Director, Physical AI

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 10/29/2026Meet the Team Cisco's Enterprise AI Platforms & Infrastructure (EAIPI) organization is establishing a Physical AI and Common Services engineering field to extend autonomous intelligence from software agents into the physical enterprise environment. As Cisco scales its AI foundation across global campuses, critically important data centers, and executive briefing facilities, physical robotics represents the next critical frontier in autonomous operations, physical security, and facilities intelligence. We enable and provide leadership for the development, design, and optimization of information technology, robotics, and edge systems functions supporting company business processes and technical information systems platforms. In this role, you will direct the analysis, selection, and modification of enterprise systems, application software, network hardware/software integration, and database management, ensuring infrastructure architecture standards improve efficiency, platform compatibility, and uninterrupted service. You will select, develop, and evaluate personnel to ensure efficient operations and facilitate the integration of third-party platforms into enterprise IT services while protecting Cisco’s data, tools, and information systems. We are seeking an exceptionally technical Director of Physical AI and Common Services to lead the end-to-end strategy, technical architecture, mechatronic modifications, and software engineering for our quadrupedal and bipedal robotic fleets, bridging on-chassis edge AI compute with Cisco's enterprise AI fabric. Your Impact As the Director of Physical AI and Common Services, you will have comprehensive ownership across hardware customization, on-chassis software development, campus and data center operational pilots, and multi-functional safety governance. Lead technical evaluation, procurement co-development, and engineering execution across quadrupedal platforms and bipedal/humanoid robotic systems. Structure and lead technical co-development landmarks and Joint Development Agreements (JDAs) with leading robotics manufacturers to enable direct on-chassis hosting of Cisco internal intelligence containers, Large Language Models (LLMs), and agent runtimes. Direct physical retrofits, mechanical bracket design, sensor integration (thermal imaging, LiDAR, depth cameras, Meraki surveillance), far-field microphone arrays, directional audio speakers, and RFID/NFC badging hardware. Design, deploy, and operationalize autonomous concierge robots across executive briefing facilities. Integrate low-latency conversational speech-to-speech AI triggered by wake-word detection, multi-state LED intent signaling (listening, thinking, navigating), and dynamic guest credential verification via badging reader hardware. Implement intelligent lead/follow behaviors, real-time 360-degree obstacle avoidance, dynamic door/portal actuation protocols, and waypoint generation (Orbit/Autowalk) to escort executives and guests. Architect and deploy autonomous quadruped and humanoid patrol routines across Cisco global data centers. Build on-chassis edge ML pipelines for directional acoustic listening to detect failing server cooling fans, power supplies, and mechanical bearing wear prior to service disruption. Deploy thermal imaging, optical character recognition (OCR) for server status indicators, cable path verification, and environmental telemetry audits integrated into Cisco SRE monitoring systems. Architect on-chassis edge compute payloads running containerized ROS 2 (Humble/Iron) environments with high-throughput sensor fusion. Connect physical robots into Cisco's Circuit / MyAgent ecosystem via Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent-to-Agent (A2A) interfaces, allowing AI agents to command and query physical robots securely. Implement 802.1X network authentication, Duo/Okta identity federation, and zero-trust edge access control. Enforce edge data filtering with zero persistent storage of visitor video, image, or audio capture in strict compliance with Cisco Data Protection & Privacy (DPP) standards. Manage and expand the primary robotics sandbox lab, simulation environments, and physical staging cages. Partner with Workplace Resources (WPR), Environmental Health & Safety (EHS), and local municipal fire authorities to establish high-density lithium-ion battery containment, fire suppression protocols, and safety gating. Collaborate with Global Procurement Services (GPS) on preferred vendor onboarding, Corporate Security (SSBR) on outdoor perimeter pilots, Legal/IP on patent harvesting and JDA boundaries, and Outshift on joint robotics research. Minimum Qualifications Bachelor’s degree in Robotics, Mechatronics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field or equivalent practical work experience. 10+ years of professional engineering experience in robotics, mechatronics, embedded systems, or autonomous physical hardware systems. Direct technical leadership experience managing multidisciplinary engineering teams (e.g., mechatronics, firmware, computer vision, or robotics software). Experience developing, integrating, or deploying autonomous mobile robot (AMR), quadrupedal, or robotic platforms. Experience programming in C++ or Python for robotics, embedded systems, or edge compute applications. Preferred Qualifications Master’s degree or Ph.D. in Robotics, Mechatronics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent work experience in a related technical field. Deep expertise in ROS / ROS 2 (Humble/Iron/Rolling), Nav2 navigation stacks, local SLAM, LiDAR-inertial odometry, 360-degree obstacle avoidance, and Sim2Real simulation platforms (NVIDIA Isaac Sim / Isaac ROS, Gazebo, MuJoCo). Experience with mechanical payload design, rapid prototyping, actuator dynamics, kinematics/dynamics of legged locomotion, power distribution boards (PDB), high-density Li-ion Battery Management Systems (BMS), embedded firmware (FreeRTOS), CAN bus, EtherCAT, USB 3.2, I2C, and SPI. Experience with on-device AI acceleration (NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin, TensorRT, CUDA, ONNX Runtime), real-time speech-to-speech models (Whisper, lightweight SLMs), wake-word detection, 3D point cloud perception, depth estimation, thermal vision, and Visual-Language-Action (VLA) models. Experience with custom fleet management bridges (Boston Dynamics Orbit, Formant), Model Context Protocol (MCP), Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocol design, distributed pub/sub architectures, and gRPC/REST APIs. Experience implementing 802.1X wireless authentication, Duo/Okta identity, mTLS zero-trust communication, ISO 25785-1 industrial mobile robot safety compliance, and data privacy governance. Demonstrated experience building, operating, and safety-certifying physical robotics laboratories, including high-density battery containment, municipal fire suppression compliance, and physical hazard mitigation. Proven track record structuring and driving Joint Development Agreements (JDAs) and co-development programs with commercial robotics OEMs. 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 Cisc