Solutions Engineer, ASP -Technical Program Manager

Cisco Systems, Inc.; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 174,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Life insurance

Vision insurance

Parental leave

Paid holidays

Sick time

401(k)

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. is seeking a Solutions Engineer, ASP - Technical Program Manager to lead high-visibility engineering initiatives in the US.

You will align hyperscaler roadmaps with Cisco milestones and coordinate across Engineering, PLM, Strategic Sales, and CX teams to drive complex roadmaps end-to-end. The role demands advanced program management across cloud infrastructure and data center technologies, with strong executive communication and risk mitigation skills.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of technical program management or related experience in large enterprises.
• Experience driving complex software/hardware lifecycles from concept to production.
• Ability to influence cross-functional teams without direct authority.

Responsibilities

• Own and govern end-to-end technical programs from ideation to production delivery.
• Partner with Engineering, PLM, and Strategic Sales to align roadmaps.
• Engage hyperscaler customers and translate needs into development priorities.
• Provide executive dashboards and risk readouts for leadership.

Skills

Technical program management

Cloud infrastructure

Data center networking

Executive communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Jira

Confluence

SmartSheet

Job description

Solutions Engineer, ASP -Technical Program Manager

life insurance, vision insurance, parental leave, paid holidays, sick time, 401(k)

The application window is expected to close on: 10/20/2026

Candidate must relocate or live in the Listed Territory

Meet the Team

As a Technical Program Manager (TPM) within Cisco's Strategic Sales Partnerships organization, you will lead high-visibility engineering and product alignment initiatives for Cisco's most strategic tier-1 hyperscaler accounts. Our team operates at the critical intersection of cutting-edge cloud infrastructure and enterprise hardware, serving as the essential bridge between Cisco Engineering, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Strategic Sales, and the technical program management organizations at the world's largest cloud providers.

In this role, you will bring structure, momentum, and operational clarity to complex, fast-moving technical roadmaps. You will drive end-to-end program lifecycles from early architecture conception through engineering development, hardware/software validation, and production deployment, ultimately orchestrating seamless operational handoffs to our Customer Experience (CX) delivery teams.

What You'll Do

• End-to-End Program Lifecycle Governance: Own and execute multi-faceted technical programs and custom feature development from ideation through engineering sprints to production delivery, ensuring strict alignment between hyperscaler technical roadmaps and Cisco product milestones.
• Cross-Functional Engineering & PLM Alignment: Partner closely with Engineering architects, PLM leads, and Strategic Sales teams to define, prioritize, and track complex technical requirements, resolving architectural bottlenecks and unblocking cross-organizational dependencies.
• Strategic Hyperscaler Customer Engagement: Build and maintain trusted working partnerships with Technical Program Management leads and engineering counterparts at major cloud service providers, understanding their technical friction points and translating customer demands into actionable development priorities.
• Executive Visibility & Strategic Risk Mitigation: Synthesize intricate technical data, development milestones, and critical path risks into clear, actionable executive dashboards and progress readouts for Cisco and customer senior leadership.
• Production Transition & CX Handoff: Establish rigorous operational readiness frameworks to govern the seamless, well-documented handoff of newly launched features and architectures to Cisco Customer Experience (CX) and support organizations.

Minimum Qualifications

• 6+ years of technical program management, product management, or systems engineering experience managing complex software or hardware development lifecycles (SDLC) within large-scale enterprise environments.
• Proven track record managing multiple concurrent, fast-paced technical initiatives from architecture concept through commercial production delivery.
• Demonstrated ability to drive technical alignment, build consensus, and influence cross-functional engineering, PLM, and sales teams without direct formal reporting authority.
• Deep technical literacy across cloud infrastructure, high-speed data center networking, virtualization, or enterprise platform software architectures.
• Exceptional executive communication, presentation, and technical reporting skills, with proven ability to translate intricate technical details into high-level business insights.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline (or equivalent practical experience).
• Direct experience partnering with or managing technical programs for major hyperscalers or public cloud ecosystems (AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud / GCP, Meta, or Oracle Cloud).
• Familiarity with strategic enterprise sales cycles, customer co-innovation models, and joint technology development agreements.
• Formal program/agile certifications (e.g., PMP, PMI-ACP, CSM, Scaled Agile SAFe) and mastery of modern program tracking tools (Jira, Confluence, SmartSheet).
• Strong background in data center silicon, switching architectures, optical interconnects, or AI/ML compute infrastructure.

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 $174,000.00 to $219,900.00 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 of unused sick time carried forwardfrom 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:

$174,000.00 - $252,900.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$166,500.00 - $243,300.00

* 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.