Lead Product Manager, AI - ThousandEyes

The application window is expected to close on: 08/31/2026

Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received .

Who We Are

Cisco ThousandEyes is a Digital Experience Assurance platform that empowers organizations to deliver flawless digital experiences across every network - even the ones they don't own. Powered by AI and an unmatched set of cloud, internet and enterprise network telemetry data, ThousandEyes enables IT teams to proactively detect, diagnose, and remediate issues - before they impact end- user experiences.

ThousandEyes is deeply integrated across the entire Cisco technology portfolio and beyond, helping customers deploy at scale while also delivering AI-powered assurance insights within Cisco's leading Networking, Security, Collaboration, and Observability portfolios.

About the Role

We're looking for a Lead Product Manager who is a great product manager first—and happens to have real depth in modern AI/ML. You'll own product strategy for key AI/ML feature areas, working closely with engineering and research to ship capabilities that make our customers' lives easier. This isn't a traditional enterprise PM role. We want someone who has built AI-native products and understands how they actually work under the hood. Ideally, you've spent time at companies like Cursor, Windsurf, Replit, or similar places where AI isn't a feature; it's the product. You'll bring that perspective to ThousandEyes as we build the next generation of intelligent, agentic capabilities on top of one of the richest network telemetry datasets in the world.

What You'll Do

• Be the connective tissue between product and ML —you'll sit at the intersection of customer problems and technical possibilities, translating between what users need and what models can do.

• Get your hands dirty with the technology —you're comfortable digging into how a model behaves, why it's making certain predictions, and what trade-offs come with different approaches.

• Rethink the user experience from first principles —instead of bolting AI onto existing workflows, you'll help design interactions where intelligent automation is the default.

• Make hard calls on ambiguous problems —AI product development is messy; you'll need to decide when something is good enough to ship and when it needs more iteration.

• Bridge the gap between research and production —help the team move from promising experiments to features that work reliably at scale.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in product management, with experience shipping AI-native or ML-powered products

• Strong product fundamentals—you know how to discover what matters, prioritize ruthlessly, and get things out the door

• Genuine technical depth in ML—you understand how modern models work (especially transformers), and can engage meaningfully with engineers on architecture and trade-offs

• Experience at companies building agentic AI products (Cursor, Windsurf, Replit, Cognition, etc.) is a strong plus

• Excellent communicator—can distill complex topics for different audiences and influence across teams and levels

• Bias for action; comfortable operating with ambiguity and making calls without perfect information

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 $171,600.00 to $245,000.00 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:

$171,600.00 - $281,800.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$151,300.00 - $250,900.00

• 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.

Cisco is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, genetic information, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis.

Cisco will consider for employment, on a case by case basis, qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.