Customer Program Manager

Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.

This role leads complex, customer-facing programs across Cisco technologies and services, translating customer priorities into coordinated execution and measurable business outcomes. The Customer Program Manager is accountable for driving delivery performance, stakeholder alignment, financial discipline, governance, risk management, and continuous improvement across the program lifecycle, supported by responsible use of AI and automation.

Who You Are

• You are an experienced Customer Program Manager with strong strategic, operational, financial, and technical judgment. You build trusted stakeholder relationships, navigate ambiguity and risk, and use data, automation, and approved AI tools to improve delivery while protecting sensitive information and maintaining human accountability.
• You actively apply AI and automation to improve how you plan, manage, analyze, communicate, and deliver work. Your experience goes beyond basic chatbot use and includes applying AI-enabled workflows, automation, agents, or similar capabilities to solve business problems and produce measurable improvements in productivity, quality, speed, or delivery outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead customer projects and programs across Cisco technologies and services from initiation through closure.
• Translate customer priorities into program strategies, roadmaps, delivery plans, milestones, and measurable business outcomes.
• Manage scope, schedule, budget, quality, financial performance, customer satisfaction, risks, dependencies, and change.
• Coordinate internal and external stakeholders and present program performance, financials, risks, recommendations, and decision points to executive audiences.
• Establish program governance, communications, escalation, risk-management, and change-control practices; identify issues early and lead mitigation and recovery planning.
• Manage forecasting, invoicing, revenue, cost, margin, and accurate reporting across Cisco Systems.
• Apply Agile, Waterfall, or hybrid delivery methods based on program and customer needs while maintaining Cisco delivery, financial, contractual, documentation, and operational standards.
• Apply technical knowledge to shape delivery plans, manage integration points, and connect technical execution to customer and business outcomes.
• Coach project and program managers and promote consistent delivery practices, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement.
• Apply approved AI, analytics, and automation tools to improve planning, reporting, forecasting, risk detection, communications, and program closeout.
• Identify opportunities to reduce manual effort and improve productivity, quality, cycle time, and delivery outcomes through practical use of AI and automation.
• Validate AI-assisted outputs and automation for accuracy, relevance, customer context, appropriate controls, and traceability.
• Maintain human accountability for customer commitments, financial actions, approvals, and decisions informed by AI.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree with 8+ years of relevant experience, Master’s degree with 6+ years, doctoral degree with 3+ years, or equivalent relevant work experience.
  Current Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute or a comparable recognized project management certification.
• Progressive project or program-management experience delivering complex, customer-facing engagements within Professional Services, management consulting, systems integration, or comparable enterprise services environments.
• Demonstrated practical experience applying AI, automation, AI-enabled workflows, or agents beyond basic conversational or chatbot use, including at least one example with measurable or clearly defined business or operational impact.
• Strong executive and customer-facing communication, presentation, facilitation, negotiation, and problem-solving skills, with demonstrated ability to think on your feet and navigate ambiguity.
• Ability to translate technical concepts, delivery performance, and data into measurable customer and business outcomes.
   

New Preferred Qualifications

• Experience within leading management consulting, technology consulting, systems integration, or enterprise Professional Services organizations.
• Experience applying AI-enabled tools, automation, or agents to project management, PMO, service-delivery, or operational processes, with demonstrated ability to articulate the resulting business value.
• Working knowledge of Cisco architectures, technologies, business processes, operational tools, and service-delivery practices.
• PMI-CPMAI, PgMP, Agile, Scrum, ITIL, change-management, financial-management, Cisco technical, or other relevant professional certifications.

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. 

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:

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

• 1 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:

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

* 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.