Consulting Engineering Technical Leader

Cisco Systems, Inc; Paris; Hybrid; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. seeks a Consulting Engineering Technical Leader specializing in Data Center Architectures within CX. You will provide senior technical leadership, shape multi-year roadmaps, and guide large-scale data center transformations across regional and global scopes.

You will lead ACI and EVPN-VXLAN fabric architectures, implement IaC pipelines with Terraform, Ansible, and GitOps, and mentor consulting engineers while influencing product direction and architectural standards.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS/EE/IS with 8+ years of related experience.
• 6+ years leading complex, large-scale data center architectural consulting projects for Enterprise clients.
• 6+ years of deep technical mastery in Cisco Data Center switching architectures, including Cisco ACI and Nexus 9000 switches.
• 6+ years of advanced expertise in DC routing & switching protocols (BGP EVPN, VXLAN, TRM, DCI, OSPF, IS-IS, vPC).
• Cisco CCIE Data Center (or CCDE / CCIE Routing & Switching) certification or equivalent expert credential.

Responsibilities

• Provide domain-wide architectural leadership to senior customer executives for multi-site data center transformations.
• Lead the strategic planning and deployment of Cisco ACI/Nexus fabric architectures across projects.
• Develop automation pipelines (Terraform/Ansible/Python) and GitOps for deterministic fabric provisioning.
• Design advanced data center simulations and act as escalation authority for outages and upgrade strategies.
• Influence product direction and roadmaps based on field feedback and AI workload requirements.
• Author reference architectures and mentor senior consulting engineers.

Skills

Data Center Architecture

Consulting Leadership

Multi-Site Fabric

Networking Protocols

Executive Advising

Architectural Roadmaps

Thought Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/EE/IS

Master's degree (optional)

Equivalent practical work experience

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

Python

GitOps

NDFC

Nexus Dashboard

NX-OS

Job description

Meet the Team

As a Consulting Engineering Technical Leader specializing in Data Center Architectures within Cisco Customer Experience (CX), you will provide senior technical leadership, strategic architectural vision, and innovation across mission-critical data center infrastructures at regional and global scale. You will act as the premier trusted advisor to senior customer executives, guiding large-scale cloud-scale data center transformations, shaping multi-year technology roadmaps, and ensuring investments deliver measurable resilience and agility. Our team leads the industry in deploying next-generation programmable fabrics, including Cisco ACI (Application Centric Infrastructure), Nexus Dashboard, and NX-OS EVPN-VXLAN multi-site fabrics. Marrying deep protocol mastery with modern Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, Ansible, GitOps), AIOps, and AI/ML data center networking, you will influence Cisco's product direction, elevate delivery methodologies, and develop the next generation of data center architects.

Your Impact

Strategic Data Center Architectural Leadership: Provide domain-wide and cross-domain architectural leadership, serving as the primary trusted advisor to senior customer leadership on high-stakes, multi-site Data Center transformations and migrations.

Lead ACI & EVPN-VXLAN Fabric Architecture: Lead the strategic planning, design, and deployment of complex Data Center switching fabrics, including Cisco ACI (Multi-Pod, Multi-Site / Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator, L4-L7 Service Graph integration) and NX-OS EVPN-VXLAN programmable fabrics on Cisco Nexus 9000 series switches.

Infrastructure-as-Code & GitOps Orchestration: Champion modern Data Center automation by developing and scaling Services-as-Code / NetDevOps pipelines using Terraform (Cisco ACI Provider), Ansible, Python, GitOps, and Nexus Dashboard APIs to achieve deterministic, automated fabric provisioning.

Complex DC Simulations & Escalation Authority: Design and utilize advanced data center simulation environments; serve as the highest technical escalation authority for critical fabric outages, complex Multi-Site BGP EVPN routing anomalies, and fabric upgrade strategies.

Influence Product Direction & Methodology: Synthesize field feedback, architectural insights, and emerging AI workload requirements (such as AI/ML high-performance fabrics, RoCEv2, and Ultra Ethernet), partnering with CX Product Management and Engineering to influence Cisco product roadmaps.

Author Intellectual Capital & Develop Talent: Author global reference architectures, Cisco Validated Designs (CVDs), and ACI/VXLAN migration frameworks and mentor senior consulting engineers.

Minimum Qualifications

Education & Experience: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field with 8+ years of related experience; or Master's degree with 6+ years of related experience; or equivalent related practical work experience.

Data Center Architecture & Consulting Leadership: 6+ years of experience leading complex, large-scale data center architectural consulting, design, migration, and delivery projects for Enterprise clients.

Cisco ACI & Nexus Fabric Mastery: 6+ years of deep technical mastery in Cisco Data Center switching architectures, with demonstrated expertise in Cisco ACI (APIC, Leaf-Spine topology, Multi-Pod, Multi-Site Orchestrator / NDO, Contracts, EPGs, VRFs, Bridge Domains) and Cisco Nexus 9000/3000 switches running NX-OS.

EVPN-VXLAN & Core DC Protocols: 6+ years of advanced expertise in Data Center Routing & Switching protocols, including BGP EVPN, VXLAN Distributed Anycast Gateway, Tenant Routed Multicast (TRM), Data Center Interconnect (DCI), OSPF, IS-IS, and Multi-Chassis EtherChannel / vPC.

Expert-Level Certification: Cisco CCIE Data Center (or CCDE / CCIE Routing & Switching) certification or equivalent recognized expert-level credential.

Preferred Qualifications

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) & Automation Mastery: Advanced expertise in automating Cisco ACI and Nexus fabrics using Terraform, Ansible ACI modules, Python (ACI REST API, Cobra SDK), and CI/CD GitOps pipelines (GitLab/GitHub Actions).

Nexus Dashboard & DC Assurance: Hands-on experience deploying Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (NDFC), Nexus Dashboard Insights (NDI), and Telemetry analytics to deliver predictive fabric operations and proactive compliance.

AI/ML Fabric Networking & Ultra Ethernet: Experience designing high-throughput, low-latency data center fabrics for AI/ML compute clusters, including RoCEv2 (RDMA over Converged Ethernet), Priority Flow Control (PFC), and Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN).

Executive Advisory & Strategic Roadmaps: Proven track record advising C-level executives (CIO, CTO, CISO) on multi-year data center consolidation, hybrid-cloud connectivity, and disaster recovery strategies.

Thought Leadership & Community Influence: History of publishing technical white papers, authoring Cisco Validated Designs, and delivering technical sessions.

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.