Systems Engineer

You will join a dynamic, customer-obsessed Systems Engineering team at Cisco, dedicated to driving architectural innovation, enterprise transformation, and strategic growth across high-impact accounts in the Mid-Atlantic and East regions.

As a Systems Engineer, you will be the primary technical sales influencer, collaborating with account teams and connected sales specialists to shape customer technology roadmaps, accelerate deal velocity, and ensure long-term customer success.

Responsibilities:

• Develop multi-year strategic plans for enterprise customers, integrating Cisco's cross-architecture portfolio into client business transformation strategies.
• Deepen expertise across Cisco's portfolio by integrating extensive domain knowledge with cross-architectural solutions, shaping senior executives' technical strategy and business vision.
• Serve as the primary technical advisor and trusted influencer for IT decision-makers and Line of Business (LOB) leaders, translating complex business needs into actionable, resilient technical requirements.
• Lead interactive technical demonstrations and architectural whiteboarding sessions that showcase how Cisco solutions deliver business outcomes and successfully displace competitors.
• Spend significant selling time landing new opportunities and expanding within existing accounts, taking the lead on moving deals across the technical sales lifecycle in lockstep with Account Executives.
• Provide active feedback to Cisco Business Entities (BEs) and sales leadership regarding strategic customer needs, market opportunities, product enhancements, and competitive tactics.
• Direct virtual SE teams and extended partner sales resources toward continuous improvement, overseeing technical enablement and demand-generation programs across the territory.
• Demonstrate technical agility by adjusting pre-sales strategies in response to market disruptions, emerging technologies, and evolving customer priorities.

Minimum Qualifications:

• 7+ years of related experience in technical pre-sales, systems engineering, solutions architecture, or senior enterprise technical consulting.
• Strong foundational and hands-on pre-sales architecture knowledge across Cisco's core portfolio, including Enterprise Networking (Catalyst, Nexus, Meraki, SD-WAN) and Integrated Security (ISE, Secure Firewall, Duo, Umbrella, SASE).
• Proven track record of partnering with Account Executives to qualify, design, and close multi-million-dollar technology deals while displacing key competitors.
• Demonstrated ability to lead customer-facing engagements, technical discovery workshops, and architectural whiteboarding sessions with IT leaders and executive stakeholders.
• Solid understanding of the end-to-end technical sales process, including RFP/RFI responses, Proof of Value (PoV) execution, and competitive differentiation strategies.
• Ability to work in a hybrid, client-facing model across the McLean, VA / Research Triangle Park, NC corridor and travel as needed for customer and partner meetings.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree (with 7+ years of related experience), Master's degree (with 6+ years of related experience), or PhD (with 3+ years of related experience) in Computer Science, Electrical/Computer Engineering, Information Technology, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Active Cisco Professional or Expert level certification in good standing (CCNP Enterprise, CCNP Security, or CCIE).
• Hands-on experience with Network Automation, Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), Python scripting, REST APIs, or Ansible.
• Familiarity with Full-Stack Observability (FSO), telemetry, and network assurance platforms (Cisco ThousandEyes, Splunk, Catalyst Center).
• Knowledge of public sector, government, or regulated enterprise compliance baselines and security architectures (NIST SP 800-53, Zero Trust, FedRAMP).

Benefits:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution
• Paid parental leave
• Short and long-term disability coverage
• Basic life insurance
• Paid time away (vacation, holidays, sick time)
• Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer

Salary Range: $218,600.00 - $286,100.00