Customer Program Manager

Cisco; North Carolina; On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco is seeking a Customer Program Manager to lead complex, customer-facing programs across Cisco technologies and services. You translate priorities into coordinated strategies, roadmaps, and measurable outcomes, while managing scope, schedule, budget, quality, and risk.

You will drive governance, reporting, and executive communications, leveraging AI/automation responsibly and coaching teams for continuous improvement.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with 8+ years of relevant experience, or higher degrees with fewer years.
• PMP certification from PMI or comparable recognized project management certification.
• Progressive program-management experience within complex, customer-facing enterprise environments.
• Strong executive communication, presentation, facilitation, negotiation, and problem-solving skills.
• Practical Generative AI literacy, including prompting, output validation, data protection, human oversight, and AI risk awareness.

Responsibilities

• Lead customer projects and programs across Cisco technologies and services from initiation through closure.
• Translate customer priorities into program strategies, roadmaps, delivery plans, milestones, and measurable outcomes.
• Manage scope, schedule, budget, quality, financial performance, customer satisfaction, risks, dependencies, and change.
• Coordinate stakeholders and present program performance, financials, risks, recommendations, and decisions to executives.
• Establish governance, communications, escalation, risk-management, and change-control practices; identify issues and mitigation.
• Manage forecasting, invoicing, revenue, cost, margin, and reporting across Cisco systems.
• Apply Agile, Waterfall, or hybrid delivery methods based on needs while adhering to standards.
• Apply technical knowledge to shape delivery plans and connect execution to outcomes.
• Coach project and program managers and promote continuous improvement.
• Apply approved AI, analytics, and automation tools to improve planning, reporting, forecasting, and closeout.
• Validate AI-assisted outputs for accuracy, relevance, and traceability with human oversight.

Skills

Program management

Executive communication

Stakeholder management

Presentation skills

Facilitation

Negotiation

Problem-solving

Data analysis

Generative AI literacy

AI risk awareness

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

Doctoral degree

PMP certification

Job description

This role leads complex, customer-facing programs across Cisco technologies and services, translating customer priorities into coordinated execution and measurable business outcomes. The Customer Program Manager is accountable for driving delivery performance, stakeholder alignment, financial discipline, governance, risk management, and continuous improvement across the program lifecycle, supported by responsible use of AI and automation.

Who You Are

• You are an experienced Customer Program Manager with strong strategic, operational, financial, and technical judgment. You build trusted stakeholder relationships, navigate ambiguity and risk, and use data, automation, and approved AI tools to improve delivery while protecting sensitive information and maintaining human accountability.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead customer projects and programs across Cisco technologies and services from initiation through closure.
• Translate customer priorities into program strategies, roadmaps, delivery plans, milestones, and measurable business outcomes.
• Manage scope, schedule, budget, quality, financial performance, customer satisfaction, risks, dependencies, and change.
• Coordinate internal and external stakeholders and present program performance, financials, risks, recommendations, and decision points to executive audiences.
• Establish program governance, communications, escalation, risk-management, and change-control practices; identify issues early and lead mitigation and recovery planning.
• Manage forecasting, invoicing, revenue, cost, margin, and accurate reporting across Cisco systems.
• Apply Agile, Waterfall, or hybrid delivery methods based on program and customer needs while maintaining Cisco delivery, financial, contractual, documentation, and operational standards.
• Apply technical knowledge to shape delivery plans, manage integration points, and connect technical execution to customer and business outcomes.
• Coach project and program managers and promote consistent delivery practices, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement.
• Apply approved AI, analytics, and automation tools to improve planning, reporting, forecasting, risk detection, communications, and program closeout.
• Validate AI-assisted outputs and automation for accuracy, relevance, customer context, appropriate controls, and traceability.
• Maintain human accountability for customer commitments, financial actions, approvals, and decisions informed by AI.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with 8+ years of relevant experience, Master's degree with 6+ years, doctoral degree with 3+ years, or equivalent relevant work experience.
• Current Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute or a comparable recognized project management certification.
• Progressive program-management experience within complex, customer-facing enterprise environments.
• Strong executive communication, presentation, facilitation, negotiation, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to translate technical concepts and delivery performance into measurable customer and business outcomes.
• Practical Generative AI literacy, including prompting, output validation, data protection, human oversight, and AI risk awareness.

Preferred Qualifications

• Working knowledge of Cisco architectures, technologies, business processes, operational tools, and service-delivery practices.
• PMI-CPMAI, PgMP, Agile, Scrum, ITIL, change-management, financial-management, or other relevant professional certifications.
• Cisco technical certification such as CCST Networking, CCST Cybersecurity, CCNA, or equivalent.