Senior Director, Product Management - Splunk Observability

Splunk; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 285,000 - 391,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision coverage

401(k) with employer match

RSUs (restricted stock units)

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc is seeking a Senior Director of Product Management for AI SRE to define and drive the vision, strategy, and execution for a critical product pillar within the Splunk Observability stack.

You will lead a high-performing product organization, partnering across engineering, design, data science, research, marketing, sales, and customer success to deliver intuitive tools for developers and SREs.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive product management experience with a proven track record of owning product portfolios from early-stage discovery through to successful market launch and adoption.
• Deep expertise in defining long-range product vision and strategy for complex software products.
• Extensive background in building, mentoring, and aligning high-impact product organizations while maintaining strong relationships across engineering, design, data science, research, marketing, sales, and customer success teams.

Responsibilities

• Visionary Leadership: Define and evangelize a long-range product vision for AI SRE that is deeply rooted in real-world customer problems, market insight, competitive differentiation, and Splunk Observability priorities.
• Strategic Portfolio Management: Steer the product roadmap by making thoughtful investment decisions that balance immediate customer value, foundational platform scalability, and future-looking innovation.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Guide product development through every stage, working closely with engineering, design, data science, and security teams to build high-quality, reliable software.
• AI Principles & Ethics: Champion product principles for applying AI to observability and reliability work, including expectations for product quality, transparency, customer control, and responsible use.
• Data-Driven Evolution: Build robust mechanisms to monitor customer success, adoption metrics, and business health; use these insights to sharpen strategy and prioritize the right challenges.

Job description

Meet the Team

Splunk Observability empowers engineering and operations teams to bridge the gap between complex digital architectures and actionable insights. As our Senior Director of Product Management for AI SRE, you will work closely with the VP of Product to shape the vision, strategy, and execution for a critical product pillar. You will cultivate a high-performing product organization, partnering across engineering, design, research, marketing, sales, and customer success to deliver intuitive, high-impact tools that resonate with modern developers and SREs.

Your Impact

You will serve as a strategic architect for AI SRE, translating customer needs, shifting market dynamics, and company goals into a cohesive, differentiated product roadmap. You’ll nurture the product lifecycle from initial discovery through to global launch and long-term adoption, ensuring the team stays aligned on the most impactful work.

• Visionary Leadership: Define and evangelize a long-range product vision for AI SRE that is deeply rooted in real-world customer problems, market insight, competitive differentiation, and Splunk Observability priorities.
• Strategic Portfolio Management: Steer the product roadmap by making thoughtful investment decisions that balance immediate customer value, foundational platform scalability, and future-looking innovation.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Guide product development through every stage, working closely with engineering, design, data science, and security teams to build high-quality, reliable software.
• AI Principles & Ethics: Champion product principles for applying AI to observability and reliability work, including expectations for product quality, transparency, customer control, and responsible use.
• Data-Driven Evolution: Build robust mechanisms to monitor customer success, adoption metrics, and business health; use these insights to sharpen strategy and prioritize the right challenges.

Minimum Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive product management experience with a proven track record of owning product portfolios from early-stage discovery through to successful market launch and adoption.
• Deep expertise in defining long-range product vision and strategy for complex software products.
• Extensive background in building, mentoring, and aligning high-impact product organizations while maintaining strong relationships across engineering, design, data science, research, marketing, sales, and customer success teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience defining product strategy specifically for AI-driven software, observability platforms, or large-scale SaaS ecosystems.
• Demonstrated ability to navigate complex investment trade-offs, balancing near-term delivery with long-term enterprise market growth.
• Proven proficiency in architecting and managing the feedback loops (goals, OKRs, and operational metrics) necessary to refine strategy and drive continuous improvement in product quality.

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 $284,700.00 to $390,900.00 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 paid time away as described below, subject to Cisco’s policies:

• 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 ofunused sick timecarried forwardfrom one calendar yearto 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.

The applicable full salary ranges for this position, by specific state, are listed below:

New York City Metro Area:

$284,700.00 - $449,500.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$272,000.00 - $398,000.00

* 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.