Technical Marketing Engineering, Cisco Validated

Cisco Systems, Inc.; Milpitas (CA); On-site; USD 172,000 - 245,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. is seeking a Technical Marketing Engineer on the Cisco Validated team to lead validation workstreams for integrated solutions, building and testing lab environments that mirror real customer deployments.

You will capture evidence, identify gaps, document outcomes, and translate findings into assets for sales, architects, partners, and customers, while growing lab practices and cross-portfolio ownership.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field with 8+ years of hands-on experience.
• Experience in at least one technical domain (networking, security, cloud, collaboration, data center) with depth in one.
• Experience contributing to technical work across product, engineering, field, sales, or cross-functional teams.
• Experience executing validation plans, capturing evidence, documenting findings, and communicating results.
• Working knowledge of Cisco portfolio and hands-on experience across Cisco technologies or solution domains.
• Ability to stay adaptable in ambiguous environments with shifting priorities.

Responsibilities

• Lead defined validation workstreams for integrated Cisco solutions under Sr. TME guidance.
• Build, configure, test, and troubleshoot lab environments that reflect real customer deployment scenarios.
• Execute validation plans, capture evidence, identify issues, and document repeatable outcomes.
• Partner with Sr. TMEs, BU product managers, BU TMEs, architects, field teams, and Cisco Validated peers to keep validation work technically credible and field-relevant.
• Support earlier-career TMEs and external partner resources by sharing lab practices, troubleshooting approaches, and validation lessons learned.

Skills

Networking

Security

Cloud

Collaboration

Data center

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology

Job description

Meet the Team

Join Cisco Validated, the team responsible for turning Cisco's integrated technology strategy into field-credible, evidence-backed proof. Cisco Validated has long helped customers, partners, and field teams deploy with confidence through tested designs, deployment guidance, and validated architectures. As Cisco's portfolio becomes more integrated across networking, security, collaboration, AI, and resilience, the team is evolving to validate not only individual designs, but the cross-portfolio outcomes Cisco presents to the market.

This team works across Business Unit product managers, TMEs, architects, field teams, and leadership to clarify what is real, what is repeatable, and what is ready for customers. The work spans lab validation, proof motions, reference architectures, technical findings, and field-facing assets that help sales and customers understand how Cisco technologies work better together.

Your Impact

As a Technical Marketing Engineer on the Cisco Validated team, you will help turn Cisco's One Cisco and Better Together strategy into field-credible technical proof. You will lead defined validation workstreams for integrated Cisco solutions, building and testing lab environments that reflect real customer scenarios and help determine what is repeatable, supportable, and ready for the field.

You will work with Sr. TMEs, Business Unit product managers, Business Unit TMEs, architects, field teams, and Cisco Validated peers to execute validation plans, capture evidence, identify integration gaps, and translate technical findings into assets that sales teams, architects, partners, and customers can trust. You will be expected to bring structure to assigned workstreams, work through technical ambiguity, and keep validation tasks moving from test plan to credible proof.

You will also build broader technical fluency across the Cisco portfolio, contribute to repeatable validation practices, support earlier-career TMEs and external partner resources, and grow toward larger cross-portfolio ownership over time. Responsibilities include:

• Lead defined validation workstreams for integrated Cisco solutions under Sr. TME guidance.
• Build, configure, test, and troubleshoot lab environments that reflect real customer deployment scenarios.
• Execute validation plans, capture evidence, identify issues, and document repeatable outcomes.
• Partner with Sr. TMEs, BU product managers, BU TMEs, architects, field teams, and Cisco Validated peers to keep validation work technically credible and field-relevant.
• Support earlier-career TMEs and external partner resources by sharing lab practices, troubleshooting approaches, and validation lessons learned.

Technical Scope

The ideal candidate brings broad technical fluency across the Cisco portfolio, with depth in one or more domains and the ability to learn quickly as Cisco's strategy evolves. This role requires enough technical range to validate integrated outcomes, identify gaps, and explain how Cisco technologies work together in real customer environments.

Key areas of technical scope may include:

• Secure networking, routing, switching, wireless, segmentation, policy, assurance, and observability.
• Security architectures, secure access, threat detection, identity, firewall, VPN, and zero trust concepts.
• Cloud, data center, AI infrastructure, workload connectivity, high-performance fabrics, and hybrid cloud architectures.
• Collaboration platforms, user experience, application behavior, and integrated workflow considerations.
• Digital resilience, operational continuity, telemetry, troubleshooting, incident readiness, and repeatable recovery patterns.
• Lab validation methods, performance testing, interoperability testing, evidence capture, and technical documentation.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related technical field and 8+ years of hands-on technical experience, testing, troubleshooting, or supporting complex networking, security, cloud, collaboration, or data center environments.
• Experience in at least one technical domain to include networking, security, cloud, collaboration, automation, or adjacent infrastructure technologies, with depth in at least one major technical domain.
• Experience contributing to technical work across product, engineering, field, sales, customer-facing, or cross-functional teams.
• Experience executing validation plans, capture evidence, document findings, and communicate technical results clearly.

Preferred Qualifications

• Working knowledge of the Cisco portfolio, with hands-on experience across one or more Cisco technologies, architectures, or solution domains.
• Ability to understand how Cisco products integrate into broader customer architectures and cross-portfolio outcomes.
• Ability to stay effective and adaptable in ambiguous technical environments with shifting priorities and cross-functional dependencies.
• Strong general networking foundation, including routing, switching, wireless, security, cloud connectivity, segmentation, policy, observability, or related infrastructure concepts.
• Exposure to AI infrastructure, AI-ready data center architectures, GPU cluster networking, high-performance fabrics, workload connectivity, or secure AI architecture concepts.
• Experience validating, designing, deploying, or supporting integrated solutions in lab, field, customer, partner, or systems engineering environments.
• Ability to communicate technical findings clearly through lab notes, validation results, documentation inputs, technical reviews, and proof assets.

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 $171,600.00 to $245,000.00 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:

$171,600.00 - $281,800.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$151,300.00 - $250,900.00

* 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.