Lead technical writer - isovalent

The application window is expected to close on: 11/01/2026

Note: This is a remote U.S. based role, requiring work within the East Coast Time Zone. Preference will be given to the candidates from the East coast locations.

Meet the Team

Isovalent, now part of Cisco, is the company founded by the creators of Cilium and eBPF. Cisco Isovalent builds open-source software and enterprise solutions that address networking, security, and observability needs across modern cloud-native infrastructure.

As part of Cisco Hypershield, our team develops enterprise security solutions that help organizations secure modern cloud and distributed environments. Our technical writers are embedded within engineering and work closely with engineers, product managers, solution architects, field teams, and other technical stakeholders from early product development through release.

Your Impact

You will create, update, and maintain technical documentation for Cisco Hypershield, Isovalent technologies, and related enterprise solutions. Your work will span developer and user documentation and support security, networking, and cloud-native use cases.

• Lead end-to-end technical documentation efforts for Hypershield networking and security solutions, including concepts, tutorials, operational documentation, technical references, training materials, and guides.
• Partner with engineering, solution architects, product management, and other subject-matter experts to translate complex technical concepts into clear and accurate documentation.
• Work directly with products and technical environments to understand workflows, validate documentation, and identify gaps or areas for improvement.
• Develop content for audiences with different levels of technical experience, including security engineers, network operations teams, platform teams, field engineers, and customers.
• Help evolve documentation practices, information architecture, and developer content standards across the team.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with peers across a geographically distributed team, with regular overlap during East Coast Time (EST/ EDT) business hours.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Technical Communication, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field with 15+ years of related experience; or a Master’s degree with 12+ years of related experience; or a PhD with 8+ years of related experience.
• 8+ years of experience as a Technical Writer supporting enterprise software products.
• Experience providing technical leadership for documentation initiatives, including driving documentation projects end-to-end, coordinating with technical stakeholders, and managing documentation deliverables across the product lifecycle.
• Experience with networking, security, or cloud-native technologies, such as Kubernetes, Docker, Mesos, or similar container and cloud-native technologies.
• Experience creating user guides, technical documentation, and other content for enterprise users.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, including working with deployed applications, clusters, configurations, troubleshooting, or lab environments.
• Experience with documentation frameworks and tools such as Sphinx, Hugo, Read the Docs, Markdown, or reStructuredText.
• Experience using GitHub, Git, or similar version-control workflows for documentation.
• Experience collaborating with engineers and other subject-matter experts to translate technical knowledge into clear, accurate documentation.
• Demonstrated written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate technical concepts clearly to audiences with varying levels of technical experience.

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 $188,300.00 to $238,200.00 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 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:

$188,300.00 - $273,900.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$166,800.00 - $242,400.00

* 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.