Sourcing Commodity Manager (remote)

Cisco • San Jose, CA

2d • Remote

About The Position

As a Technical Sourcing Commodity Manager for Memory and Storage, you own technical decisions and cost outcomes for memory and storage commodities, partnering closely with hardware engineering, manufacturing, and supplier engineering teams. The role sits at the intersection of engineering, manufacturing, and supplier technology development, helping bring new Cisco products to life. You will influence design decisions, enable supplier technical readiness, and remove development barriers from concept through mass production. Your work supports Cisco’s networking and AI systems by helping ensure designs are manufacturable, resilient, production-ready, and able to meet performance and reliability requirements.

This is an engineering-facing, technically hands-on role that requires engaging in detailed discussions about memory and storage design, materials, and manufacturing processes. Success requires experience supporting hardware designs through development, manufacturing, and scale, including hands-on technical problem-solving with supplier engineering teams.

Cisco’s Global Supplier Management organization collaborates with hardware engineering, manufacturing, and suppliers to enable next-generation technologies across Cisco’s networking and AI platforms. The team focuses on early technical engagement, supplier capability development, and execution excellence, preparing designs to scale from prototype through mass production. Additional responsibilities may be assigned based on evolving business priorities.

Requirements

• At least 7 years of technical experience in memory and storage technologies, especially NAND solutions such as SSD, eMMC, UFS, and uSD, including design support and manufacturing engagement.
• At least 10 years of experience working directly with hardware design engineering teams on New Product Introductions (NPI).
• At least 10 years of experience engaging suppliers on technical development, qualification, manufacturing readiness, cost negotiations, should-cost modeling, contract management, and obtaining supplier quotations through RFQ/RFI processes.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in mechanical engineering or a related field.
• Experience with memory and storage technology or memory suppliers.
• Familiarity with AI system architectures and high-performance computing platforms.
• Excellent technical communication, problem-solving, and stakeholder engagement skills.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Hardware Design Engineering, Component Engineering, and Manufacturing to align supplier technologies with Cisco’s product architecture and roadmap.
• Participate in technical design reviews with internal teams and suppliers, evaluating feasibility, manufacturability, and performance tradeoffs.
• Drive early supplier technical engagement for new designs and architectures.
• Lead supplier technology roadmap discussions, assessing design approaches, materials, processes, and manufacturing capabilities.
• Act as the technical escalation point for supplier-related design, yield, reliability, and manufacturability issues.
• Hold suppliers accountable for development milestones, technical readiness, and qualification schedules.
• Lead and own supplier technical readiness from prototype through mass production.
• Facilitate hands-on collaboration between supplier engineering teams and Cisco engineers to resolve design and manufacturing issues.
• Support ramp readiness, yield improvement, and transition from NPI into sustained production.
• Drive value engineering initiatives that improve cost efficiency without compromising technical performance or reliability.
• Identify and develop second-source strategies that strengthen design robustness and supply flexibility.
• Support geographic diversification and non-China manufacturing strategies.
• Identify technical and manufacturing risks and develop mitigation plans with engineering teams and suppliers.
• Lead supplier reviews covering technology readiness, NPI execution, yield, capacity, and risk.
• Provide clear technical status updates to cross-functional leadership.
• Partner with Component Engineering on quality investigations and corrective actions.
• Drive continuous improvement using diverse methodologies.
• Define technical KPIs and enable data-driven execution across suppliers.

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
• Cisco restricted stock unit grants may be available, subject to eligibility and vesting conditions.
• 10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus one floating holiday for non-exempt employees
• One paid day off for an employee’s birthday
• Paid year-end holiday shutdown
• Four paid days off for personal wellness
• Vacation time or flexible vacation time off, depending on employee classification
• 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire and each January 1, with up to 80 unused hours carried forward
• Additional paid time away may be requested for critical or emergency family issues
• Optional 10 paid volunteer days per full calendar year
• Annual bonuses for eligible non-sales employees, subject to Cisco policies

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed