Leader, Customer Quality Engineering

Customer Quality Engineer Manager

The application window is expected to close on February 14, 2026. Note: Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.

Candidate must be local to the San Jose area, as this is a hybrid role.

Meet the Team

This role sits within Cisco's Global Supply Chain, on the central Customer Quality Engineering team. You'll join a global group of Customer Quality Engineers who are co-located with key accounts and customer geographies.

As part of this Quality function, the team faces the customer and is responsible for building relationships with the Cisco Account Teams and customers to understand Cisco's hardware performance in their networks. They are then responsible for driving insights back to the internal engineering teams to ensure continuous improvement.

Your Impact

As a Customer Quality Engineer Manager, you will be at the forefront of redefining Cisco's Quality Management System (QMS) for our most strategic customers. You will lead a team that delivers a "white glove" experience, driving direct, transparent engagements and deep Root Cause Analysis (RCA) insight discussions. Your leadership will help ensure top-tier product quality, tailored field mitigation, and proactive customer support for top accounts.

• Lead a customer-centric quality engagement model for Cisco's most strategic customers, delivering transparent communication, deep RCA insights, and a "white glove" support experience.
• Own executive-level customer quality reviews, including performance metrics, issue resolution, and proactive risk mitigation plans.
• Drive cross-functional alignment across Quality, Engineering, CX, Supply Chain, and Operations to execute corrective actions, field mitigations, and escalations.
• Leverage advanced data analytics to identify quality trends, support audits, and proactively address field and early-life failures.
• Lead and develop a high-performing team responsible for customer quality, field remediation, and sustained product performance.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Engineering or related field.
• 10+ years of quality or manufacturing engineering experience, including 3+ years in people leadership.
• Deep expertise in RCA, data analytics, and quality risk mitigation.
• Proven ability to influence executives and lead in complex, matrixed environments.
• Strong communication skills; thrives in fast-paced, ambiguous settings.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting hyperscale/data center customers and networking hardware deployments.

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 $187,300.00 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:

$187,300.00 - $272,700.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$166,800.00 - $242,800.00

* 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.