Ruchika Pandey is a Principal Engineer at Cisco, where she helps shape the future of AI security. As part of Cisco’s AI Defense product within the AI Software and Platform Group, she focuses on building systems that make the use of AI safe, reliable, and resilient - bridging the worlds of cloud architecture, web and data protection, and applied machine learning. Over the course of her career, Ruchika has built and led teams developing large-scale security products that protect how people work, communicate, and share data online. She has driven key initiatives in regulatory compliance and cloud security, including FedRAMP certification efforts for Cisco’s Secure Service Edge (SSE) platform. From early innovations in web, email, and data security to recent advances in generative AI safety, her work reflects a deep commitment to solving complex technical challenges with clarity, empathy, and purpose. Before joining Cisco, Ruchika worked on data science and security research at Forcepoint Security Labs, where she developed behavior-based analytics to model risk and detect insider threats, compromised accounts, and large-scale data exfiltration. Earlier in her career, she contributed to the architecture and delivery of major web, email, and data security products at Websense (now Forcepoint) and satellite network systems at Hughes Network Systems.