Intelligent Workplace Experiences Director, Solutions Engineer

Cisco•Research Triangle Park, NC

6d•$281,100 - $440,000•Remote

About The Position

The Workplace Engineering team is Cisco's specialist SE organization for the workplace buying center, driving "One Cisco" Future-Proofed Workplace (FPW) outcomes — delivering integrated networking, devices, Cisco Spaces, and Splunk to non-IT buyers across Corporate Real Estate, Facilities, Sustainability (ESG), HR, and the broader workplace function. We open net-new wallet for Cisco by meeting customers where traditional IT-led motions don't reach, and we scale through a non-traditional partner ecosystem of MEP engineers, architects, designers, and engineering alliances. Together, this is a globally distributed team spanning AMER, EMEA, and APJ, operating at the intersection of pre-sales engineering, product/BE influence, and ecosystem development. Our Global Specialist Solutions Engineering team is looking for a dynamic and experienced leader. You will own the performance, development, and strategic direction of a high-performing, globally distributed SE organization. You will be empowered to lead, plan, report, and drive engagement and prioritization for the team, drive sales team support, and drive projects across the SE organization. This role also assists all Solutions Engineering, Sales, and BU leadership in maintaining the overall direction, productivity, and effectiveness across Spaces, Networking, Splunk, Collaboration, and the energy/smart-building portfolio. You will build strong executive relationships with internal team members, customers, partners and sales leadership.

Requirements

You love interacting with customers, peers in leadership, partners, sellers, and engineers of all kinds. You enjoy defining and driving the strategy for innovative technology and teams. You seek out and tackle complex, high-impact problems. You can lead by example as well as by influence, and always from the front. You can engage effectively with leaders at all levels within Cisco Sales, Engineering, Product, and Customer Experience orgs. You are passionate about the customer experience and excited about new technology. You are a true teammate and love to learn.
15+ years of related experience
3+ years of direct people-leadership; or team lead experience
Proven ability to operate across a matrixed organization — influencing product, partner, and sales stakeholders without direct authority.
Bachelor's degree in a technical or business field, or equivalent practical experience
Model and reinforce Cisco's Guiding Principles — Think Really Big, Play to Win, Drive Durable Growth.

Nice To Haves

Experience with the workplace/built-environment buying center (CRE, Facilities, ESG, HR) and non-IT stakeholder selling.
Experience in field/solutions engineering or technical pre-sales strongly preferred.
Second-line or global/distributed team leadership strongly preferred.
Familiarity with Cisco Spaces, Meraki, Catalyst/PoE, Splunk, and collaboration device telemetry.
Develop senior management relationships with partners, customers, and internal business groups.
Are an accomplished leader with a proven track record building and driving large high-impact, geographically dispersed teams.
Provide thought leadership to customers and partners based on short -and long-term business and industry drivers.
Initiate programs to improve pipeline generation, sales success, and customer experience to increase brand loyalty for Cisco.
Understand competitive products deeply and can articulate trade-offs between Cisco and competitor products.
Credentials such as RCDD, LEED, or WELL AP are a plus.
Demonstrated fluency applying AI to engineering and GTM workflows.
This is a globally dispersed team - our ideal candidate would be based in the United States, however we are open to candidates globally.

Responsibilities

Drive Sales Growth – Maintain a customer-first mindset as a technical executive advisor. Engage directly with customers and partners to drive strategic growth. Work closely with sales counterparts to reach and exceed quota. Ability to clearly articulate opportunities, issues, challenges, and gaps technically from a product perspective, full go-to-market and regarding people resources.
Lead the Team – Built talent and a high-performing SE team. Coach, mentor, set clear expectations, and provide regular career development support both within and outside the direct team. Define and drive outstanding and inclusive culture to attract, develop and retain the best specialist engineering talent in the industry. Lead through influence your leaders, the sales engineering leaders, and the larger team.
Set Technology Strategy – Deploy the SE team to ensure alignment with sales priorities. Work with the Business Unit leadership to define the initiatives that will optimize growth and market share gain. Partner closely with the geographies, customer, Partner/Channel, and post-sales counterparts on key initiatives and alignment. Use industry and competitive knowledge to drive disruption. Mobilize cross-functional partners (Spaces, Networking, Splunk, Collaboration, ESO, GPO, CX) to deliver integrated, outcome-led solutions to the workplace and employee experience buying centers.
Technology Influence-Work with the BU, Finance, HR, Strategy & Planning, and Sales teams to capture market opportunities or resolve challenges that arise. Establish partnerships and credibility with senior business and technology executives within Cisco to represent the FPW value proposition.
Technology Scale and Enablement-Spearhead the design, development, and execution of a comprehensive technical learning and development. Lead at Cisco Live, WebexOne, GSX, other Workplace relevant events.

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
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
Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary
Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.