Leader, AI Hyperspecialist Solutions Engineer (Central US)
About the Team
The AI Hyperspecialist Solutions Engineering leader directs a team of solutions engineers who partner with sales, customers, and product teams to design and implement AI-powered solutions. This role requires deep technical credibility in AI/ML combined with strong people leadership, ensuring the team effectively translates customer needs into technical solutions while driving revenue and customer success.
Responsibilities
- Team Leadership: Manage, coach, and develop a team of solutions engineers/architects; conduct 1:1s, performance reviews, and skill development plans
- Pre-Sales Support: Oversee technical discovery, solution design, demos, and proof-of-concepts (POCs) for prospective customers evaluating AI products
- Customer Enablement: Guide the team in helping customers integrate AI/ML APIs, models, or platforms into their existing systems
- Technical Strategy: Develop reusable solution architectures, demo environments, and best practices for common AI use cases (e.g., RAG, agents, fine-tuning, automation)
- Cross-functional Collaboration: Partner closely with Sales, Product, Engineering, and Customer Success to align technical solutions with business goals and feed customer feedback into the product roadmap
- Escalation Management: Serve as an escalation point for complex technical objections or implementation blockers during the sales cycle
- Enablement & Training: Build technical training materials and certifications for the solutions engineering team and broader sales org
- Process & Metrics: Track team performance metrics (POC win rate, time-to-value, deal velocity) and continuously improve pre-sales processes
- Hiring: Recruit and interview candidates with strong technical and communication skills
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field
- 5+ years in solutions engineering, sales engineering, or technical consulting, with 2+ years in a leadership role
- Strong understanding of AI/ML concepts — LLMs, embeddings, RAG, model APIs, prompt engineering
- Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and integration technologies (APIs, SDKs, webhooks)
- Proven ability to communicate technical concepts to both technical and non-technical/executive audiences
- Track record of supporting complex enterprise sales cycles
Preferred Qualifications
- Hands-on experience building demos or POCs using LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.) or ML frameworks
- Background in customer-facing technical roles at a SaaS or AI/ML company
- Familiarity with vector databases, agentic frameworks, or MLOps tooling
- Experience presenting at conferences, webinars, or customer events
- Prior experience in a specific target industry (e.g., enterprise software, fintech, healthcare)
About Cisco
At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint. Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere. We are Cisco, and our power starts with you.
Pay
The starting salary range for this position is $235,300.00 to $301,700.00 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.
Full salary ranges for specific locations:
- New York City Metro Area: $257,800.00 - $374,100.00
- Non-Metro New York State & Washington State: $242,800.00 - $357,100.00
For quota-based sales roles on Cisco’s sales plan, the ranges provided include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.
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
- Restricted stock units (RSUs) with vesting periods
- Paid time off:
- 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
- 4 paid days off for personal wellness
- Non-exempt employees: 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year (accrued at 4.92 hours per pay period)
- Exempt employees: Flexible vacation time off with no defined limit (subject to business needs)
- 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, with up to 80 hours carried forward
- Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer
- Annual bonuses for non-sales roles (subject to Cisco’s policies)
- Performance-based incentive pay for sales roles (split between quota and non-quota components)