Solutions Engineer

Candidate required to live in or relocate to the Chicago metro area

Meet the Team

As we continue to uphold our standard of excellence in US Commercial Sales, we are embracing unprecedented innovation as a tremendous opportunity for growth. We succeed because we listen to our customers and anticipate their needs as the market shifts and technology transitions accelerate. Our customers are versatile and agile and adopt technology fast to compete aggressively and grow their business. We are confident our model provides you with unlimited opportunities to succeed at Cisco. Our culture is one of support and empowerment.

Your Impact

Cisco is seeking a Solutions Engineer (SE) with strong Enterprise Networking background, Data Center and Security. Cloud, Automation and AI experience is nice to have. The SE is a customer-focused technical sales professional who ensures that technical information and guidance is provided to the customer, delivering meaningful outcomes based on Cisco’s product and services portfolio. The SE will partner with our Account Managers in a pre-sales technical function, showcasing Cisco solutions, providing customer presentations, performing technical demonstrations, creating BoMs, and running proof of concept activities. The SE will partner, consult, influence, and design solutions to allow the customer to meet their desired outcomes. In addition to technology aptitude and the ability to learn quickly and stay current; the ideal candidate's interpersonal, presentation, and troubleshooting skills should evoke passion and confidence.

• Actively contributes to account planning activities to pinpoint growth opportunities and align technical strategies with customer objectives
• Elevates expertise of Cisco's portfolio with a broadening knowledge of cross-architectural solutions and domains
• Partners to drive innovation and lead solution conversation with technical executives
• Applies deep understanding of customer’s business challenges and drives customers towards portfolio solutions
• Influences strategic priorities for customers and leads cross-architecture designs
• Contributes to planning and leads execution of demand generation and enablement campaigns
• Examines underlying customer needs and promotes cross-architecture solutions
• Leads demonstrations of technical solutions that address specific business challenges
• Leverages advanced competitive market insights to position and differentiate Cisco solutions
• Leads cross-functional collaboration with internal teams and external partners to refine strategic alignment and elevate customer relationships
• Motivates SE teams and extended sales teams to strengthen knowledge sharing and guide structured educational initiatives
• Implements adaptation strategies to respond to evolving market conditions and challenges

Minimum Qualifications

• 4+ years of industry-related experience
• BS/BA (EE/CS) or relevant experience
• Cisco product experience or relevant experience in key competitor offerings in technology area of emphasis is required

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of Cisco's Solutions, and networking fundamentals
• Customer intimacy skills
• Pre-sales experience preferred
• CCNP Enterprise

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.

Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:

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.