Director, Product Management (AI Defense)

About the role

Cisco’s AI Software & Platform Group builds enterprise AI platforms and developer tooling, integrating our networking, security, and observability portfolio with modern AI to power autonomous systems. We improve reinforcement learning, simulation, and predictive analytics to make enterprise AI accurate, grounded, and trustworthy.

Cisco is seeking a strategic product leader to define and implement the next generation of AI Security capabilities. This leader will own a core area of the AI Defense portfolio, driving product strategy, customer adoption, and cross-functional execution across engineering, design, go-to-market (GTM), and research teams. The role focuses on building enterprise AI security capabilities spanning AI application security, agentic AI, runtime protection, AI governance, AI supply chain security, and AI validation. This individual will help shape Cisco’s long-term vision for securing enterprise AI while translating market opportunities into differentiated products that scale globally.

Responsibilities

• Lead the strategy, roadmap, and execution for a major AI Security product area from concept through production, adoption, and lifecycle management.
• Define and establish a long-term, multi-year product vision and strategy aligned with Cisco’s AI Security vision and evolving enterprise customer needs.
• Drive product investments across AI governance, AI application security, runtime protection, AI supply chain security, agent security, and AI validation.
• Partner closely with Engineering, Design, Threat Research, GTM, Customer Experience, Sales, Marketing, and Business Development to deliver market-leading products.
• Translate customer requirements, competitive intelligence, and emerging AI threats into clear product direction and execution priorities.
• Drive strategic partnerships across the AI ecosystem, including hyperscalers, AI platforms, developer ecosystems, and enterprise software providers.
• Lead cross-functional planning, investment tradeoffs, and roadmap prioritization across multiple releases.
• Develop deep relationships with customers, design partners, analysts, and strategic partners to influence product direction.
• Build compelling product narratives and represent Cisco at executive customer meetings, industry events, analyst briefings, and conferences.
• Mentor and develop senior product managers while helping establish world-class product management practices across the organization.
• Drive customer-centric innovation across the AI Security portfolio.
• Influence cross-business unit strategy and build alignment across Cisco’s Security, AI, Networking, and Observability organizations.
• Develop durable competitive differentiation through platform thinking, ecosystem partnerships, and enterprise workflows.
• Build high-performing teams that implement with urgency while maintaining exceptional product quality.
• Play an instrumental role in establishing Cisco as the trusted security platform for enterprise AI.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree with 12+ years of industry experience, strong product management background in the AI products space.
• Demonstrable experience in people leadership experience managing senior product managers or technical product leaders.
• Experience defining and delivering enterprise software or cloud platform products from strategy through general availability (GA).
• Experience building AI, cybersecurity, cloud, identity, networking, observability, or similar enterprise platform products.
• Demonstrated success leading cross-functional organizations across Engineering, UX, Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, and executive stakeholders.
• Strong executive communication skills with the ability to influence senior leadership and drive organizational alignment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree or PhD preferred.
• Strong understanding of enterprise AI architectures, large language models (LLMs), AI agents, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), Model Context Protocol (MCP), AI governance, and runtime security.
• Experience developing platform strategies spanning APIs, SDKs, marketplaces, and ecosystem integrations.
• Track record of translating emerging technology trends into commercially successful product strategies.
• Experience working directly with Fortune 500 customers, strategic design partners, and industry analysts.
• Ability to balance long-term platform strategy with near-term execution and customer delivery.
• Passion for building products that simplify enterprise adoption of AI while delivering measurable business outcomes.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution.
• Paid parental leave, short and long-term disability coverage, and 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.
• Non-exempt employees receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at a rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees.
• Exempt employees participate in Cisco’s flexible vacation time off program, with no defined limit on vacation time (subject to availability and business limitations).
• 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, with up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward.
• Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer.
• For non-sales roles, employees are eligible to earn annual bonuses subject to Cisco’s policies.
• Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment.

Pay

The starting salary range for this position is $230,100.00 to $325,300.00 for new hires in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation, equity, or benefits. Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training.

For quota-based sales roles, the ranges include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined. The full salary ranges for specific locations are:

• New York City Metro Area: $230,100.00 - $374,100.00
• Non-Metro New York State & Washington State: $216,500.00 - $337,000.00

For sales roles, incentive pay is performance-based and split between quota and non-quota components. Cisco typically pays:

• 0.75% of incentive target for each 1% of revenue attainment up to 50% of quota.
• 1.5% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 50% and 75%.
• 1% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 75% and 100%.
• Once performance exceeds 100% attainment, incentive rates are at or above 1% for each 1% of attainment with no cap on incentive compensation.
• For non-quota-based sales performance elements, Cisco may pay 0% up to 125% of target.