Partner Solutions Engineer

Role Summary

The Regional Partner PTM is responsible for developing the technical capability of partners in their region, ensuring they can successfully position, sell, and deliver Splunk + Cisco solutions.

The primary focus of the role is to develop partner solutions, capabilities, and practices aligned to Splunk + Cisco use cases, enabling partners to deliver differentiated, repeatable offerings into their customer base.

The role operates in full alignment with Partner Sales Managers (PSMs) and Partner Development Managers (PDMs), with shared accountability for partner growth and success.

The key output of the role is building partner-led technical capabilities that drive measurable business outcomes, including revenue growth, services expansion, and customer retention.

This also includes the creation and consistent (quarterly) evolution of Partner Intelligence (Technical Scorecards and Plans), which act as the single source of truth for each partner.

These go beyond activity tracking and clearly articulate business impact, solution maturity, and growth trajectory, including as a minimum:

• Partner capability maturity and skill set (aligned to priority use cases)

• Solutions and propositions developed, including alignment to Splunk + Cisco architectures and GTM priorities

• Practice maturity, including the partner’s ability to deliver, monetise, and scale services

• Program alignment and progression (e.g. Partner360, tiering, specialisations)

• Top opportunities and key customers, with clear linkage to partner-developed solutions

• Key partner stakeholders and technical champions

• Certification and accreditation progress (as an enabler, not the outcome)

Each Partner Intelligence document must also include a clear, outcome-driven development plan, aligned to the regional GTM strategy and jointly owned with the PDM and PSM. This plan should define:

• Target solutions and use cases to build and take to market

• Required capability and practice development

• Expected business outcomes (revenue, services attach, customer impact)

Together, the scorecard and plan should act as the single, aligned view of partner technical capability, solution evolution, and business contribution.

Key Responsibilities

Solution, Capability & Practice Development

Lead the development of partner-led solutions, capabilities, and practices aligned to Splunk + Cisco priorities.

• Analyze partner customer base, market positioning, and GTM focus to identify high-value use cases and business outcomes.

• Co-develop solutions with partners that address real customer problems across security, observability, and platform domains.

• Support partners in building repeatable, scalable offerings that can be taken to market.

• Enable partners to establish or evolve billable services and practices aligned to these solutions.

• Ensure solutions are aligned to Splunk + Cisco architectures, data strategies, and AI-driven capabilities.

• Drive industrialization of partner capabilities (from one-off delivery to repeatable GTM motion).

• Partner with PSMs and PDMs to ensure solutions align to regional priorities and revenue goals.

Technical Leadership & Enablement

• Own the end-to-end planning for competency development and growth across all managed partners within your region / territory.

• Deliver technical enablement, coaching, and hands-on workshops across all Splunk domains, with a focus on delivering prioritized Partner Tier Upgrades

• Work with the Partner Enablement, Programs and Incentives team to ensure alignment, best practices and consistency in content.

• Support partners in building repeatable solutions aligned to Splunk + Cisco architectures.

• Conduct architecture reviews and validate partner-designed solutions.

• Provide technical guidance during late-stage customer pursuits when needed.

• Deliver annual and quarterly planning for badge and certification achievements, as aligned to the individual Partner plans.

• Weekly, monthly and quarterly updates to the business

Build & Sustain a Regional Partner Technical Community for Capability Scaling

• Create and grow a strong community of partner technical practitioners across the region.

• Host regular enablement sessions, workshops, roundtables, and community forums.

• Facilitate cross-partner knowledge sharing, best-practice discussions, and solution showcase sessions.

• Identify and develop partner 'champions' to support community-led growth.

• Ensure structured and consistent communication aligned to partner needs and Splunk GTM priorities.

• Use the community as a mechanism to drive capability uplift and repeatable solution adoption.

Opportunity Support & Acceleration

Support progression of strategic opportunities through strong solution alignment.

• Proactively, and aligned with the regional Partner AVP, identify, shape, and advance partner-influenced opportunities across Security, Observability, and Platform use cases.

• Run structured technical discovery to improve opportunity qualification and accelerate time-to-value.

• Work with Partner Enablement, Programs and Incentives team to deliver planning and oversight of program recommendations (targets), utilizations, effective execution and ROI

• Coach partner pre-sales teams to develop high-quality architectures, proposals, and POVs.

• Track opportunity progression and quickly remove technical blockers in high-priority deals where required.

• Align closely with Partner Account Managers on quarterly pipeline goals, execution plans and opportunity qualification where solution fit and business value are clear

• Ensure consistent application of Splunk frameworks, architectures, and best practices in all partner-led opportunities.

• Contribute to partner-led and partner-influenced pipeline through capability and solution maturity, as well as strong solution alignment.

Internal Alignment & Joint Planning

• Own the creation, development and consistent update of the Partner Intelligence (Technical Scorecard and Plan), aligning directly with the relevant PDM. At a minimum, this should show the Partners capability maturity, skill set, program alignment, opportunity progression, key customers, community engagement, key individuals and technical certification achievements.

• Own the creation, development and execution of the Partner Plan, which is part of the Partner Intelligence, that shows a clear plan to develop the individual Partner in line with the wider GTM strategy for the region.

• Act as the technical bridge between Splunk internal teams and partner technical stakeholders.

• Ensure consistency with Splunk + Cisco GTM messaging and architectural guidance.

Success Measures

Business Outcomes

• Growth in partner-led revenue and services attach driven through developed solutions.

• Increased adoption of partner-built solutions across target customers and use cases.

• Measurable contribution to customer outcomes, retention, and expansion via partners.

• Improved technical qualification and deal velocity.

Partner Community

• Growth and engagement of a solution-focused partner technical community.

• Increased sharing and adoption of partner-built solutions and best practices.

• Improved partner self-sufficiency and capability to deliver and scale solutions independently.

Solutions, Capability & Repeatability

• Number of repeatable partner solutions and propositions developed and taken to market.

• Growth in partner practices, including ability to deliver, monetise, and scale services.

• Adoption of Splunk + Cisco architectures within partner-built solutions and offerings.

• Improved quality, consistency, and reusability of partner-delivered solutions and services.

Operational Quality

• Strength and execution of joint PTM, PSM, and PDM partner plans aligned to regional priorities.

• Partner Technical Intelligence reflecting business outcomes, solution maturity, and growth plans.

• Consistent use of frameworks, planning processes, and governance across partners.

• Clear, outcome-driven reporting aligned to revenue, solutions, and capability progression.

• High-quality documentation and reporting.

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.