Principal Designer, Networking
About The Position
The Principal Product Designer shapes complex, cross-product journeys that help customers keep networks running, resolve problems faster, and deliver the connectivity their organizations depend on. As a principal individual contributor, this role partners with Networking teams to use customer and market insight to identify high-value customer jobs that cross products and shape coherent experience direction. The designer makes that direction tangible through narratives and prototypes, helps teams translate it into deliverable experiences, and builds alignment through design judgment and influence. The role collaborates closely with Cisco Cloud Control and teams across Cisco to ensure critical Networking customer journeys are thoughtfully designed and delivered through shared Cisco experiences. It brings Networking customer context and technical depth into those decisions so journeys feel coherent. The designer personally designs and prototypes critical parts of the experience, moving from portfolio-level direction to detailed interaction and visual design, information architecture, and data visualization. The work is carried through validation, production partnership, delivery, and iteration to create clear, intentional, visually refined experiences that retain the depth, intelligence, and control customers need.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree and 15 years of related experience, or master’s degree and 12 years of related experience, or PhD and 8 years of related experience, or equivalent related work experience.
- Experience turning customer and market signals into product opportunities.
- A portfolio demonstrating interaction design, visual design, information architecture, and prototyping, including at least one project personally designed and carried from concept through launch.
- Clearly distinguish personal contributions from work directed, reviewed, or influenced.
- Experience leading complex product design work across multiple teams, subject areas, or products from discovery through delivery and iteration.
- Experience using AI to synthesize research, explore and prototype ideas, and validate design direction, with sound judgment about where intelligent and agentic experiences improve customer outcomes.
- Must include a link to an online portfolio; applications without portfolios will not be considered.
Nice To Haves
- Experience bringing a clear point of view and using workshops and design exploration to align partners, shape product direction and business outcomes, and move work forward without a fully defined brief.
- Experience influencing senior partners through clear recommendations, explaining trade-offs, and helping teams reach sound decisions.
- Experience raising design quality and capability through critique, mentorship, reusable practices, or design standards adopted by others.
- Experience applying the clarity and polish of excellent consumer products to technically complex workflows, using visual richness and insight without hiding deeper detail.
- Relevant experience from consumer-facing products, SaaS platforms, or other products built around complex workflows or data; direct networking experience is not required.
- Experience shaping coherent experiences across products with different customer needs, levels of maturity, or deployment models, including cloud, on-premises, or hybrid environments.
Responsibilities
- Use customer and market insight to identify high-value customer jobs that cross products and shape coherent experience direction.
- Create narratives and prototypes that make experience direction tangible.
- Help teams translate experience direction into deliverable experiences and build alignment through design judgment and influence.
- Collaborate with Cisco Cloud Control and teams across Cisco to design and deliver critical Networking customer journeys through shared Cisco experiences.
- Bring Networking customer context and technical depth into cross-Cisco experience decisions.
- Personally design and prototype critical experience components, from portfolio-level direction to detailed interaction design, visual design, information architecture, and data visualization.
- Carry work through validation, production partnership, delivery, and iteration.
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
- Floating holiday for non-exempt employees
- Paid birthday day off
- Paid year-end holiday shutdown
- Paid personal wellness days
- Vacation time or flexible vacation time off, depending on employee classification
- Sick time off
- Additional paid time away may be requested for critical or emergency family issues
- Optional paid volunteer days
- Annual bonuses for non-sales roles, subject to Cisco policies
- Employees may be eligible for Cisco restricted stock unit grants
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Principal
