Engineering Product Manager, Developer Foundations

Cisco Ai Software & Platform Group

Cisco's AI Software & Platform Group is building the platform for AI app development, first for Cisco's own teams and now, increasingly, for partners and the third-party developers building on Cisco. Developer Foundations is the substrate everything runs on: the shared services and building blocks, like the app registry, hosting, and the SDK, that Cloud Control Studio and everything else built on Cisco depend on. We are a small, senior, high-trust team that moves quickly and owns its outcomes, and we are hiring a leader to own those foundations as a product.

This role will be remote from the San Jose, CA or Seattle, WA location.

Your Impact

You own Developer Foundations: the shared layer the rest of Cisco builds on. It spans the core services and building blocks, areas like the registry, hosting, the SDK, and the public APIs, that turn raw infrastructure into something teams can build on quickly. You set the direction for that layer and own its outcomes.

This is a senior role defined by ownership rather than task lists. You shape the strategy for the foundations and carry accountability for where they go, working hand in hand with engineering leaders and the teams that depend on you. It is one of the most consequential product seats in the group.

You treat the foundations as a product with real customers. Cloud Control Studio is your largest, and so is every team and partner building directly on Cisco. Increasingly those builders are AI coding agents as much as people, and the foundations have to be as easy for an agent to build on as for a human. Your job is to make the building blocks reliable, coherent, and easy to build on, so the experiences above them move fast without fighting the substrate.

As Cisco opens up to partners and third-party developers, you own how they build on it: the public-facing APIs and SDK, and the integration and governance model that lets outside developers build on Cisco safely. You partner across DevNet, Legal, and Security to make that real.

You will be measured on outcomes that matter: reliability and performance, how quickly teams can build on the foundations, SDK and API adoption, and how little friction the experiences above you hit.

Minimum Qualifications

• Eight or more years in product management or an equivalent discipline, including owning a platform or infrastructure area end to end with accountability for its outcomes.
• Hands-on software engineering background. You have shipped production code and can earn the trust and respect of senior engineers on technical merits.
• Fluency with AI coding agents. You use them in your own work and understand how AI agents build on platforms and APIs, because they are fast becoming the developer you build for.

Preferred Qualifications

• Platform depth: hosting and runtimes, service APIs, SDK design, Model Context Protocol (MCP), and integrating with identity and OAuth systems.
• Platform as a product: experience owning APIs, SDKs, or platform services that other teams build on.
• Internal-customer mindset: experience treating an internal platform as a product with internal customers and clear contracts while operating in large, matrixed enterprises where many teams depend on the same foundations.
• External surface: exposing a platform externally through public APIs, SDKs, and partner integration and governance.
• Communication: excellent written and verbal communication, with the range to speak credibly to internal teams and external customers and stakeholders alike.

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 $191,400.00 to $281,400.00 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:

• Ten paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
• One 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:

$191,400.00 - $323,600.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$176,100.00 - $287,900.00

* 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.