Senior Director, Enterprise AI Strategy & Global Engineering Productivity Leader
About The Position
Cisco’s Product Organization is establishing an enterprise-wide AI strategy and productivity capability to accelerate developer velocity, modernize software delivery lifecycles, and transform operations across its global product portfolio. The Senior Director will partner with senior Product, Engineering, IT, Security & Trust, and Finance leaders to define and deliver a multi-year Product AI vision. The role integrates developer-led innovation with enterprise strategy and proven practices from leading engineering organizations. The leader will steer enterprise-wide transformation, set strategic investment priorities, and establish operating frameworks that help thousands of Cisco engineers build products more effectively. The position spans AI-enabled developer tooling and workflows, organizational alignment, external vendor partnerships, governance, and measurement of engineering and financial outcomes. It also champions an AI-first workforce grounded in trust, accountability, and psychological safety, while guiding distributed teams through continuous change.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical work experience.
- 15 or more years of professional experience in software engineering, developer platforms, technical strategy, engineering leadership, or technology transformation.
- Experience with enterprise-scale software delivery modernization, developer productivity platforms, or AI-enabled technical transformations; experience with hyperscalers is preferred.
- Track record of influencing VP- and SVP-level leaders, aligning cross-functional partners, and driving large-scale organizational change in a complex, matrixed technology environment.
- Demonstrable strategy experience implementing modern software development lifecycle practices, including CI/CD, security, observability, and platform engineering, and practical generative AI applications such as AI coding assistants, agentic workflows, automated testing, or code modernization.
Nice To Haves
- Master’s degree or Ph.D. in Computer Science or Engineering, or an MBA.
- Ability to build business investment cases, model trade-offs, and communicate technical value in terms of cost, operational risk, and customer impact.
- Experience driving AI developer productivity, platform engineering, or technical transformation at a top-tier technology company, cloud provider, or hyperscaler.
- Success scaling AI developer tooling and engineering practices across large, globally distributed engineering organizations with diverse, multi-billion-dollar product lines.
- Experience collaborating with frontier AI model providers and developer-tool vendors to influence product roadmaps and lead beta partner programs.
- Expertise designing enterprise-grade developer productivity telemetry frameworks, such as DORA, SPACE metrics, velocity analytics, and financial benefits realization models.
- Prior hands-on experience in software engineering, technical product management, or systems architecture.
- Ability to build and lead high-slope teams focused on program operations, data analytics, and technical change enablement.
Responsibilities
- Define strategic priorities, market positioning, and a multi-year roadmap for AI-enabled productivity across developer tooling, coding harnesses, AI-DLC practices, and operational workflows.
- Establish an operating model that connects bottom-up developer innovation, cross-functional strategic initiatives, and executive mandates.
- Create a prioritization framework to assess trade-offs, model business impact, and scale fragmented AI experiments into repeatable enterprise capabilities.
- Partner with Corporate Partnerships to influence AI model provider and tool vendor roadmaps, obtain early access to frontier capabilities, and improve vendor ecosystem ROI.
- Collaborate with Engineering, Product, IT, Legal, Security & Trust, and Finance leaders to align enterprise priorities while representing engineering constraints.
- Lead a cross-business-unit community of practice that establishes shared tooling, governance, and prioritization standards while preserving team autonomy.
- Design and operationalize measurement frameworks for engineering throughput, code quality, developer satisfaction, and realized financial value.
- Champion an AI-first workforce grounded in trust, accountability, and psychological safety.
- Modernize engineering workflows, clarify technical ownership, and coach distributed teams through continuous change with a focus on quality and early risk resolution.
Benefits
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance
- 401(k) plan with Cisco matching contribution
- Paid parental leave
- Short- and long-term disability coverage
- Basic life insurance
- Potential grants of Cisco restricted stock units, subject to eligibility and continued employment
- Paid holidays and a floating holiday for non-exempt employees
- Birthday paid day off, year-end holiday shutdown, and personal wellness days
- Flexible vacation time off for eligible exempt employees; non-exempt employees receive paid vacation time
- Paid sick time, with eligible unused sick time carried forward
- Additional paid time away may be requested for critical or emergency family matters
- Optional paid volunteer days
- Annual bonuses for eligible non-sales roles
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
