Incident Manager

Cisco • San Jose, CA

5d • $174,600 - $235,000

About The Position

Join a dynamic, globally distributed group of technical program managers and escalation specialists who lead the charge on major security incidents and customer escalations. Our team is at the heart of Cisco’s unified security platform, partnering closely with engineering, product, support, and account teams to ensure customers are protected and critical issues are resolved quickly. With a dozen talented professionals based in San Jose and around the world, the team thrives on collaboration, ownership, and a fast-paced, high-impact environment. You'll work alongside distinguished engineers and leaders, interact directly with customer executives, and help shape the future of our security products. If you’re excited to solve complex problems, drive innovation, and make a tangible difference for customers and the business, this team is the place to be.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree and 10 years of related experience, Master’s degree and 8 years, or equivalent relevant experience.
• Experience in major incident management, technical support, customer escalation management, site reliability, or a related field.
• Experience leading P1/P2 incidents and complex customer issues through resolution or formal handoff.
• Experience coordinating Support, Engineering, Product, Account Teams, and leadership during critical incidents.
• Experience with incident tracking and customer-management tools such as Jira and Salesforce.
• Experience documenting root cause, corrective actions, and follow-up work.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Splunk Security products, including Splunk Enterprise Security, SOAR, XDR, EDR, or related cybersecurity technologies.
• Experience with cloud platforms, Kubernetes, APIs, networking, observability, or distributed systems.
• Ability to read or troubleshoot code in Python, Java, C++, Go, or a similar language.
• ITIL certification or experience applying ITIL incident, problem, change, and continual-improvement practices.
• Experience using automation, AIOps, or AI-enabled incident-management tools.
• Experience leading work across multiple regions and time zones.
• Ability to communicate clearly and make decisions during high-pressure situations.

Responsibilities

• Drive the response to major incidents and complex customer escalations to ensure rapid restoration of critical services and customer satisfaction.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams, assign actions, track progress, and deliver timely updates to stakeholders, minimizing risk and business disruption.
• Prepare operational reports, outage summaries, and follow-up actions to promote transparency and continual improvement.
• Partner with Problem Management to document root causes and implement corrective measures, preventing repeat incidents.
• Lead post-incident reviews, develop and refine playbooks, and leverage automation to enhance efficiency and organizational readiness.
• Lead P1 and P2 incidents and complex customer escalations from intake through resolution or handoff and serve as a primary escalation point during critical incidents and cross-functional issues; coordinate Support, Engineering, Product, Account Teams, and leadership to drive resolution.
• Assign actions, track progress, identify blockers, and ensure clear ownership and follow-through; and provide timely and accurate updates to customers, engineers, and leadership.
• Identify customer and business risk and drive mitigation plans; and lead post-incident reviews and partner with Problem Management on root-cause analysis and corrective actions.
• Develop and improve incident-management playbooks, processes, and governance.
• Lead crisis simulations and tabletop exercises to improve organizational readiness.
• Prepare operational reports, outage summaries, metrics, and follow-up plans.
• Use automation and AI-enabled tools to improve incident response and identify opportunities for prevention.
• Mentor and coach incident managers and engineers.
• Partner with Architecture, Product, and Engineering to improve reliability, observability, resilience, and serviceability.
• Support continual improvement across incident-management practices.
• Help define priorities and long-term improvements for incident management across the organization.

Benefits

• medical, dental and vision insurance
• a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution
• paid parental leave
• short and long-term disability coverage
• basic life insurance
• grants of Cisco restricted stock units
• 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
• 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees (non-exempt)
• flexible vacation time off program (exempt)
• 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
• annual bonuses

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior