Intake Product Manager, Cisco Validated

Cisco•San Jose, NC

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

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, the team is evolving to validate not only individual designs, but also the cross-portfolio outcomes Cisco presents to the market. As Product Manager, Cisco Validated Intake, you will serve as a central intake point for strategic and technical requests. You will help cross-functional stakeholders clarify opportunities, assess alignment to Cisco Validated priorities, maintain the CV roadmap, and prepare work for progression through the validation gates. Your Impact As Product Manager, Cisco Validated Intake, you will expand Cisco Validated's capacity to identify and develop cross-portfolio validation opportunities. You will help stakeholders clarify the opportunity, intended outcome, strategic alignment, customer or field value, and required capabilities. You will translate qualified opportunities into actionable validation recommendations and guide them through the Cisco Validated gates. Your work will maintain a clear roadmap of candidate and active initiatives, improve visibility into priorities and dependencies, and help the team focus its technical resources on the highest-value opportunities. You will partner with Cisco Validated TMEs and cross-functional stakeholders to ensure requests are sufficiently defined, aligned to Cisco Validated priorities, and ready for review.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree with 8+ years of industry experience or Master’s degree with 4+ years of industry experience.
8+ years of experience in product management, product operations, portfolio management, technical operations, or related cross-functional roles.
Experience managing formal intake, prioritization, stage-gate progression, and lifecycle progression for complex initiatives.
Experience translating ambiguous requests into clear opportunities, recommendations, scopes, outcomes, dependencies, and decision points.
Experience guiding cross-functional work across product, engineering, technical marketing, architecture, sales, content, or leadership stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

Technical fluency with complex technology portfolios, preferably including the Cisco portfolio.
Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in ambiguous, fast-moving environments with shifting priorities and cross-functional dependencies.
Strong communication skills, including the ability to synthesize complex information into clear recommendations, actions, and status updates.
Working knowledge of the Cisco portfolio and cross-portfolio solution initiatives.
Experience supporting product discovery, portfolio prioritization, or roadmap planning.
Proven ability to influence without direct authority across product, technical, content, sales, and leadership stakeholders.

Responsibilities

Manage the central intake, triage, and prioritization of Cisco Validated opportunities.
Conduct discovery with stakeholders to clarify the opportunity, intended outcome, strategic alignment, customer or field value, and required capabilities.
Translate qualified requests into validation recommendations with clear scope, owners, success criteria, evidence expectations, dependencies, exclusions, and target outputs.
Guide opportunities through the Cisco Validated intake and validation gates, preparing review materials, coordinating stakeholder input, and tracking actions and decisions.
Maintain the Cisco Validated roadmap from initial intake through gate progression, validation execution, publication, and lifecycle review.
Coordinate cross-functional handoffs and maintain visibility as approved work moves through execution and publication.
Improve intake practices, gate criteria, templates, and operating mechanisms based on lessons learned.

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
restricted stock units
10 paid holidays per full calendar year
1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
1 paid day off for employee’s birthday
paid year-end holiday shutdown
4 paid days off for personal wellness
16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year (non-exempt employees)
flexible vacation time off program (exempt employees)
80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter
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
10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer
annual bonuses (for non-sales roles)
performance-based incentive pay (for sales roles)