Customer Program Manager

Customer Program Manager

This role leads complex, customer-facing programs across Cisco technologies and services, translating customer priorities into coordinated execution and measurable business outcomes. The Customer Program Manager is accountable for driving delivery performance, stakeholder alignment, financial discipline, governance, risk management, and continuous improvement across the program lifecycle, supported by responsible use of AI and automation.

Who You Are

You are an experienced Customer Program Manager with strong strategic, operational, financial, and technical judgment. You build trusted stakeholder relationships, navigate ambiguity and risk, and use data, automation, and approved AI tools to improve delivery while protecting sensitive information and maintaining human accountability. You actively apply AI and automation to improve how you plan, manage, analyze, communicate, and deliver work. Your experience goes beyond basic chatbot use and includes applying AI-enabled workflows, automation, agents, or similar capabilities to solve business problems and produce measurable improvements in productivity, quality, speed, or delivery outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead customer projects and programs across Cisco technologies and services from initiation through closure.
• Translate customer priorities into program strategies, roadmaps, delivery plans, milestones, and measurable business outcomes.
• Manage scope, schedule, budget, quality, financial performance, customer satisfaction, risks, dependencies, and change.
• Coordinate internal and external stakeholders and present program performance, financials, risks, recommendations, and decision points to executive audiences.
• Establish program governance, communications, escalation, risk-management, and change-control practices; identify issues early and lead mitigation and recovery planning.
• Manage forecasting, invoicing, revenue, cost, margin, and accurate reporting across Cisco Systems.
• Apply Agile, Waterfall, or hybrid delivery methods based on program and customer needs while maintaining Cisco delivery, financial, contractual, documentation, and operational standards.
• Apply technical knowledge to shape delivery plans, manage integration points, and connect technical execution to customer and business outcomes.
• Coach project and program managers and promote consistent delivery practices, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement.
• Apply approved AI, analytics, and automation tools to improve planning, reporting, forecasting, risk detection, communications, and program closeout.
• Identify opportunities to reduce manual effort and improve productivity, quality, cycle time, and delivery outcomes through practical use of AI and automation.
• Validate AI-assisted outputs and automation for accuracy, relevance, customer context, appropriate controls, and traceability.
• Maintain human accountability for customer commitments, financial actions, approvals, and decisions informed by AI.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with 8+ years of relevant experience, Master's degree with 6+ years, doctoral degree with 3+ years, or equivalent relevant work experience.
• Current Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute or a comparable recognized project management certification.
• Progressive project or program-management experience delivering complex, customer-facing engagements within Professional Services, management consulting, systems integration, or comparable enterprise services environments.
• Demonstrated practical experience applying AI, automation, AI-enabled workflows, or agents beyond basic conversational or chatbot use, including at least one example with measurable or clearly defined business or operational impact.
• Strong executive and customer-facing communication, presentation, facilitation, negotiation, and problem-solving skills, with demonstrated ability to think on your feet and navigate ambiguity.
• Ability to translate technical concepts, delivery performance, and data into measurable customer and business outcomes.

New Preferred Qualifications

• Experience within leading management consulting, technology consulting, systems integration, or enterprise Professional Services organizations.
• Experience applying AI-enabled tools, automation, or agents to project management, PMO, service-delivery, or operational processes, with demonstrated ability to articulate the resulting business value.
• Working knowledge of Cisco architectures, technologies, business processes, operational tools, and service-delivery practices.
• PMI-CPMAI, PgMP, Agile, Scrum, ITIL, change-management, financial-management, Cisco technical, or other relevant professional certifications.