Customer Project Manager

Cisco Systems, Inc; London Borough of Hounslow; Hybrid; GBP 85,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc is seeking a Senior Project Manager to lead complex enterprise engagements from kickoff to closeout. You will partner with customers, manage risks, and drive delivery using Agile, Waterfall, or Hybrid methodologies.

This role focuses on cross-functional leadership, budget discipline, and clear stakeholder communication to ensure successful value realization and satisfaction across client organizations.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or 10 years equivalent project management work experience.
• 7+ years of dedicated experience leading end-to-end delivery of enterprise software, SaaS solutions, and/or professional services to external enterprise-level clients.
• PMI-ACP, PMI-PMP, CPMAI, or PRINCE2 Practitioner certification (or equivalent).
• Proactively identify and mitigate risks, manage rigorous delivery timelines, and facilitate high-level communication across cross-functional teams and senior customers.
• Experience with delivery frameworks such as Agile (Scrum/Kanban), Waterfall and Hybrid.

Responsibilities

• Drive End-to-End Project Success: Lead complex, multi-enterprise customer engagements from kick-off and discovery through deployment, value realization, and formal closeout.
• Advocate for the Customer: Serve as a trusted advisor and critical issue point, driving rapid remediation of technical and operational blockers to maintain high customer confidence and NPS.
• Standardize Delivery Excellence: Leverage tried methodologies, blueprints, service offerings, and guidelines to ensure predictable, high-quality outcomes.
• Project & Financial Ownership: Build and lead comprehensive project plans, schedules, tracking, and project P&L/burn rates aligned to Statements of Work (SOWs).
• Transparent Reporting: Deliver rigorous customer communication, covering progress against baselines, burn rates, critical dependencies, risk mitigation, and key assumptions.
• Forecast Accuracy: Maintain real-time documentation and PSA/system tracking to enable reliable revenue recognition, margin optimization, and resource forecasting.
• Compliance & Onboarding Navigation: Proactively run customer-specific security, governance, and onboarding clearances.

Skills

PMP Certification

PMI-ACP

Prince2 Practitioner

Delivery Methodologies: Agile/Waterf./

Education

Bachelor’s degree or 10 years equivalent project management experience

Job description

Meet the Team

We lead the full lifecycle of customer-facing projects, from initiation to closure, ensuring every initiative aligns perfectly with our clients' business goals and our internal strategic objectives! Our team is accountable for the successful execution of scope, schedule, budget, and quality, while providing transparent updates to Service Delivery Managers (SDMs) and Customer Experience Managers (CXMs).

We drive operational excellence by managing project-level budgets, financial forecasting, and system reporting within our internal tools to ensure total compliance. By applying industry-standard methodologies like PMI and Agile, we maintain rigorous governance and clear risk management throughout every engagement. We also proactively apply AI and automation tools to streamline our planning, reporting, and final closeout activities!

In our coordination with vendor management teams, we assist in sourcing bids and drafting Statements of Work (SOW) and Terms and Conditions (T&Cs), while maintaining close collaboration with SDMs who provide final approval. Furthermore, we support change management strategies and promote a culture of continuous improvement by leading retrospectives and sharing essential knowledge across all our teams!

Your Impact

• Drive End-to-End Project Success: Lead complex, multi enterprise customer engagements from kick-off and discovery through deployment, value realization, and formal closeout.
• Advocate for the Customer: Serve as a trusted advisor and critical issue point, driving rapid remediation of technical and operational blockers to maintain high customer confidence and NPS.
• Standardize Delivery Excellence: Leverage tried methodologies, blueprints, service offerings, and guidelines to ensure predictable, high-quality outcomes.
• Project & Financial Ownership: Build and lead comprehensive project plans, schedules, tracking, and project P&L/burn rates aligned to Statements of Work (SOWs).
• Transparent Reporting: Deliver rigorous customer communication, covering progress against baselines, burn rates, critical dependencies, risk mitigation, and key assumptions.
• Forecast Accuracy: Maintain real-time documentation and PSA/system tracking to enable reliable revenue recognition, margin optimization, and resource forecasting.
• Compliance & Onboarding Navigation: Proactively run customer-specific security, governance, and onboarding clearances (e.g., background checks, badging, network access protocols).

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or 10 years equivalent project management work experience.
• External Client Delivery: 7+ years of dedicated experience leading end-to-end delivery of enterprise software, SaaS solutions, and/or professional services to external enterprise-level clients or equivalent relevant experience.
• Professional Certification: Current Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from PMI, PMI-ACP, CPMAI, or PRINCE2 Practitioner status or equivalent relevant certification.
• Strategic Delivery & Risk Management: Ability to proactively identify and minimise risks, handle rigorous delivery timelines, and facilitate high-level communication across cross-functional teams and senior customers.
• Delivery Framework: A demonstrable track record of leading end to end customer engagements utilising delivery frameworks such as Agile (Scrum/Kanban), Waterfall and Hybrid.

Preferred Qualifications

• Technical & Industry Specialisation: Industry-recognised certifications such as CCST, CCNA, or Cisco AI Foundation/Practitioner is highly required.

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.