most often in engineering jobs #1 Claude (1.7%)
- Employers with the most engineering jobs #1 Amazon (2,992 roles)
Pay compared with the market
This listing does not state pay. Across 91 open principal software engineer listings that state pay, the middle half runs $208,500 to $320,000 and the median is $275,000.
Listed pay is what employers advertise, not what people are paid.
Principal Software Engineer salaries by state · Check your own pay
How AI is used in this kind of work
Among software developers, AI is already used for some of the tasks. Measured exposure for software developers: 29% (some).
Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
Skills this job asks for
Say which you have and which you want to build. We use it to match you to jobs like this one.
About the job
We are recruiting a Principal Software Engineer to lead technical direction for Kubernetes-based platform architecture, driving the evolution of Splunk’s core platform. You will translate complex requirements into practical designs and collaborate across engineering and product teams. Ideal candidates bring extensive experience in distributed systems and Kubernetes.