Hardware Project Manager
About The Position
The Common Hardware Group (CHG) creates hardware platforms for Cisco’s Switching, Routing, and Wireless products, including innovations in silicon, optics, and hardware platforms such as Silicon One. The CHG Hardware Project Management Office (HW PMO) coordinates execution across engineering, product management, operations, supply chain, marketing, sales, and leadership teams, establishing operating rhythms, governance, transparency, and cross-functional coordination for Cisco’s hardware portfolio. The Hardware Project Manager leads new product introduction (NPI) project and program management activities and small- to mid-sized programs of moderate complexity. The role develops and maintains plans, schedules, milestones, deliverables, and communications; monitors program health, risks, dependencies, and issues; and supports planning cycles, business reviews, status reporting, and leadership updates. It also improves documentation frameworks, governance processes, templates, and execution models, using collaboration, automation, and AI-enabled productivity tools responsibly. The preferred location is RTP, North Carolina, with San Jose, California also considered. The application window is expected to close on November 29, 2026.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree and 5 years of related experience, or master’s degree and 3 years of related experience, or Ph.D. and 0 years of related experience, or equivalent related work experience.
- Related experience in program or project management, business operations, PMO, chief-of-staff support, hardware design, hardware manufacturing processes, or NPI product development.
- Experience leading cross-functional programs or projects, including project plans, milestones, dependencies, risks, issue resolution, and stakeholder communications.
- Experience supporting business operations or leadership operating rhythms, such as staff meetings, business reviews, action tracking, executive updates, dashboards, or organizational communications.
Nice To Haves
- Experience supporting hardware, system-level, networking, telecom, or enterprise infrastructure programs within a PMO or NPI product development environment.
- Experience in business operations, executive operations, or a PMO role supporting senior leadership operating mechanisms.
- Familiarity with product development lifecycles, release readiness, change management, and launch or operational governance processes.
- Ability to operate effectively in a highly matrixed, fast-paced, globally distributed environment while balancing program execution with operational priorities.
- Strong analytical problem-solving skills, including the ability to turn ambiguous inputs into clear plans, owners, actions, and decisions.
- Experience using collaboration, automation, AI-enabled productivity, or workflow tools to improve program execution, executive communications, and team efficiency.
Responsibilities
- Lead NPI project and program management across hardware engineering, product management, operations, marketing, account teams, EPM, power, thermal, and other partner organizations.
- Lead small- to mid-sized programs of moderate complexity, with multiple dependencies and cross-functional stakeholders across the CHG hardware portfolio.
- Develop and maintain project plans, schedules, milestones, deliverables, communication frameworks, and execution cadences.
- Track program health, identify risks and dependencies, drive issue resolution, and escalate decisions or blockers with clear recommendations.
- Support HW group operational work, including planning cycles, business reviews, status reporting, leadership updates, and other operating mechanisms.
- Establish and improve documentation frameworks, governance processes, templates, and team execution models.
- Use collaboration, automation, and AI-enabled productivity tools responsibly to improve operational efficiency.
Benefits
- Medical insurance
- Dental insurance
- Vision insurance
- 401(k) plan with Cisco matching contribution
- Paid parental leave
- Short- and long-term disability coverage
- Basic life insurance
- Paid holidays and a floating holiday for non-exempt employees
- Paid birthday day off
- Paid year-end holiday shutdown
- Personal wellness days
- Paid vacation or flexible vacation time off, depending on employee classification
- Paid sick time
- Additional paid time away may be requested for critical or emergency family issues
- Optional paid volunteer days
- Annual bonuses for eligible non-sales employees
- Potential grants of Cisco restricted stock units
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
