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San Jose, California, United States
Hybrid
Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.
The Product Management team drives innovation and strategic direction for Cisco’s product portfolio. This team collaborates closely with engineering, sales, and marketing to ensure successful product lifecycle management from conception through end of life. The team is dynamic, cross-functional, and focused on delivering impactful solutions that meet customer needs and business goals. Working here offers the opportunity to influence industry-leading products and engage with diverse teams across Cisco.
As a Principal Product Management Engineer, you will lead and influence product strategy across a portfolio, driving long-term business and technology impact within the Business Unit. You will serve as a thought leader and mentor within the Product Management community, shaping innovative solutions and aligning prioritization strategies based on deep industry and technical knowledge. This role requires collaboration with engineering, sales, and marketing teams to solve complex problems and evangelize product ideas both internally and externally.
Contribute substantially to the BU's technical strategy and business outcomes through influence on product strategy across a portfolio of products
Drive long-term business, customer, and technology impact across portfolios within a BU
Serve as a leader of the Product Management community within and across Business Entity/Technology Group (BE/TG)
Shape, build, and promote innovative solutions based on deep industry knowledge
Elevate and align prioritization strategy through understanding of business impact, risks, and trade-offs
Engage in and guide development discussions at own and higher levels
Apply broad and fundamental knowledge of technology and latest industry trends
Educate internal teams and external customers on new products, simplifying complex technical concepts
Represent Cisco in high-value presentations, training, conferences, negotiations, and standards groups
Evangelize product ideas throughout Cisco sales and marketing teams, business units, and the industry
Work with engineering and product marketing teams on technical solutions and requirements
Lead and influence product decisions in customer engagements with high-value, complex customers and partners
Drive connections across multiple business units to apply technologies across domains
Lead community engagement and networks/working groups across products, fostering partner and open-source interactions
Serve as product spokesperson externally
Collaborate with staff-level management to solve problems through the product development cycle
Nurture strong relationships with leaders in Engineering, Sales, and Product Marketing
Mentor and serve as a sounding board for Product Managers across the BU
Consulted by Engineering for solution requirements within the BU
Minimum Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree plus 15 years of related experience, or
Master’s degree plus 12 years of related experience, or
PhD plus 8 years of related experience
Preferred Qualifications
Extensive experience leading product strategy and managing a portfolio of products through all lifecycle stages, including planning, production, release, and end of life.
Proven ability to influence technical strategy and business outcomes across multiple business units, with a strong understanding of technology risks, trade-offs, and business impact.
Demonstrated leadership in cross-functional team coordination, including collaboration with engineering, sales, product marketing, and external partners.
Strong expertise in educating and communicating complex technical concepts to both internal teams and external customers, including high-value presentations and industry engagements.
Experience mentoring and serving as a role model for product managers, with a track record of fostering innovation and driving community engagement within product networks and open-source communities.
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:
$225,000.00 - $374,100.00Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:
$208,600.00 - $330,000.00* 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.