Leader, Solutions Engineer

Cisco; Greater London; On-site; GBP 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco Systems in London leads an elite Solutions Engineering team for hyperscale security across EMEA and APJC. This senior role oversees a distributed engineering organization and works with Cisco's strategic partners to drive AI-native security architectures.

You will recruit, coach, and inspire engineers, shape the technical go-to-market and engage CISOs and CIOs. This is a high-visibility leadership role requiring strategic thinking and hands-on collaboration.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of technical pre-sales engineering experience in enterprise network security, cloud security, or data center infrastructure.
• 3+ years of formal people leadership or senior technical mentorship managing geographically distributed teams.
• Deep architectural mastery of micro-segmentation strategies, container security/orchestration (Kubernetes/Docker), and cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Strong foundational knowledge of modern data center networking, firewalls, distributed dataplanes (eBPF/DPDK), and network segmentation.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Cybersecurity, Information Systems, or equivalent practical experience.

Responsibilities

• Recruit, develop, and retain a high-performing, diverse team of elite Solution Engineers across EMEA & APJC.
• Partner with Sales and Product leadership to define and complete the technical go-to-market strategy, accelerating early-adopter customer acquisition.
• Serve as an executive technical sponsor, building trusted advisor relationships with CISOs, CIOs, and Platform Architects.
• Champion the end-to-end See-Try-Buy lifecycle, optimizing POV velocity, private previews, and multi-architectural proof-of-value trials.
• Act as the strategic field bridge to Engineering, channeling competitive intelligence and technical feature gaps into the product development lifecycle.

Skills

Pre-sales engineering

People leadership

Kubernetes

Docker

Cloud platforms

Enterprise security

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/EE/Cybersecurity

Tools

VMware NSX

Illumio

Guardicore

Palo Alto

Job description

Meet the Team

As the Sr. Solutions Engineering Leader for the EMEA & APJC Hypershield & Isovalent Hyperspecialist Team, you will lead a specialized engineering organization operating like a high-growth start-up. You will have unique access to Cisco’s global resources, enterprise market leadership, and unmatched scale. Our team is the premier technical pre-sales group within the Global Security Sales Organization (GSSO), chartered with introducing Cisco’s most groundbreaking innovations to early-adopter customers and architecting the blueprint for global field distribution.

Your Impact

In this role, you will redefine enterprise defense by championing our AI-native distributed security architecture. You will recruit, lead, and inspire an elite, geographically dispersed team of Solution Engineers, leading the technical go-to-market strategy for Hypershield and Isovalent. This is a high-visibility leadership position where you will drive rapid market adoption, influence product roadmaps, and build trusted relationships with C-level partners, ultimately closing the gap between complex security vulnerabilities and automated operational enforcement.

Responsibilities

• Recruit, develop, and retain a high-performing, diverse team of elite Solution Engineers across EMEA & APJC.
• Partner with Sales and Product leadership to define and complete the technical go-to-market strategy, accelerating early-adopter customer acquisition.
• Serve as an executive technical sponsor, building trusted advisor relationships with CISOs, CIOs, and Platform Architects.
• Champion the end-to-end "See-Try-Buy" lifecycle, optimizing POV velocity, private previews, and multi-architectural proof-of-value trials.
• Act as the strategic field bridge to Engineering, channeling competitive intelligence and technical feature gaps into the product development lifecycle.

Minimum Qualifications

• 8+ years of technical pre-sales engineering experience in enterprise network security, cloud security, or data center infrastructure.
• 3+ years of formal people leadership or senior technical mentorship managing geographically distributed teams.
• Deep architectural mastery of micro-segmentation strategies, container security/orchestration (Kubernetes/Docker), and cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Strong foundational knowledge of modern data center networking, firewalls, distributed dataplanes (eBPF/DPDK), and network segmentation.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Cybersecurity, Information Systems, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading technical 'incubation' or 'start-up' sales motions for innovative enterprise technologies.
• Deep competitive expertise in micro-segmentation and workload security (e.g., Illumio, Guardicore/Akamai, VMware NSX, Palo Alto, Fortinet).
• Familiarity with global regulatory/compliance frameworks (e.g., NIS2, DORA, GDPR, sovereign cloud requirements).
• Working knowledge of DevOps/DevSecOps pipelines, microservices, serverless computing, and CI/CD security controls.
• Regional language proficiencies (e.g., German, French, Spanish, Arabic).

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.

Cisco is an Affidative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, genetic information, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis.

Cisco will consider for employment, on a case by case basis, qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.