Principal Corporate Counsel: Trade Secrets, Copyrights, and AI in IP

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

Members of the Legal organization at select locations will generally be expected to follow a hybrid work model, which includes two days of in-office attendance each week, with limited exceptions.

At Cisco, the Intellectual Property team sits at the crossroads of technology, business, and law, with insight into a breadth of innovation spanning networking, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, collaboration, and observability. We work together inside a legal organization that treats IP as a strategic business asset and are building the institutional frameworks that let Cisco's engineers translate invention into durable protection. You do not need to arrive already knowing Cisco's technology. We will teach you the business; we are hiring for the legal judgment.

AI is changing the terms of that work, including what we can protect, through which legal instruments, and with what level of certainty. And it builds new categories of exposure - in copyright, in trade secrets, in vendor contracting, and in prosecution validity - that require a dedicated function to lead. This role is that function.

This is a role built around a genuine legal problem: the IP frameworks that governed technology companies for the past thirty years do not cleanly map onto how AI-era innovation works. Copyright matters more than it ever has, but the rules on AI-generated output are still being written. Moreover, trade secrets may become the dominant protection strategy for proprietary systems, but only if that program is built and maintained with rigor. If you have worked on any of these problems (in any industry) that experience is directly relevant here.

In practice, you will:

• Build out Cisco's trade secret program as a genuine enterprise function; not just a policy document. That means working with various parts of legal, the business, and IT to: identify the best methodology and systems to classify our proprietary assets that deserve trade secret protection; detail the reasonable protective measures required to establish and defend that protection; and craft the legal and technical governance that makes the program defensible in litigation.
• Own and grow Cisco's copyright program in the AI era. Not only will you handle the traditional function, but you will also deal with emerging questions such as: what Cisco can own in AI-generated output (creative and technical), whether and how to structure human authorship records to improve protectability, and how to manage the downstream copyright liability posed by foundation model training data in Cisco's vendor stack.
• Work with the AI legal team to audit and manage AI vendor IP exposure, including being the IP escalation point for AI-related agreements and establishing the IP contractual standards that Cisco requires before deploying AI tools at scale.
• Serve as the IP team's legal intelligence function on AI: translating USPTO guidance, Copyright Office reports, Federal Circuit decisions, and legislative developments in the US and abroad into timely executive-ready advice.

• JD and active bar membership: J.D. from an accredited law school with active bar membership in at least one U.S. jurisdiction;
• 8+ years IP legal experience: Minimum of 8 years of intellectual property legal experience, including substantial, hands-on work in copyright and/or trade secret protection. That experience can come from any industry, from a law firm, or from government.
• AI & IP proficiency: Working knowledge of copyright and/or trade secrets as applied to AI-generated works.
• A note on fit: this description covers a lot of ground, and we do not expect any one person to arrive covering all of it. If you are strong in some of these areas and lighter in others, apply. We will pair you with the right people inside Legal and with outside counsel where you need a second opinion, and you will build the rest on the job. Big-tech experience is helpful but not required.

• Experience building or running an internal program related to trade secrets and/or copyrights in a company of any size or industry.
• Experience structuring or leading a trade secret litigation matter or pre-litigation investigation.
• Track record of credible, concise executive communication on IP risk; ability to translate genuinely unsettled legal doctrine into business-relevant advice for executives and engineers without over-hedging or misrepresenting the state of the law, and with validated ability to defend a position under skeptical questioning.
• Ability to work with the patent team to advise them on AI-specific patent-related strategies, including AI-assisted inventorship documentation and any inter-jurisdictional differences that affect how we run patent protection. Please note that patent experience is not a requirement. Our patent team owns prosecution and will be a close partner to you. Instead, we're looking for someone with the desire and ability to learn inventorship and other emerging patent-related AI issues.
• Prior experience advising on copyright licensing for software and/or AI-generated content at scale, including SaaS platform output, API-delivered content, or enterprise software products where the line between human-authored and AI-generated deliverables is blurred and legally material

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 ofunused sick timecarried forwardfrom one calendar yearto 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.