Solutions Engineer

Solution Engineer Role at Cisco

The role of a Solution Engineer (SE) at Cisco is foundational to our customer success strategy. Below is a structured, digestible overview of the role based on the information provided:

The SE Role: Core Philosophy

• Technical Leadership: You act as the "CTO" for your accounts, leading technical engagements and driving the strategic direction for your team.
• Strategic Partnership: Your primary partner is the Sales Account Executive (AE), who acts as the "CIO." Together, you listen, learn, and solve the customer's most complex challenges.
• Mission: Your ultimate goal is to propose technology solutions that meet customer needs while hitting business targets and retiring quota.

Professional Development & Expertise

• Technical Proficiency: SEs are encouraged to maintain expertise across key domains, including Routing, Switching, Security, Data Center, and Collaboration.
• Continuous Growth: Through quarterly learning and certifications, you are challenged to constantly evolve your technical skills.
• Internal Influence: By sharing your specific technology affinities and helping others within US Commercial, you can gain executive visibility and be recognized as a top engineer.

Measuring Success

• The North Star: Customer Success and Happiness.
• Key Performance Indicators:
• Meeting and exceeding sales goals.
• Achieving industry certifications.
• Ensuring procured technology is successfully adopted and performs as expected.
• Trusted Advisor Status: Success is also measured by your ability to act as the primary point of contact (POC) for all things technical for your customers.

Operational Excellence

• Time Management: Given the dynamic nature of the role, effective time management is essential to balance internal and external demands.
• AI Integration: As we operate in the AI era, you are encouraged to use your assigned AI Agent. Use it to automate time-consuming tasks so you can focus on your most critical, high-impact goals.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Deep Routing and Switching knowledge is table stakes (strong SASE, SDWAN, BGP, OSPF, VXLAN Fabric technologies, deployment, architectural, and operational knowledge in these areas).
• Previous sales engineering experience – 3+ years or more
• Willing to travel to meet customers where they are—and of course, Cisco has technology to facilitate hybrid meetings—but travel will be required.
• Security and Collaboration: having a baseline understanding and ability to talk through key aspects of Zero Trust, and a broad understanding of Voice and Collaboration solutions and how they interact with campus, Data Center, and WAN architectures.
• Understanding of APIs and how they are used in automation for operations improvements.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Demonstrate strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Deep dive skills in Routing, Switching, Security, and Data Center are preferred.
• Experience in US Commercial sector sales and the ability to lead a room.
• Experience in dealing with Enterprise Architectures with a high degree of complexity.
• CCNP and CCIE in Routing/Switching, Security, or Data Center (either single or multiple certs).
• Living in Norfolk or Virginia Beach is highly recommended.

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 $202,400.00 to $257,900.00 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:

$212,200.00 - $308,300.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$202,400.00 - $296,900.00

* 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.