Customer Quality Engineer

Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.

The application window is expected to close on: July 30, 2026.

Please note that this posting may close earlier if the position is filled or a sufficient number of applications are received.

This is a hybrid role based in the San Jose area, and candidates should be local or open to relocation.

Cisco’s Global Supply Chain organization is looking for an experienced Customer Quality Engineer to join our central Quality Engineering team!

Our team plays a meaningful role in shaping product quality from the earliest design stages through customer deployment. If you enjoy solving complex problems, influencing multi-functional teams, and driving improvements, we’d love to meet you.

As a Customer Quality Engineer (CQE) at Cisco, you will be the technical advocate for strategic customers, partnering across Engineering, Supply Chain, Customer Experience, and Account Teams to drive product quality, reliability, and customer happiness.

• Lead customer-facing quality engagements, providing clarity, performance insights, and executive-level updates on hardware quality and reliability.
• Drive complex failure investigations and Root Cause Analyses (RCA), coordinating multi-functional teams to resolve issues and implement corrective actions.
• Serve as the primary liaison for customer quality communications, including mitigation plans, product changes, and field notices.
• Lead field remediation efforts for critical customer environments, monitoring failure trends and delivering strategies to minimize risk and downtime.
• Leverage data analytics and statistical methods to identify quality trends, drive proactive improvements, and support customer audits.
• Partner with engineering teams to influence product quality strategies, maintain deep technical expertise, and support critical customer concerns through rapid issue resolution.

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related field with 8+ years of experience, or a Master's degree with 6+ years of relevant experience.
• Expertise in Product or Customer Quality Engineering, including product architecture, reliability, and complex failure analysis.
• Strong ability to assess technical risks, evaluate business impact, and drive strategic quality improvements across the product lifecycle.
• Proven success leading high-priority, multi-functional initiatives and influencing stakeholders in matrixed organizations.
• Advanced analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills, with the ability to leverage data-driven insights to influence executive audiences and deliver long-term quality solutions.

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. 

Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training. The full salary range for certain locations is listed below. For locations not listed below, the recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.

U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco’s plan eligibility rules, which include medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability coverage, and basic life insurance. Please see the Cisco careers site to discover more benefits and perks.  Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.

U.S. employees are eligible for paid time away as described below, subject to Cisco’s policies:

• 10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees

• 1 paid day off for employee’s birthday, paid year-end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco

• Non-exempt employees** receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees

• Exempt employees participate in Cisco’s flexible vacation time off program, which has no defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use (subject to availability and some business limitations)

• 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, and up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward from one calendar year to the next

• Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members

• Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer

For non-sales roles, employees are also eligible to earn annual bonuses subject to Cisco’s policies.

Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non-quota components, subject to the applicable Cisco plan. For quota-based incentive pay, Cisco typically pays as follows:

• .75% of incentive target for each 1% of revenue attainment up to 50% of quota;

• 1.5% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 50% and 75%;

• 1% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 75% and 100%; and

• Once performance exceeds 100% attainment, incentive rates are at or above 1% for each 1% of attainment with no cap on incentive compensation.

For non-quota-based sales performance elements such as strategic sales objectives, Cisco may pay 0% up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.

The applicable full salary ranges for this position, by specific state, are listed below:

New York City Metro Area:

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

* For quota-based sales roles on Cisco’s sales plan, the ranges provided in this posting include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.

** Employees in Illinois, whether exempt or non-exempt, will participate in a unique time off program to meet local requirements.