C

Cisco

Makes networking gear and security software

Account Executive - Architecture

Full-TimeUpdated on 10/15/2026
No salary listed
Senior
Bachelor's, Master's
Hong Kong
In Person
Solution EngineeringPre-Sales Solution Engineering

About the job

Requirements
  • A bachelor's degree and seven years of related experience, or a master's degree and four years of related experience.
  • Deep industry experience and connections in the collaboration market.
  • Advanced certifications or specialized technical skill in the Unified Communications/collaboration domain.
Responsibilities
  • Own relationships and influence strategic decisions within customers’ buying centers.
  • Support account teams and customers in understanding customer needs and positioning Cisco’s area of specialization.
  • Apply architectural expertise, solution knowledge, competitor intelligence, and industry insight; maintain expert knowledge of business-case cost, benefit, and risk drivers.
  • Provide architectural expertise across opportunities without direct ownership, maintain architecture-specific forecasting, and align technical projections with broader portfolio planning.
  • Lead technical proof-of-concept and proof-of-value engagements, implementing scaled demonstration environments to showcase solution capabilities and business outcomes before customer commitment.
  • Develop proposals highlighting Cisco offerings that address solution gaps and align with customer objectives.
  • Work with solution engineers, account teams, and customers to set direction and strategy for focus areas and architectures.
  • Provide customer feedback to development teams to influence product roadmaps and keep solutions responsive to market and technology changes.
  • Leverage market and technology knowledge to identify strategic collaboration business opportunities in Hong Kong.
  • Contribute business and technology expertise to complex deal cycles.
  • Educate customers about Cisco collaboration solutions, including Webex Suite, contact center, and intelligent workplace solutions.
  • Develop and refine competitor profiles using internal databases, market research, and customer insights.
  • Facilitate discussions with portfolio and cross-functional teams about competitors’ strategies, advancements, and market positioning.
  • Lead technical solution discussions with decision makers and demonstrate how Cisco solutions support growth and customer outcomes.
  • Incorporate competitive intelligence into integrated account plans.
  • Lead customer discovery and consultative discussions, combining insights across Cisco architectural domains to develop tailored solutions.
  • Collaborate with internal stakeholders to create a targeted technical point of view on Cisco solutions and its position as a strategic partner.
  • Ensure customer-facing materials use competitive intelligence to highlight Cisco capabilities and innovations.
  • Set architectural direction and strategy to shape account-team business cases, align teams, minimize adoption barriers, and reduce renewal risk.
  • Forecast future business and lead development of bills of materials for technical proposals.

About the company

Cisco makes the switches and routers that connect offices, data centers, and cloud services, and it also sells cybersecurity tools and Webex video meetings to businesses and governments. It was one of the first companies to sell routers that let different kinds of computer networks exchange data, and in 2000 it briefly became the world's most valuable company. Customers run its network gear, from Wi-Fi access points to AI data center systems, with Cisco software that sets up and secures the network, while its Splunk unit searches computer logs to catch outages and attacks. Cisco earns money from hardware sales, software subscriptions, and support contracts. It was founded in 1984 and is based in San Jose, California.

Company Size

10,001+

Company Stage

IPO

Headquarters

San Jose, California

Founded

1984

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Cloud giants fuel growth: they ordered $9.3 billion of Cisco's AI gear in the year to July 2026, up 4.5-fold.
  • Stock awards gained value: Cisco shares rose 63% in the year to October 2026, four times the S&P 500's 15%.
  • Signed deals steady the business: Cisco had $46.7 billion of contracted sales still to deliver in July 2026, up 7%.

What critics are saying

  • Record sales didn't stop layoffs: Cisco cut nearly 4,000 jobs, just under 5% of staff, in May 2026.
  • Rivals lead in data center switches: in the June 2026 quarter, Nvidia held 20.4%, Arista 18.7% and Cisco 18.2%.
  • Hardware-heavy AI growth squeezes profit: Cisco's gross margin fell to 66.3% from 68.4% in the July 2026 quarter.

What makes Cisco unique

  • Cisco still sells the most network switches: it took 28.7% of worldwide switch sales in the June 2026 quarter.
  • Cisco designs its own networking chips: Microsoft and Alibaba signed on early for its Silicon One P200, launched October 2025.
  • Cisco trains future network engineers: its Networking Academy has taught over 28 million learners in 195 countries since 1997.

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Benefits

Paid Vacation

Hybrid Work Options

Flexible Work Hours

Professional Development Budget

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

0%

1 year growth

0%

2 year growth

0%
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