Role Summary
Identifies short- and long-term sales opportunities and acts as an SME to drive demand generation, business development, and proposal development. Builds a robust pipeline of qualified opportunities, cultivates new customer relationships, identifies upsell opportunities, and partners with account teams to shape and close complex deals.
Develops technology-, solution-, and industry-based offerings and new consumption models that align customer needs with Cisco’s business objectives. Works closely with Field, Business Units, Product, Services, Marketing, and Partners to strengthen Cisco’s market position and expand wallet share.
This role has a strategic focus on the Automotive industry, with the objective of maximizing Cisco’s value proposition across the automotive value chain and vehicle lifecycle. Key domains include Connected Car, Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV), Smart City & Mobility, Manufacturing, and Connected Services, extending Cisco’s relevance beyond traditional enterprise IT.
Specialization and Focus
Demand Generation / Business Development
Deal Shaping and Opportunity Qualification
Solution Selling and New Consumption Models
Cross-Architecture and Industry Value Proposition Development
Product Enhancement through customer and market feedback
Automotive Industry Business Development
Customer Engagement and Accountability
Customer Intimacy: High
Customer Focus: Vertical / Industry; solution selling and new business development
Product Focus: Moderate; architecture, solution, and business transformation focus
Build and deepen relationships with new and existing customers and key decision-makers.
Identify stakeholders, customer priorities, upsell opportunities, and areas to expand Cisco wallet share.
Lead discovery sessions and workshops to address complex customer needs and develop new opportunities.
Engage beyond traditional IT organizations, including Engineering, R&D, Manufacturing, Vehicle Software, Connected Services, Mobility, and Business Strategy.
Business Development & Deal Shaping
Proactively identify and qualify short- and long-term opportunities across multiple products, solutions, and geographies.
Conduct targeted prospecting and market research to uncover customer needs, industry trends, and competitive opportunities.
Build qualified pipeline and engage the appropriate account teams for execution and closure.
Shape complex, multi-product deals by aligning technical, commercial, and customer requirements.
Tailor deal structures to meet customer timelines and objectives while aligning with Cisco’s business goals.
Orchestrate cross-functional teams including Account Teams, Business Units, Product, Services, Engineering, Marketing, Legal, Finance, and Partners.
Optimize CRM and forecasting processes to improve pipeline quality and accuracy.
Automotive Industry Focus
Develop new business opportunities across the Automotive industry and maximize Cisco’s relevance throughout the vehicle lifecycle and automotive value chain.
Key areas include:
Connected Car – Secure vehicle connectivity, data exchange, cloud/edge integration, vehicle-to-infrastructure connectivity, and connected vehicle ecosystems.
Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) – Develop Cisco’s value proposition across vehicle, edge, cloud, networking, security, observability, data, and AI architectures.
Smart City & Mobility – Develop opportunities connecting vehicles and Automotive customers with smart cities, intelligent transportation, mobility services, and connected infrastructure.
Manufacturing – Identify opportunities across smart manufacturing, industrial networking, security, edge computing, AI, and manufacturing transformation.
Vehicle Lifecycle – Identify Cisco opportunities from R&D, design and engineering, and manufacturing through sales, vehicle operation, connected services, after-sales, and end-of-life.
Automotive Value Chain – Expand Cisco’s relevance across OEMs, suppliers, manufacturing operations, dealers, mobility providers, technology partners, and other ecosystem participants.
New Business & Consumption Models – Develop new use cases, commercial approaches, and consumption models that accelerate customer adoption and create scalable revenue opportunities.
Act as an Automotive industry SME, connecting customer strategy and emerging industry requirements with Cisco capabilities. Provide structured market and customer feedback to Product and Engineering teams to influence future solutions and product enhancements.
Internal & Corporate Interlock
Key Working Partners: Account Teams, Business Units, Product/Service Specialists, Product Development, Engineering, Marketing, Partners, Legal, and Finance.
Work across Cisco organizations to create integrated, cross-architectural offerings and convert emerging customer requirements into scalable solutions and business opportunities.
Typical Sales Cycle
Deal Size: > $1M in Sales Revenue
Deal Complexity: High complexity and customization
Deal Cycle: 12–18 months on average, up to 2 years
Sales Process Focus: Prospect / Qualify / Shape
Success Measures
Revenue Growth – Increase sales revenue across new and existing products and solutions.
Demand Generation – Create new customer demand, displace competitors, and expand Cisco wallet share.
Pipeline Volume & Value – Increase the volume, value, and quality of qualified pipeline.
New Market Creation – Develop incremental opportunities in Connected Car, SDV, Smart City & Mobility, Manufacturing, and Connected Services.
Value Proposition Expansion – Expand Cisco’s addressable market and relevance across the automotive value chain and vehicle lifecycle.
Minimum Qualifications
Bachelor’s + 7 years of related experience, or
Master’s + 4 years of related experience, or
PhD + 1 year of related experience
Preferred Qualifications
Experience or expertise in the Automotive industry, Connected Car, Software-Defined Vehicle, Smart Mobility, Smart City, Automotive Manufacturing, or related technology ecosystems is preferred.
THIS JOB DESCRIPTION DOES NOT APPLY FOR EMPLOYEES IN AUSTRIA, BELGIUM, FRANCE, GERMANY & NETHERLANDS.
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.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree plus 7 years of related experience
- Master's degree plus 4 years of related experience
- PhD plus 1 year of related experience
- Experience or expertise in the automotive industry, connected car, software-defined vehicle, smart mobility, smart city, automotive manufacturing, or related technology ecosystems
Cisco Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Cisco and has not been reviewed or approved by Cisco.
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is described as broad, with medical options including PPOs, high-deductible plans, and regional HMOs. Feedback suggests robust wellness and mental-health resources, with some locations offering on-site support and second medical opinions.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time off is highlighted through paid holidays, paid time off, and additional recharge days such as “Days for Me,” with generous volunteer time also mentioned. Feedback suggests these programs help support rest, volunteering, and critical life events.
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Parental & Family Support — Parental and family support appears extensive, including paid child-bonding leave, family medical leave, and caregiving resources. Observations also point to family-planning assistance and adoption or surrogacy support in some regions.
Cisco Insights
What We Do
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) enables people to make powerful connections--whether in business, education, philanthropy, or creativity. Cisco hardware, software, and service offerings are used to create the Internet solutions that make networks possible--providing easy access to information anywhere, at any time. Cisco was founded in 1984 by a small group of computer scientists from Stanford University. Since the company's inception, Cisco engineers have been leaders in the development of Internet Protocol (IP)-based networking technologies. Today, with more than 71,000 employees worldwide, this tradition of innovation continues with industry-leading products and solutions in the company's core development areas of routing and switching, as well as in advanced technologies such as home networking, IP telephony, optical networking, security, storage area networking, and wireless technology. In addition to its products, Cisco provides a broad range of service offerings, including technical support and advanced services. Cisco sells its products and services, both directly through its own sales force as well as through its channel partners, to large enterprises, commercial businesses, service providers, and consumers.
