Design Program Manager, AI Transformation & Foundations

Cisco; Denver (CO); On-site; USD 139,000 - 201,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco is seeking a senior Design Programs Manager to lead AI Transformation and Design Foundations initiatives. You will own roadmaps, governance, and cross-functional alignment across design, product, and engineering teams to scale AI-enabled UX practices.

Join a collaborative team advancing AI-assisted design at scale, shaping adoption, metrics, and durable, repeatable processes throughout Cisco Networking UX portfolio.

Qualifications

• Bachelors + 8 years of related experience, or Masters + 6 years, or PhD + 3 years, or equivalent experience.
• 6+ years in design program management, operations, or product operations in matrixed setups.
• Ability to lead complex cross-functional programs across design, product, engineering, research, and operations.
• Experience driving AI transformation, adoption, or change across multiple teams.
• Experience creating roadmaps, operating models, program docs, reporting mechanisms, and decision processes.
• Understanding of product design workflows, user-centered design, and design systems.
• Experience leveraging AI tools to create and scale agents, skills, and automations.

Responsibilities

• Own program management for AI Transformation and Design Foundations initiatives.
• Build roadmaps, milestones, risks, dependencies, and reporting for AI workstreams.
• Partner across teams to move AI initiatives from exploration to durable practice.
• Shape prioritization, delivery, and communication of AI work to drive measurable outcomes.

Skills

Design program management

Design operations

Product operations

Cross-functional leadership

AI transformation

Roadmaps

Governance

Reporting

Design systems

Figma

Jira

GitHub

Design tokens

Research operations

Design-to-engineering workflows

Education

Bachelor’s degree or higher in a related field

Tools

Figma

Jira

GitHub

Design systems tooling

Job description

Design Foundations empowers Cisco Networking product teams-including Meraki, Catalyst, ThousandEyes, and emerging agentic operations-to deliver coherent, credible, buildable, and AI-ready user experiences at scale.

Our team works horizontally across the Networking portfolio, unifying UX foundations such as design systems, design language, AI experience standards, content strategy, methodology, governance, tooling, and design quality.

We are a collaborative, cross-functional group focused on enabling teams to adopt new methods, standards, and tools with clarity, consistency, and measurable impact.

What excites us is driving innovation that shapes how Cisco Networking UX embraces AI-assisted design practices and delivers durable, scalable solutions.

Your Impact

Drive the operating model that enables Cisco Networking UX to adopt AI-assisted design practices at scale. Own program management for AI Transformation and Design Foundations initiatives, including AI methodology, governance, adoption, and cross-portfolio design readiness. Build roadmaps, milestones, risks, dependencies, and reporting mechanisms to keep AI-focused workstreams aligned and progressing. Partner across Design Foundations, Design Ops, product design, research, engineering, security, AI, and product teams to move AI initiatives from exploration to durable practice. Shape how AI work is prioritized, delivered, measured, communicated, and scaled to create measurable outcomes and organizational change.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelors + 8 years of related experience, or Masters + 6 years of experience related experience, PhD + 3 years of related experience, or equivalent related work experience
• 6+ years of experience in design program management, design operations, product operations, within an outcome-focused and matrixed organization.
• Ability to lead complex, cross-functional programs spanning design, product, engineering, research, operations, or platform teams.
• Experience driving AI transformation, adoption, capability-building, or change management initiatives across multiple teams.
• Experience in creating roadmaps, operating models, program documentation, reporting mechanisms, and decision-making processes.
• Understanding of product design, user-centered design methods, design systems, research, or product development workflows.
• Experience with leveraging latest AI tools to create and scale agents, skills, and automations

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of adoption metrics, maturity models, governance frameworks, enablement plans, or organizational change programs.
• Proficiency with Figma, Jira, GitHub, design systems, design tokens, research operations, or design-to-engineering workflows.
• Experience collaborating with security, legal, procurement, platform, or AI teams to support responsible adoption of new tools or vendors.

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.

Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:

The starting salary range posted for this position is $139,200.00 to $201,400.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits. Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training. The full salary range for certain locations is listed below. For locations not listed below, the recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.

U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco's plan eligibility rules, which include medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability coverage, and basic life insurance. Please see the Cisco careers site to discover more benefits and perks. Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.

U.S. employees are eligible for