Program / Project Manager – Platform Operations & Delivery
Meet the Team
You will join the Platform as a Service (PaaS) team, responsible for critical internal platforms including API Gateways (Mule, Mashery), Kafka messaging, and file transfer services that power applications across Cisco. As a senior program/project manager, you will partner with platform engineering, SRE, security, and client support teams across multiple geographies to deliver reliable platform services, coordinate operations, and drive AI-enabled program management practices.
Your Impact
You will lead delivery and operations for mission-critical PaaS initiatives end to end—from strategic planning and resource management through production operations, client support, and continuous improvement. You will represent the team in technical and executive forums, manage stakeholder expectations, and use AI tools to accelerate planning, reporting, risk management, and operational efficiency across a globally distributed organization.
- Program & Portfolio Leadership: Own end-to-end delivery for major platform programs; define roadmaps, milestones, dependencies, and RAID management across multiple concurrent initiatives aligned to business priorities.
- Resource & Capacity Planning: Lead quarterly and annual capacity planning across distributed engineering teams; forecast demand, balance priorities, identify skill gaps, and support hiring and onboarding with leadership.
- Platform Operations & Client Support: Partner with engineering and SRE teams to run critical platform services end to end—including deployments, change management, incident coordination, escalations, and SLA/SLO governance for API gateways, Kafka, and related PaaS offerings.
- Technical Representation & Stakeholder Management: Represent the team in architecture reviews, cross-functional steering forums, and senior stakeholder discussions; translate business priorities into engineering plans and communicate technical tradeoffs clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
- AI-Enabled Program Management: Champion practical use of AI tools (e.g., Copilot, ChatGPT, automation assistants) for sprint/portfolio planning, status reporting, risk analysis, documentation, and workflow automation—driving adoption of smart PM practices across the team.
- Global Collaboration & Governance: Lead effective collaboration across teams in multiple time zones; establish operating rhythms, metrics, and executive reporting on delivery velocity, platform reliability, incident trends, and customer satisfaction.
Minimum Qualifications
- 10+ years of experience in program/project management, technical program management, or Scrum Master leadership roles in software or platform engineering environments.
- Proven track record managing delivery and operations for mission-critical platform or infrastructure services (e.g., Kubernetes, API gateways, Kafka, cloud platforms, or internal developer platforms).
- Strong technical fluency with ability to engage credibly in architecture discussions, deployment pipelines, production incidents, and platform operational models.
- Demonstrated experience in portfolio-level resource planning, capacity management, and multi-team program planning across concurrent, high-priority initiatives.
- Hands-on use of AI tools for project/portfolio management, documentation, reporting, or workflow automation, combined with proven leadership of globally distributed cross-functional teams.
Preferred Qualifications
- Certification as Scrum Master (CSM/PSM), PMP, PMI-ACP, or SAFe Program Consultant.
- Prior background in SRE, DevOps, or platform engineering before transitioning to program management.
- Direct experience with API Gateways (Mashery, Mule), Kafka, or enterprise middleware platforms.
- Exposure to observability, incident management, and ITSM tools (ServiceNow, PagerDuty, Splunk, Grafana, etc.) and experience building AI-assisted reporting or PM workflow automations.
- Exceptional communication, executive stakeholder management, and experience presenting program status and recommendations to senior leadership in a collaborative, global team environment.
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.
Disclaimer
To ensure that we hire the best talent in the right way, we follow a strict hiring process and recently, Cisco has been made aware of fraudulent recruiters claiming to be from the company. Please be advised that any communication from Cisco about careers will:
- be in direct response to an application you have submitted through the company career site
- begin with screening or an interview
- originate from a Cisco email address, and
- be conducted across email, phone, or WebEx
Cisco will never make a job offer without conducting an interview process or ask you for money in any way. If you have been requested to apply for a role or have received an offer from a site other than https://careers.cisco.com or cisco.wd5.myworkday.com, do not provide any personal identifying information, including your Aadhaar or other personal identifying number, birth certificate, banking information, driver's license, or passport.
If you are the target of a recruiting scam, consider filing a report with your local law enforcement authorities. Cisco bears no responsibility, and cannot be held liable, for any claims, damages, expenses, or other inconvenience resulting from or in any way connected to recruiting scams.
Skills Required
- 10+ years of experience in program management, project management, technical program management, or Scrum Master leadership roles in software or platform engineering environments.
- Experience managing delivery and operations for mission-critical platform or infrastructure services such as Kubernetes, API gateways, Kafka, cloud platforms, or internal developer platforms.
- Strong technical fluency in architecture discussions, deployment pipelines, production incidents, and platform operational models.
- Experience with portfolio-level resource planning, capacity management, and multi-team program planning across concurrent initiatives.
- Hands-on use of AI tools for project or portfolio management, documentation, reporting, or workflow automation.
- Experience leading globally distributed cross-functional teams.
- Scrum Master, PMP, PMI-ACP, or SAFe Program Consultant certification.
- Prior background in SRE, DevOps, or platform engineering.
- Direct experience with API Gateways, Mashery, Mule, Kafka, or enterprise middleware platforms.
- Exposure to observability, incident management, and ITSM tools such as ServiceNow, PagerDuty, Splunk, or Grafana.
- Experience building AI-assisted reporting or project-management workflow automations.
- Exceptional communication, executive stakeholder management, and senior leadership presentation experience.
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.
