Senior Applied AI Scientist

Meet the Team

Splunk, a Cisco company, is building a safer, more resilient digital world with an end‑to‑end, full‑stack platform designed for hybrid, multi‑cloud environments. Join the Foundational Modeling team at Splunk, where we advance the state of AI for high‑volume, real‑time, multi‑modal machine‑generated data — including logs, time series, traces, and events. We combine deep AI research expertise with the scale and operational excellence of Splunk and Cisco’s global engineering capabilities. Our work spans networking, security, observability, and customer experience — designing and deploying foundation models that enhance reliability, strengthen security, prevent downtime, and deliver predictive insights across Splunk Observability, Security, and Platform at enterprise scale. You’ll be part of a culture that values technical excellence, impact‑driven innovation, and cross‑functional collaboration — all within a flexible, growth‑oriented environment.

Your Impact

• Lead the research, design, and deployment of large‑scale foundation models for machine‑generated data – primarily time series, augmented with logs traces, and events.
• Optimize distributed training and inference pipelines to maximize accuracy, performance, and efficiency at scale.
• Work closely with engineering, product, and data science to ensure solutions meet defined technical requirements and deliver tangible business impact.
• Mentor team members and contribute directly to model architecture reviews, experimental design, and production rollout processes.
• Stay current with AI/ML developments and integrate relevant advancements into ongoing projects and technical plans.

Minimum Qualifications:

• PhD in Computer Science, or related quantitative field, plus 1+ years of industry research experience.
• Proven track record in at least one of the following areas: large language modeling for both structure and unstructured data, deep learning‑based time series modeling, advanced anomaly detection, and multi-modality modeling.
• Solid proficiency in Python and deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow)
• Experience translating research ideas into production systems.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Deep Learning for Time Series & Forecasting – Proven expertise designing and deploying architectures such as temporal transformers, temporal convolutional networks, and spatial‑temporal models.
• Advanced Anomaly Detection – Experience creating robust, scalable approaches (statistical, deep learning, or hybrid) for high‑volume, real‑time time series data.
• Multi‑Modal AI Modeling – Strong track record fusing logs, time series, traces, tabular data, and graphs for foundation models tackling complex operational insights.
• Probabilistic Forecasting & Uncertainty Quantification – Skills in Bayesian deep learning and probabilistic models to capture and communicate predictive uncertainty.
• Large‑Scale Training & Optimization – Experience optimizing model architectures, distributed training pipelines, and inference efficiency to minimize cost and latency while preserving accuracy.
• MLOps & Continuous Learning – Fluency in automated retraining, drift detection, incremental updates, and production monitoring of ML models.
• Strong Research Track Record – Publications in top AI/ML conferences or journals (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, AAAI, CVPR, ACL, KDD) demonstrating contributions to state‑of‑the‑art methods and real‑world applications.

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.

Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:

The starting salary range posted for this position is $174,500.00 to $226,500.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits.

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 hirin