Director, Solutions Engineer...

Cisco is seeking an accomplished and visionary Senior Leader to lead a Solution Sales Engineering team, with a focus on AI Security. This role requires a deep understanding of how AI works foundationally and what it takes to secure AI from an infrastructure and usage perspective. In this pivotal role, you will be responsible for shaping and delivering a comprehensive strategy, driving technical sales excellence, and fostering a culture of high performance and innovation. With the rapid pace of how AI is evolving, this role also requires keeping up on market trends along with innovative ways to bring cross product AI solutions together from a One Cisco perspective.

Your Impact

Strategic Leadership & Team Development:

• Lead and mentor high-performing Sales Engineering teams, instilling technical excellence and a customer-first attitude.

• Provide regular career development support and set clear expectations, attracting and retaining top engineering talent.

• Drive technical sales strategies that accelerate adoption of Hypershield, Secure Workload, Runtime Security, Isovalent, and Kubernetes, enabling consistent double-digit growth.

• Partner closely with cross-functional teams, including Sales, Marketing, Customer Experience (CX) and Channel organizations, to ensure seamless handoffs and collaborative success.

• Cultivate a robust technical community within the organization, promoting best practices and continuous learning.

• Be the face of the Hypershield & Isovalent SE community, while defining and implementing what “great” looks like in technical sales, setting clear standards for success and measurable outcomes.

• Incorporate and standardize technical sales assets and methodologies to clearly demonstrate the value of Cisco Security solutions to our customers.

• Collaborate with Technical Enablement and GTM teams to develop training plans ensuring teams are well-equipped for new product introduction and growth.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement:

• Build strong partnerships and foster trust across sales, engineering, product management, marketing, and customer success teams to align on goals and drive joint success.

• Act as a key interface between sales and Business Unit teams, balancing competing priorities and mediating between business requirements and multiple stakeholders.

• Serve as a strategic partner to the broader organization, sharing best practices related to technical sales methodology, deal progression techniques, and value messaging.

Customer, Partner & Market Engagement:

• Cultivate strong executive relationships with customers and partners, engaging directly in the market opportunity pipeline to drive transformative security and differentiation for Cisco.

• 8+ years as a technical sales/solutions engineer or equivalent.

• 4+ years as a sales/solutions engineer leader managing global teams or equivalent.

• Experience leading technical or sales engineering teams in the security solutions space.

• 1+ years experience in the Kubernetes and platform security space.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong critical thinking and execution skills, with experience developing and implementing successful GTM strategies.

• Exceptional leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.

• Passion for building and scaling high-performing, customer-focused technical organizations.

• Maintain current knowledge of industry trends, competitive offerings, and evolving customer needs to continuously refine enablement and sales strategies.

• An accomplished leader with a proven track record in building and driving high-impact, geographically dispersed teams in the security technology industry.

• Extensive experience across multiple customer segments (Enterprise, Commercial, Public Sector, and Partners) with strong knowledge of Cisco Cybersecurity solutions including Cloud & Datacenter Security, AI Security, and Cisco Networking. Experience in a cybersecurity organization/company and/or an enterprise SaaS company.

• Demonstrated ability to lead and influence in an ambiguous and constantly evolving environment, capable of monitoring team progress against a dynamic business plan and pivoting quickly with the market and business.

• Exceptional communication, storytelling, and presentation skills, coupled with the ability to effectively influence and engage large audiences, senior leaders, customers, and partners. Skilled in developing senior management relationships and providing thought leadership.

• Passionate about the customer experience and cutting-edge technology, with a strong ability to engage with leaders at all levels within Cisco. Proven ability to initiate programs that improve pipeline generation, sales success, and customer experience to boost Cisco’s brand loyalty.

The starting salary range posted for this position is $298,800.00 to $377,500.00 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.

• 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:

$320,600.00 - $468,200.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$307,600.00 - $447,000.00

• 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.

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., Cisco will consider for employment, on a case by case basis, qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.