Senior Product Manager

Cisco Systems, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 195,000 - 286,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. seeks a Senior Product Manager to lead the multi-year capability roadmap for enterprise networking platforms, enabling Global 500 customers to deploy, operate, and automate Cisco networking at scale.

You will work with CIOs and engineers across Catalyst, Meraki, and ThousandEyes to ensure a unified portfolio experience. You will define API standards, leverage Cisco Modeling Language (CML) for validation, and mentor teams while building AI-driven automation workflows.

Qualifications

• Minimum qualifying education and experience as listed in the job ad.
• Experience with Cisco networking technologies across campus switching, routing, wireless, and SD-WAN.
• Experience defining multi-year product visions and leading cross-functional engineering initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Define multi-year capability roadmap for enterprise platform.
• Collaboration across business units and engineering on scalability, API contracts, and virtualization.
• Mentor product management community and enable field teams with technical enablement.

Skills

Catalyst switching

Routing

Wireless

SD-WAN

IOS-XE/NX-OS

APIs (RESTful/OpenAPI)

GNM/NETCONF

Education

Bachelor's degree + 12 years of related experience

Master's degree + 8 years of related experience

PhD + 5 years of related experience

Tools

Cisco Modeling Language (CML)

VIRL

GNS3

Eve-NG

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 11/30/2026

Meet the Team

We are seeking a visionary, highly technical Senior Product Manager to serve as the lead product strategist for our Enterprise Capabilities portfolio. You will define and implement the multi-year capability roadmap that enables our largest enterprise customers to deploy, operate, and automate Cisco networking platforms seamlessly at scale.

You will operate with a broad sphere of influence across multiple business units and engineering organizations, combining deep expertise in Cisco networking technologies (switching, routing, wireless, SD-WAN, and network operating systems) with modern API architectures and agentic AI workflows. You will use network simulation environments-specifically Cisco Modeling Language (CML)-to model, validate, and test sophisticated multi-device enterprise network topologies, ensuring that platform capabilities and APIs deliver detailed execution in real-world enterprise deployments.

Working with the Director of Product Management, you will collaborate with senior engineering and architecture teams on platform scalability, API contracts, and network virtualization. You will engage directly with CIOs and executive architects from Global 500 enterprises while partnering across business units like Catalyst, Meraki, and ThousandEyes to ensure a unified portfolio experience. Furthermore, you will empower field teams with technical enablement and work alongside designers to build intuitive, high-density visualization dashboards for enterprise operators.

Your Impact

This role is at the forefront of the multi-year strategic vision for core enterprise platform capabilities, aligning roadmaps and technical trade-offs across Cisco's campus, branch, and cloud networking ecosystems. You will drive executive-level customer discovery and advisory councils with Global 500 infrastructure leaders to validate scalability requirements and critically important features before launch. By using deep networking mastery and Cisco Modeling Language, you will architect modern API standards and pioneer the integration of agentic AI workflows to automate network operations. Additionally, you will mentor the product management community in technical difficulty and PRD craftsmanship to elevate organizational excellence.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelors + 12 years of related experience, or Masters + 8 years of related experience, or PhD + 5 years of related experience, or equivalent related work experience
• Experience with Cisco Networking Technologies-including Catalyst campus switching, routing, wireless, SD-WAN architectures, and network operating systems (IOS-XE / NX-OS).
• Experience defining multi-year product visions, authoring high-impact PRDs, and leading sophisticated, cross-functional engineering initiatives from concept to market leadership.
• Experience architecting modern standards for (RESTful APIs, OpenAPI/Swagger, Model Context Protocol / MCP, gNMI/NETCONF, webhooks, and push telemetry).
• Experience using agentic AI systems, automated workflows, and LLM-assisted methodologies to accelerate product management and software development lifecycles.

Preferred Qualifications

• Executive Communication & Influence: Outstanding verbal, written, and presentation skills with demonstrated ability to influence C-level customer executives, engineering leaders, and cross-functional teams.
• Cisco Modeling Language (CML): Familiarity and practical experience with Cisco Modeling Language (CML), VIRL, GNS3, or Eve-NG for network simulation, virtual topology modeling, and automated API validation.
• Certifications: Cisco Certifications (CCNP, CCIE, DevNet Professional / DevNet Expert) or equivalent demonstrated deep networking domain mastery.
• Cross-Portfolio Product Experience: Experience driving product initiatives that bridge hardware infrastructure, on-premises controllers (Catalyst Center), and cloud SaaS dashboards (Meraki).
• Advanced Degree: Master of Science (MS or equivalent experience) in Engineering / Computer Science or an MBA is highly desirable.
• Architectural Vision: Ability to see past incremental feature requests and compose cohesive, scalable platform capabilities that anticipate industry transitions.
• Deep Technical Credibility: Ability to whiteboard sophisticated network topologies and debate technical trade-offs credibly with principal and senior engineers.
• Customer Insight at Enterprise Scale: Steadfast aim to understand the operational complexities, compliance constraints, and high-availability demands of Global 500 network operators.

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 $194,600.00 to $285,700.00 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 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.

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

New York City Metro Area:

$194,600.00 - $328,600.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$179,000.00 - $294,000.00

* 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.