San Jose, California, United States
Remote only
Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.
Candidates must be located within the San Jose/Bay Area to support team collaboration and periodic on-site requirements.
MEET THE TEAM
At Cisco, you will become passionate about the brand you represent and the impact we have. Everything is converging on the internet, making networked connections more relevant than ever before. Our employees' groundbreaking ideas go from the drawing board to dynamic solutions that have a real-world impact. In the age of AI, these connections are more critical than ever, and you will be at the forefront of this transformation. You'll collaborate with Cisco leaders, partner with mentors, and build incredible relationships with colleagues who share your curiosity about connecting the unconnected. Come prepared to be inspired!
YOUR IMPACT
Cisco is seeking a dynamic and visionary leader for a pivotal role at a time when our technology is hyper-relevant in the age of AI. As a Director of Solutions Engineering for Meta, you are more than a leader of leaders; you are a strategic force who will build the technical future for our customers and empower a world-class team to bring transformative technology to life.
You will lead a large, highly motivated sales engineering team, developing and executing technical strategies that solve our customers' most complex challenges. You will be a technical visionary, a business driver, and an inspirational coach, building strong executive relationships with customers, partners, and internal teams to drive the market success of Cisco’s portfolio.
As a technical sales leader, you will orchestrate teams and cross-functional resources to deliver impactful results, embodying the three core pillars of a Cisco Solutions Engineering Director.
As the strategic technical leader, you are not just managing a team; you are orchestrating a technical ecosystem. You will:
Lead the Technical Vision: Define and execute the long-term technical strategy for the account, ensuring Cisco’s portfolio is deeply integrated into the customer’s hyperscale infrastructure.
Scale Through Leadership: As a "leader of leaders," you will mentor and develop a multi-layered organization, ensuring your managers are equipped to coach their own teams effectively.
Drive Cultural Excellence: Champion a culture of empathy, agility, and innovation. You will be responsible for maintaining high engagement, psychological safety, and a collaborative spirit within a geographically dispersed organization.
Executive Influence: Act as the technical advisor to the customer’s VP/CxO level, translating complex business challenges into Cisco-led technical outcomes.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
10+ years of Sales/Solutions Engineering experience.
15+ years of progressive experience in Sales/Solutions Engineering, with at least 7+ years in a leadership capacity (managing managers).
2+ years of experience with cloud and AI networking technology and its industry.
Deep Hyperscale Expertise: Proven track record in designing and deploying networking architectures for hyperscale environments, including Public Cloud infrastructure, massive-scale data center interconnect (DCI), and AI/ML cluster networking.
Strategic Growth: Demonstrated success in growing and scaling high-impact technical teams.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
You are an accomplished "leader of leaders" with a proven track record of building and driving large, high-impact, and geographically dispersed teams.
You develop strong senior management relationships with partners, customers, and internal business groups.
You provide compelling thought leadership to customers and partners based on short- and long-term business and industry drivers.
You possess solid understanding and experience across the [Insert Relevant Technology Area, e.g., Webex Suite, Cisco Security, Cloud & AI Infrastructure] portfolio.
You have a deep understanding of competitive products and can clearly articulate the trade-offs and advantages of Cisco solutions.
CORE PILLARS OF SUCCESS
1. Lead and Develop Elite Talent (Leader of Leaders)
Succession Planning: Build a robust leadership pipeline by identifying, mentoring, and promoting top-tier talent.
Agile Culture: Foster an environment where team members feel empowered to experiment, fail fast, and iterate. You will set the tone for a culture that balances high-velocity execution with deep technical rigor.
2. Drive Business and Customer Success (Technical Strategy)
Hyperscale Architecture: Lead the technical strategy for Cisco’s Hyperscale products focusing on high-bandwidth, low-latency networking solutions that power the next generation of AI services.
Strategic Alignment: Ensure that our technical roadmap is perfectly synced with the customer’s long-term infrastructure goals.
3. Embody Executive Leadership (Lead Yourself)
Executive Presence: Command the room with senior stakeholders, providing clarity and confidence during high-stakes technical negotiations.
Resilience: Navigate the inherent ambiguity of the hyperscale market with a steady hand, ensuring your organization remains focused on high-value outcomes.
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 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:
$303,100.00 - $440,000.00Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:
$284,700.00 - $420,000.00* 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.
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