Engineering Product Manager, Cisco Partner Incentive - Hybrid

Cisco Systems, Inc; Durham (NC); Hybrid; USD 116,000 - 163,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco is seeking a seasoned Product Manager in North Carolina to own the full product lifecycle for the Partner Incentive team, driving roadmap strategy and cross-functional collaboration with IT and business stakeholders. You will shape multi-quarter plans and coordinate features while ensuring alignment with portfolio strategy.

You will also lead executive-level communications, develop roadmaps and decision frameworks, and apply Agile methods to deliver innovative incentive compensation and

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in business, IT, operations or related field.
• 5+ years of combined experience in business/IT consulting, operations management, or product management.
• Experience designing or optimizing business processes across two core domains (e.g., Order Management, Incentive Compensation, Sales Performance Management).
• Experience in product management fields including strategy, roadmap, trade-offs, change management, and systems management.
• Proven experience delivering projects across Agile frameworks (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe).

Responsibilities

• Lead product lifecycle and roadmap ownership.
• Drive cross-functional alignment between product teams, partner groups, and leadership.
• Identify dependencies and coordinate new features or improvements.
• Provide input for future technical direction and drive business consulting within the partner compensation area.

Skills

Product management

Agile frameworks

Strategic thinking

Cross-functional collaboration

Executive communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in business/IT/ops

Tools

Varicent

Xactly

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 10/28/2026

The preferred location for this position is North Carolina, operating under a hybrid work model, though we are open to flexible, US-based hybrid arrangements for the right candidate.

Meet the Team

The Partner Incentive Team drives business capabilities, engagement and enablement for Cisco Partners across planning, rules definition, rebate calculation and reporting. Our team integrates expertise in CRM architecture, data governance, partner/distribution compensation, and AI-driven automation. We focus on delivering value for Cisco’s partners and distributors with speed and excellence. Using Agile and hybrid methodologies, we support transformational initiatives and optimize the business (OTB) to ensure our partners’ automation requirements are met with precision.

Your Impact

Responsibilities

As the successful candidate, you will lead the product lifecycle, drive operational excellence, and build strong relationships with business and IT customers to advance shared strategic goals. You will be responsible for:

• Product Roadmap & Strategy Ownership: Maintain full ownership of a defined product roadmap, shaping strategy over 6–12-month horizons with minimal guidance.
• Strategic Prioritization: Integrate customer feedback, product performance, and dependencies to develop multi-quarter prioritization plans. You will make trade-offs regarding cost, complexity, and customer impact to ensure alignment with portfolio strategy.
• Cross-Functional Alignment: Act as a bridge between product teams, partner groups, and leadership. You will articulate business challenges and ensure all parties are aligned on cross-functional needs.
• Requirements & Execution: Identify dependencies, coordinate new features/improvements, and implement innovative methods for gathering stakeholder input.
• Technical & Business Leadership: Provide input for future technical direction, share knowledge through internal councils, and support business consulting within the partner compensation functional area.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, information technology, operations or an equivalent, with 5+ years of combined experience in business/IT consulting, operations management, or product management.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience designing, delivering, or optimizing business processes across at least two core business capability domains (e.g., Order Management, Incentive Compensation, Sales Performance Management, Distribution Compensation, or Business Reporting).
• Practical experience in product management fields, including product strategy, defining product roadmap, managing product trade-offs, change management, and systems management.
• Proven experience delivering projects across the full lifecycle within Agile frameworks (e.g., Scrum, Kanban, SAFe), including sprint planning, backlog prioritization, or user story creation.
• Experience developing executive-level presentations, business cases, roadmap documentation, or decision frameworks for cross-functional business and technical leadership.

Preferred Qualifications

• Understanding of business process design, with fluency in multiple technology domains (network/infrastructure, data, applications/middleware).
• Understanding or certification in Sales Performance Management (SPM) tools such as Varicent, Xactly, and in Product / Project management / Agile methodology such as CSPO, PMP or Scaled Agile
• Basic proficiency in reporting and data analysis tools, including Business Objects and advanced Excel features.
• A track record of driving organization-wide change through significant, innovative ideas.
• Experience exploring and applying AI practices to improve daily efficiencies, team workflows, and user experience.
• Demonstrated ability to plan, report on, and direct multiple concurrent products or product changes across projects.

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 $115,800.00 to $163,200.00 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 eligible for paid time away as described below

• 10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
• 1 paid day off for employee’s birthday, paid year-end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco
• Non-exempt employees** receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees
• Exempt employees participate in Cisco’s flexible vacation time off program, which has no defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use (subject to availability and some business limitations)
• 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, and up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward from one calendar year to the next
• Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members
• Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer

For non-sales roles, employees are also eligible to earn annual bonuses subject to Cisco’s policies.

Employees On Sales Plans Earn Performance-based Incentive Pay On Top Of Their Base Salary, Which Is Split Between Quota And Non-quota Components, Subject To The Applicable Cisco Plan. For Quota-based Incentive Pay, Cisco Typically Pays As Follows

• .75% of incentive target for each 1% of revenue attainment up to 50% of quota;
• 1.5% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 50% and 75%;
• 1% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 75% and 100%; and
• Once performance exceeds 100% attainment, incentive rates are at or above 1% for each 1% of attainment with no cap on incentive compensation.

For non-quota-based sales performance elements such as strategic sales objectives, Cisco may pay 0% up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.

New York City Metro Area

$138,100.00 - $226,000.00

Non-Metro New York State & Washington State

$124,000.00 - $201,000.00

• For quota-based sales roles on Cisco’s sales plan, the ranges provided in this posting include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.
• Employees in Illinois, whether exempt or non-exempt, will participate in a unique time off program to meet local requirements.