AI Strategy & Enterprise Productivity Director

Cisco Systems, Inc.; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 286,000 - 364,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) matching

Parental leave

Disability insurance

Life insurance

Stock grants

Paid time off

Volunteer time off

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. seeks a visionary Director of AI Strategy & Productivity to partner with senior leaders across Product, Engineering, IT, Security & Trust, and Finance. You will translate developer innovation and strategic mandates into a cohesive AI productivity roadmap that scales enterprise capabilities.

You will establish operating models, prioritize investments, and drive measurement frameworks to elevate engineering throughput, code quality, and tangible business value.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of professional experience across software engineering, developer platforms, technical strategy, engineering leadership, or technology transformation.
• Experience with enterprise-scale strategies for software delivery modernization or AI-enabled transformations, preferably with hyperscalers.
• Proven track record of influencing VP/SVP-level leaders and driving large-scale organizational change.
• Demonstrable strategy background implementing modern SDLC (CI/CD, security, observability) and practical AI applications.

Responsibilities

• Distill long-range ambition into clear strategic priorities and a multi-year AI productivity roadmap.
• Define an operating model bridging bottom-up innovation with executive mandates.
• Create a rigorous prioritization framework to evaluate trade-offs and quantify impact.
• Partner with external vendors to influence roadmaps and secure early access to frontier capabilities.
• Collaborate with Engineering, Product, IT, Legal, Security & Trust, and Finance leaders to drive alignment.
• Lead a multi-functional community of practice to establish shared tooling and governance standards.
• Design measurement frameworks to quantify engineering throughput, code quality, and financial value.
• Champion an AI-first, trustworthy, high-safety workforce and modernize engineering workflows.

Skills

Software engineering

Developer platforms

Technical strategy

Engineering leadership

Technology transformation

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering/Business

Master's or PhD preferred

Job description

Cisco Systems, Inc. seeks a visionary Director of AI Strategy & Productivity to partner with senior leaders across Product, Engineering, IT, Security & Trust, and Finance. You will translate developer innovation and strategic mandates into a cohesive AI productivity roadmap that scales enterprise capabilities.

You will establish operating models, prioritize investments, and drive measurement frameworks to elevate engineering throughput, code quality, and tangible business value.