C

Cisco

Makes networking gear and security software

Engineering Program Manager

Full-TimePosted on 10/20/2026
$151.3k - $281.8k+ Annual bonus + Restricted stock units
Senior, Expert
Bachelor's, Master's, PhD
San Jose, CA, USA
In Person
Project & Program ManagementProgram Management

About the job

Requirements
  • A Bachelor's degree with 8 or more years, a Master's degree with 6 or more years, or a PhD with 3 or more years of complex program management experience, preferably in software cloud environments, using both agile and waterfall methods; the degree should be in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field.
  • At least 3 years of experience applying artificial intelligence and machine learning tools, generative AI assistants, and intelligent automation to program management.
  • At least 3 years of experience coordinating cross-functional projects, facilitating team meetings, and collaborating with geographically distributed teams.
  • Prior experience in Lean Enterprise, Agile, or Kanban practices and supporting tools.
  • Experience with defect-tracking applications such as JIRA and business applications such as Word, Excel, and Project.
Responsibilities
  • Bring technical program management expertise with an AI-first vision, pioneering adoption of AI-driven tools, automation, and data-informed decision-making to accelerate program delivery and drive innovation across teams.
  • Support, track, and manage complex program execution, cross-functional coordination, and inter- and intra-team communications to deliver high-quality program outcomes.
  • Track and maintain cross-functional dependencies and deliverables, and work with other cross-functional groups within Cisco Security to manage them.
  • Provide timely issue resolution and critical-path management, and facilitate communication.
  • Drive day-to-day program activities to meet overall program objectives.
  • Review changes and weigh tradeoffs between engineering resources and operational improvements while working self-directedly.
  • Provide weekly updates and multiple levels of status reporting across a wide spectrum of individual contributors to executive management.
  • Drive an AI-first approach to program management by identifying and deploying AI/ML tools and intelligent automation to streamline planning, reporting, risk detection, and decision-making.
  • Partner with engineering teams to plan and deliver AI/ML-powered features, using data-driven insights and predictive analytics to improve program velocity, quality, and outcomes.
Desired Qualifications
  • Communicate effectively with cross-functional team members, collaborate with and influence team members to achieve project goals, and contribute positively to the engineering community.
  • Understand and communicate technical concepts with technical and non-technical individuals.
  • Identify opportunities to embed AI across the software delivery lifecycle.
  • Have working knowledge of cloud and network security concepts and technologies such as SASE, Security Service Edge (SSE), Zero Trust, DNS-layer security, secure web gateway (SWG), and firewall or cloud-delivered security.
  • Be familiar with security compliance and certification frameworks such as FedRAMP, SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, and GDPR, and have experience supporting audit- or compliance-driven programs.
  • Have experience delivering programs in a DevSecOps environment, integrating security controls and testing into CI/CD pipelines and the software development lifecycle.
  • Be aware of AI/ML security and responsible AI considerations, including model risk, data privacy, secure handling of sensitive data, and threat modeling for AI-enabled products.
  • Understand vulnerability management, incident response, and secure software development lifecycle practices, and be able to coordinate cross-functional security remediation efforts.
  • Relevant security certifications such as CISSP, CCSP, CompTIA Security+, or CISM are a plus.

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 Jobs

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

6 month growth

-1%

1 year growth

0%

2 year growth

0%
PR Newswire
Oct 20th, 2026
Splunk report: 55% of firms can't control AI costs as agents outpace monitoring

Cisco released its Splunk State of Observability 2026 report on October 20, 2026, finding that the rush to deploy AI agents is outpacing the ability to monitor them. The survey covered 2,050 IT operations and engineering professionals across 10 countries. Some 87% say monitoring AI is a priority, yet 56% cannot measure AI workload metrics such as large language model response quality. Also, 55% say they cannot control AI costs, and 60% say unexpected billing spikes strain operations more than high baseline costs. Security collaboration is growing: 81% say monitoring AI has increased cooperation between observability and security teams. Among leading organizations, 91% can accurately attribute AI costs, against 69% of non-leaders.

Yahoo Finance
Oct 15th, 2026
Cisco and NVIDIA back 400G USFP optical standard to quadruple AI data centre bandwidth density

Cisco Systems and NVIDIA have announced a collaboration to bring 400G optical technology to AI data centres. The partners plan to commercialise a new ultra small form factor pluggable (USFP) standard designed to quadruple bandwidth density. The companies aim to build an open hardware ecosystem with other optical and networking vendors, including TE Connectivity and Amphenol, to support large AI workloads. The move targets the wiring bottleneck that could cap AI infrastructure spending. Cisco, which has a market capitalisation of about $453.7b, faces competition from Arista and Juniper in AI networking, and analysts flag hardware mix and memory costs as a margin risk.

Yahoo Finance
Oct 14th, 2026
Cisco, General Mills and Coca-Cola: three value stocks for a market at 237% of GDP

With the Buffett indicator near 237%, a Simply Wall St screen points to three large companies it considers high-quality value stocks: Cisco Systems, General Mills, and Coca-Cola. Cisco generates about $63.3 billion from networking products and has a market value of roughly $454.7 billion. Its AI infrastructure orders outlook for fiscal 2026 has risen to about $9 billion, driven by demand from cloud providers. General Mills has a market value near $17.5 billion, with $10.4 billion of sales from North America Retail. It plans $750 million of cost savings in fiscal 2027 as part of a $3 billion programme through fiscal 2030. Coca-Cola generates about $50.1 billion from nonalcoholic drinks and is valued near $386.3 billion. Its zero-sugar variants grew by double digits. The screen found 28 more companies with similar traits.

Yahoo Finance
Oct 12th, 2026
Cisco shares fall 3.3% to $114.52 as Webex AI agents keep working after calls end

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) has added AI agents to Webex that keep working on tasks after a conversation ends. Its shares traded at $114.52 on October 12, down about 3.3%. The agents use a tool called Dialog, which links customer history, company data, and backend systems so they can pursue unresolved requests. Claude integration is planned. Splunk tracks agent activity, and Cisco AI Defense provides safeguards. Shares sit 52.15% above the $75.27 GF Value estimate from GuruFocus. Cisco must turn the agents into higher recurring revenue without letting implementation costs and human supervision erode the gains.

Yahoo Finance
Oct 12th, 2026
NVIDIA and Cisco unveil USFP optics with 400Gb/s lanes and 4x bandwidth density

NVIDIA and Cisco announced Ultra-Dense Small Form Factor Pluggable (USFP), a new optical module for AI data centres, on October 12, 2026. They say it will be the first to support 400Gb/s-per-lane electrical signals, for capacity up to 12.8Tb/s. USFP offers 4x the bandwidth density and about 1.3x the power efficiency of 200Gb/s-per-lane modules. Operators can connect more computing systems without adding network tiers, while cutting networking's share of power use. The first transceivers will pack 16 full-duplex lanes in an octal small form factor-sized footprint, with 32 lanes or more planned. The companies are working with TE Connectivity and Amphenol on cages, connectors and modules. They plan an open industry specification through a community-led multi-source project.