Technical Marketing Engineering Leader, Cisco Validated
Cisco· enterprise· Enterprise Software· Oct 22, 2026 · 6d ago
RTP North Carolina US
Hybrid
Full-time
Principal
$195K–$329K
12+ years exp
Job description
The application window is expected to close on: 11/12/2026 This is a hybrid position and requires 2-3 days in office per week. Candidates should be located in San Jose, CA or Raleigh, NC or Atlanta, GA.
Meet the Team Join Cisco Validated, the team responsible for turning Cisco s integrated technology strategy into field-credible, evidence-backed proof. Cisco Validated has long helped customers, partners, and field teams deploy with confidence through tested designs, deployment guidance, and validated architectures. As Cisco s portfolio becomes more integrated across networking, security, collaboration, AI, and resilience, the team is evolving to validate not only individual designs, but the cross-portfolio outcomes Cisco presents to the market.
This team works across Business Unit product managers, TMEs, architects, field teams, and leadership to clarify what is real, what is repeatable, and what is ready for customers. The work spans lab validation, proof motions, reference architectures, technical findings, and field-facing assets that help sales and customers understand how Cisco technologies work better together.
Your Impact As a Technical Marketing Engineering Leader on the Cisco Validated team, you will help turn Cisco s One Cisco and Better Together strategy into field-credible technical proof. You will lead validation work across integrated Cisco solutions, building and testing lab environments that reflect real customer scenarios and expose what is repeatable, supportable, and ready for the field.
You will work closely with Business Unit product managers, Business Unit TMEs, architects, field teams, and Cisco Validated peers to scope validation efforts, define evidence requirements, identify integration gaps, and translate technical findings into assets that sales teams, architects, partners, and customers can trust. You will be expected to bring structure to loosely defined requests, work through technical and organizational ambiguity, and keep validation efforts moving from concept to credible proof. Your work will support classic Cisco Validated Designs while expanding the team s role across proof motions, integrated solutions, case studies, briefs, and reference architectures.
You will also help raise the technical bar for the broader validation team by mentoring developing TMEs, shaping repeatable validation practices, and contributing to a durable cross-portfolio talent model. Responsibilities include:
Lead cross-portfolio validation efforts for integrated Cisco solutions aligned to Cisco s strategic priorities.
Define validation scope, success criteria, evidence requirements, and repeatability expectations for assigned initiatives, bringing structure to ambiguous requests and evolving priorities.
Build, configure, test, and troubleshoot complex lab environments that reflect real customer deployment scenarios.
Partner with BU product managers, BU TMEs, Architectural Sponsors, field architects, sales teams, and Cisco Validated peers to ensure validation outcomes are technically credible and field-relevant.
Identify integration gaps, product limitations, operational considerations, and readiness concerns early enough to inform product, field, and leadership decisions.
Produce clear technical evidence, lab notes, configuration artifacts, test results, known issues, and documentation inputs for validated outcomes.
Mentor developing TMEs and external partner resources by setting technical direction, reviewing evidence quality, and reinforcing repeatable validation practices.
Technical Scope
The ideal candidate brings broad technical fluency across the Cisco portfolio, with depth in one or more domains and the ability to learn quickly as Cisco s strategy evolves. This role requires enough technical range to validate integrated outcomes, identify gaps, and explain how Cisco technologies work together in real customer environments.
Key areas of technical scope may include:
Secure networking, routing, switching, wireless, segmentation, policy, assurance, and observability.
Security architectures, secure access, threat detection, identity, firewall, VPN, and zero trust concepts.
Cloud, data center, AI infrastructure, workload connectivity, high-performance fabrics, and hybrid cloud architectures.
Collaboration platforms, user experience, application behavior, and integrated workflow considerations.
Digital resilience, operational continuity, telemetry, troubleshooting, incident readiness, and repeatable recovery patterns.
Lab validation methods, performance testing, interoperability testing, evidence capture, and technical documentation.
Minimum Qualifications Bachelor s degree in engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related technical field and 12 years of hands-on technical experience designing, implementing, validating, troubleshooting, or supporting complex enterprise, service provider, cloud, security, collaboration, or data center technology environments.
Experience in networking, security, cloud, collaboration, automation, or adjacent infrastructure technologies, with depth in at least one major technical domain.
Experience leading technical work across cross-functional stakeholders, including product, engineering, field, sales, or customer-facing teams.
Experience translating ambiguous technical or business objectives into scoped validation plans, evidence requirements, findings, and field-ready outputs.
Preferred Qualifications Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in ambiguous, fast-moving environments with shifting priorities, cross-functional dependencies, and complex technical tradeoffs.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical findings and recommendations to technical and non-technical audiences.
Deep knowledge of the Cisco portfolio, with hands-on experience across multiple Cisco technologies, architectures, or solution domains.
Demonstrated ability to understand how Cisco products integrate into broader customer architectures and cross-portfolio outcomes.
Strong general networking foundation, including routing, switching, wireless, security, cloud connectivity, segmentation, policy, observability, or related infrastructure concepts.
Experience with AI infrastructure, AI-ready data center architectures, GPU cluster networking, high-performance fabrics, workload connectivity, or secure AI architecture concepts.
Experience validating, designing, deploying, or supporting integrated solutions in lab, field, customer, partner, or systems engineering environments.
Ability to communicate technical findings and recommendations clearly to sales teams, partners and product stakeholders, through technical documentation, deployment guidance, reference architectures, and validation proof assets.
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 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.
Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:
The starting salary range posted for this position is $169,300.00 to $237,200.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position 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. The full salary range for certain locations is listed below. For locations not listed below, the recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.
U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco’s plan eligibility rules, which include medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability coverage, and basic life insurance. Please see the Cisco careers site to discover more benefits and perks. Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.
U.S. employees are eligible for paid time away as described below, subject to Cisco’s policies:
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 determined by Cisco
Non-exempt employees** receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees
Exempt employees participate in Cisco’s flexible vacation time off program, which has no defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use (subject to availability and some business limitations)
80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, and up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward from one calendar year to the next
Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members
Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer
For non-sales roles, employees are also eligible to earn annual bonuses subject to Cisco’s policies.
Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non-quota components, subject to the applicable Cisco plan. For quota-based incentive pay, Cisco typically pays as follows:
.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%; and
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 such as strategic sales objectives, Cisco may pay 0% up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.
The applicable full salary ranges for this position, by specific state, are listed below:
New York City Metro Area:
$194,600.00 - $328,600.00
Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:
$179,000.00 - $294,000.00
* For quota-based sales roles on Cisco’s sales plan, the ranges provided in this posting include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.
** Employees in Illinois, whether exempt or non-exempt, will participate in a unique time off program to meet local requirements.
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