Role Summary

Identifies short- and long-term sales opportunities and acts as an SME to drive demand generation, business development, and proposal development. Builds a robust pipeline of qualified opportunities, cultivates new customer relationships, identifies upsell opportunities, and partners with account teams to shape and close complex deals.

Develops technology-, solution-, and industry-based offerings and new consumption models that align customer needs with Cisco’s business objectives. Works closely with Field, Business Units, Product, Services, Marketing, and Partners to strengthen Cisco’s market position and expand wallet share.

This role has a strategic focus on the Automotive industry, with the objective of maximizing Cisco’s value proposition across the automotive value chain and vehicle lifecycle. Key domains include Connected Car, Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV), Smart City & Mobility, Manufacturing, and Connected Services, extending Cisco’s relevance beyond traditional enterprise IT.

Specialization and Focus

Demand Generation / Business Development

Deal Shaping and Opportunity Qualification

Solution Selling and New Consumption Models

Cross-Architecture and Industry Value Proposition Development

Product Enhancement through customer and market feedback

Automotive Industry Business Development

Customer Engagement and Accountability

Customer Intimacy: High

Customer Focus: Vertical / Industry; solution selling and new business development

Product Focus: Moderate; architecture, solution, and business transformation focus

Build and deepen relationships with new and existing customers and key decision-makers.

Identify stakeholders, customer priorities, upsell opportunities, and areas to expand Cisco wallet share.

Lead discovery sessions and workshops to address complex customer needs and develop new opportunities.

Engage beyond traditional IT organizations, including Engineering, R&D, Manufacturing, Vehicle Software, Connected Services, Mobility, and Business Strategy.

Business Development & Deal Shaping

Proactively identify and qualify short- and long-term opportunities across multiple products, solutions, and geographies.

Conduct targeted prospecting and market research to uncover customer needs, industry trends, and competitive opportunities.

Build qualified pipeline and engage the appropriate account teams for execution and closure.

Shape complex, multi-product deals by aligning technical, commercial, and customer requirements.

Tailor deal structures to meet customer timelines and objectives while aligning with Cisco’s business goals.

Orchestrate cross-functional teams including Account Teams, Business Units, Product, Services, Engineering, Marketing, Legal, Finance, and Partners.

Optimize CRM and forecasting processes to improve pipeline quality and accuracy.

Automotive Industry Focus

Develop new business opportunities across the Automotive industry and maximize Cisco’s relevance throughout the vehicle lifecycle and automotive value chain.

Key areas include:

Connected Car – Secure vehicle connectivity, data exchange, cloud/edge integration, vehicle-to-infrastructure connectivity, and connected vehicle ecosystems.

Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) – Develop Cisco’s value proposition across vehicle, edge, cloud, networking, security, observability, data, and AI architectures.

Smart City & Mobility – Develop opportunities connecting vehicles and Automotive customers with smart cities, intelligent transportation, mobility services, and connected infrastructure.

Manufacturing – Identify opportunities across smart manufacturing, industrial networking, security, edge computing, AI, and manufacturing transformation.

Vehicle Lifecycle – Identify Cisco opportunities from R&D, design and engineering, and manufacturing through sales, vehicle operation, connected services, after-sales, and end-of-life.

Automotive Value Chain – Expand Cisco’s relevance across OEMs, suppliers, manufacturing operations, dealers, mobility providers, technology partners, and other ecosystem participants.

New Business & Consumption Models – Develop new use cases, commercial approaches, and consumption models that accelerate customer adoption and create scalable revenue opportunities.

Act as an Automotive industry SME, connecting customer strategy and emerging industry requirements with Cisco capabilities. Provide structured market and customer feedback to Product and Engineering teams to influence future solutions and product enhancements.

Internal & Corporate Interlock

Key Working Partners: Account Teams, Business Units, Product/Service Specialists, Product Development, Engineering, Marketing, Partners, Legal, and Finance.

Work across Cisco organizations to create integrated, cross-architectural offerings and convert emerging customer requirements into scalable solutions and business opportunities.

Typical Sales Cycle

Deal Size: > $1M in Sales Revenue

Deal Complexity: High complexity and customization

Deal Cycle: 12–18 months on average, up to 2 years

Sales Process Focus: Prospect / Qualify / Shape

Success Measures

Revenue Growth – Increase sales revenue across new and existing products and solutions.

Demand Generation – Create new customer demand, displace competitors, and expand Cisco wallet share.

Pipeline Volume & Value – Increase the volume, value, and quality of qualified pipeline.

New Market Creation – Develop incremental opportunities in Connected Car, SDV, Smart City & Mobility, Manufacturing, and Connected Services.

Value Proposition Expansion – Expand Cisco’s addressable market and relevance across the automotive value chain and vehicle lifecycle.

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor’s + 7 years of related experience, or

Master’s + 4 years of related experience, or

PhD + 1 year of related experience

Preferred Qualifications

Experience or expertise in the Automotive industry, Connected Car, Software-Defined Vehicle, Smart Mobility, Smart City, Automotive Manufacturing, or related technology ecosystems is preferred.

THIS JOB DESCRIPTION DOES NOT APPLY FOR EMPLOYEES IN AUSTRIA, BELGIUM, FRANCE, GERMANY & NETHERLANDS.

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.