Leader, AI Hyperspecialist Solutions Engineer (Central US)

About the Team

You will join the AI Hyperspecialist Solutions Engineering team, led by a leader who partners 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 to translate 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).

Why 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 their entire digital footprint. Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. With a worldwide network of doers and experts, 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.

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. Below are the 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, the ranges include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.

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.
• Eligibility for grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment.
• 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, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness.
  • Non-exempt employees receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at 4.92 hours per pay period.
  • Exempt employees participate in Cisco’s flexible vacation time off program with no defined limit (subject to 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.
  • Additional paid time away for critical or emergency family issues.
  • Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer.
• Annual bonuses for non-sales roles, subject to Cisco’s policies.
• For sales roles, performance-based incentive pay split between quota and non-quota components.