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Austin, Texas, United States
Hybrid
Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.
(Engineering & Supplier Enablement) Hybrid
Your Impact | As a Technical Commodity Sourcing Manager for Interconnects, you own technical decisions and cost outcomes for interconnect commodities by partnering closely with hardware engineering, manufacturing, and supplier engineering teams. You sit at the intersection of engineering, manufacturing, and supplier technology development—helping bring Cisco products to life that do not yet exist. You will influence design decisions, enable supplier technical readiness, and remove development barriers from concept through mass production.
Your work directly impacts Cisco’s ability to deliver innovative, high-performance networking and AI systems at scale—ensuring designs are manufacturable, resilient, and production-ready while meeting aggressive performance and reliability requirements.
Role Clarification (*Please Read Before Applying*)
This role is engineering-facing, technically hands-on, and requires comfort engaging in detailed technical discussions related to interconnect design, materials, and manufacturing processes.
While the role works closely with suppliers, it is not a procurement, purchasing, or category management position.
Success in this role requires direct experience supporting hardware designs through development, manufacturing, and scale, including hands-on technical problem solving with supplier engineering teams.
Meet the Team | Cisco’s Global Supplier Management (GSM) organization partners deeply with hardware engineering, manufacturing, and industry-leading suppliers to enable next-generation technologies across Cisco’s networking and AI platforms. Our team focuses on early technical engagement, supplier capability development, and execution excellence—ensuring Cisco designs are ready to scale from prototype through mass production.
Responsibilities | This role focuses on technical enablement, engineering collaboration, and supplier readiness across the interconnect lifecycle.
Engineering & Technology Alignment | *Partner with Hardware Design Engineering, Component Engineering, and Manufacturing to align supplier technologies with Cisco’s product architecture and roadmap. *Participate in technical design reviews with internal teams and suppliers, evaluating feasibility, manufacturability, and performance tradeoffs. *Drive early supplier technical engagement for new designs and architectures.
Supplier Technical Leadership | *Lead supplier technology roadmap discussions, assessing design approaches, materials, processes, and manufacturing capabilities. *Technical escalation point for supplier-related design, yield, reliability, and manufacturability issues. *Hold suppliers accountable to development milestones, technical readiness, and qualification schedules.
NPI Execution & Scale Readiness | *Lead/Own supplier technical readiness from prototype through mass production. *Facilitate hands-on collaboration between supplier engineering teams and Cisco engineers to resolve design and manufacturing issues. *Support ramp readiness, yield improvement, and transition from NPI into sustained production.
Value Engineering & Multi-Sourcing | *Drive value engineering initiatives that improve cost efficiency without compromising technical performance or reliability. *Identify and develop second-source strategies that strengthen design robustness and supply flexibility.
Supply Resilience & Risk Management | *Support geographic diversification and non-China manufacturing strategies. *Identify technical and manufacturing risks; develop mitigation plans in partnership with engineering and suppliers.
Business Reviews & Technical Reporting | *Lead supplier reviews covering technology readiness, NPI execution, yield, capacity, and risk. *Provide clear technical status updates to cross-functional leadership.
Operational Excellence | *Partner with Component Engineering on quality investigations and corrective actions. *Drive continuous improvement using Lean and Six Sigma methodologies. *Define technical KPIs and enable data-driven execution across suppliers.
Additional responsibilities may be assigned based on evolving business priorities.
Minimum Required Qualifications
5+ years technical experience in interconnect technologies (e.g., cables, connectors, high-speed interconnect systems), including design support and manufacturing engagement.
5+ years experience working directly with hardware design engineering teams on New Product Introductions (NPI).
5+ years experience engaging suppliers on technical development, qualification, and manufacturing readiness, cost negotiations, should-cost modeling, contract management, and obtaining quotations (RFQ/RFI process) from suppliers.
Preferred Qualifications
Master’s degree in mechanical engineering or related field.
Experience with high-density Twinax cables, GPU systems, rack-level integration, and configured deployments.
Strong working knowledge of interconnect engineering and design principles, including:
Design for Manufacturability (DFM) / Design for Assembly (DFA)
Sheet metal and injection molding processes
Material properties and material science
Dimensional tolerance analysis
Corrosion resistance and environmental protection
Signal integrity, heat transfer, and fluid dynamics
Experience supporting mass production ramp-up and global manufacturing enablement.
Experience assessing component and technology risk with mitigation planning.
Familiarity with AI system architectures and high-performance computing platforms.
Excellent technical communication, problem-solving, and stakeholder engagement skills.
S&TO
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:
$140,800.00 - $210,500.00Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:
$128,200.00 - $186,700.00* 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.