The posting
The application window is expected to close on: 10/26/2026
Meet the Team
Cisco’s Product Organization is at the forefront of powering the world’s connectivity, security, and digital infrastructure. As AI reshapes software engineering and enterprise operations, we are establishing an enterprise-wide AI Strategy & Productivity rigor to accelerate developer velocity, modernize software delivery lifecycles, and drive meaningful business transformation across our global product portfolio.
We are seeking a visionary, externally informed, and execution-oriented Director, AI Strategy & Productivity to partner directly with senior Product, Engineering, IT, Security & Trust, and Finance leaders to define and drive our multi-year Product AI vision. In this role, you will act as a strategic integrator—translating bottom-up developer innovation and top-down strategic mandates into a cohesive, high-impact AI productivity roadmap backed by proven practices from tier-1 engineering cultures.
Your Impact
As the Director of AI Strategy & Productivity, you will steer enterprise-wide transformation, define strategic investment focus, and establish the operational frameworks that empower thousands of Cisco engineers to build next-generation products faster and smarter.
- Distill long-range ambition into clear strategic priorities, market positioning, and a multi-year roadmap for AI-enabled productivity spanning developer tooling, coding harnesses, SDLC practices, and operational workflows.
- Establish a flexible operating model that bridges bottom-up developer innovation, strategic multi-functional initiatives, and executive mandates.
- Create a rigorous prioritization framework to evaluate trade-offs, model business impact, and transition Cisco from fragmented AI experimentation to scalable, repeatable, enterprise-grade capabilities.
- Partner with the Corporate Partnerships team to influence external AI model provider and tool vendor roadmaps, secure early access to frontier capabilities, and improve vendor ecosystem ROI.
- Collaborate closely with Engineering, Product, IT, Legal, Security & Trust, and Finance leaders—advocating for engineering constraints while constructively challenging the status quo to drive enterprise-wide alignment.
- Lead a vibrant, multi-functional community of practice across business units to establish shared standards for tooling, governance, and prioritization without sacrificing team autonomy.
- Design and operationalize comprehensive measurement frameworks that evolve beyond surface-level adoption metrics to rigorously quantify engineering throughput, code quality, developer satisfaction (DevEx), and realized financial value.
- Champion an AI-first, activated workforce grounded in trust, accountability, and psychological safety.
- Modernize engineering workflows, clarify technical ownership, and coach distributed teams through continuous change with high quality and early risk resolution.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or a related technical field or equivalent practical work experience.
- 15+ years of professional experience across software engineering, developer platforms, technical strategy, engineering leadership, or technology transformation.
- Experience with enterprise-scale strategies for software delivery modernization, developer productivity platforms, or AI-enabled technical transformations, peferrably with hyperscalers.
- Proven track record of influencing VP/SVP-level leaders, aligning multi-functional partners, and driving large-scale organizational change in a complex, matrixed technology environment.
- Demonstrable strategy background implementing modern software development lifecycle (CI/CD, security, observability, platform engineering) and practical applications of generative AI (AI coding assistants, agentic workflows, automated testing, or code modernization).
Preferred Qualifications
- Master’s degree or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Engineering, or Master of Business Administration (MBA)
- Proven ability to build compelling business investment cases, model trade-offs, and articulate technical value in terms of cost, operational risk, and customer impact.
- Experience driving AI developer productivity, platform engineering, or technical transformation at a top-tier technology company, cloud provider, or hyperscaler.
- Demonstrated success scaling AI developer tooling and engineering practices across large, globally distributed engineering organizations with diverse, multi-billion-dollar product lines.
- Track record of collaborating with frontier AI model providers and developer-tool vendors to influence external product roadmaps and lead beta partner programs.
- Deep expertise designing enterprise-grade developer productivity telemetry frameworks (e.g., DORA, SPACE metrics, velocity analytics, and financial benefits realization models).
- Prior hands-on experience in software engineering, technical product management, or systems architecture.
- Proven ability to build and lead high-slope teams focused on program operations, data analytics, and technical change enablement.
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 $286,200.00 to $364,400.00 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:
$286,200.00 - $416,900.00
Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:
$253,000.00 - $386,900.00
* 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.
