Description
Cisco is seeking an Industry Specialist for Defense to lead the EMEA vertical strategy and connect Cisco's Industrial IoT capabilities with the secure, resilient, and mission-critical requirements of defense organisations.
The ideal candidate is a military veteran with practical experience in field digital communications, operational networks, or signals. Candidates with equivalent experience in defense, national security, public safety, or another mission-critical environment are also encouraged to apply.
This role combines defense-domain authority, business development, thought leadership, customer engagement, and strategic sales acceleration. The specialist carries a dedicated EMEA quota, while working across the wider defense market to build future pipeline and strengthen Cisco's industry position.
Responsibilities
- Develop and execute the EMEA IIoT Defense Vertical Growth Plan, maintaining a clear view of market priorities, Focus Account performance, pipeline health, and growth opportunities.
- Create and incubate pipeline through customer relationships, defense communities, professional networks, industry events, and ecosystem partners.
- Accelerate strategic accounts through defense-specific discovery, executive engagement, competitive positioning, and opportunities for expansion across locations and architectures.
- Develop repeatable defense use cases, value propositions, discovery guidance, customer references, and solution blueprints with Cisco engineering teams.
- Enable Cisco account teams, sales specialists, engineers, and strategic partners to identify and pursue relevant defense opportunities.
- Represent Cisco at selected defense and industrial technology events, forums, and executive briefings.
- Build relationships across defense organisations, prime contractors, System Integrators, technology innovators, and relevant public-sector teams.
- Translate customer, competitive, and market insight into recommendations for Cisco's go-to-market strategy, portfolio, engineering, and marketing teams.
- Consolidate win/loss lessons and use them to continuously improve Cisco's defense positioning.
Requirements
- Significant experience in defense, national security, public safety, critical infrastructure, or another mission-critical operational environment.
- Practical experience with field digital communications, signals, resilient connectivity, or operational networks.
- Understanding of how communications capabilities are planned, deployed, operated, sustained, and modernized in demanding environments.
- Knowledge of the defense ecosystem, including government organisations, prime contractors, System Integrators, and specialist technology providers.
- Experience engaging senior operational, technology, engineering, program, or transformation stakeholders.
- Ability to translate operational requirements into clear business outcomes and relevant technology propositions.
- Strong business-development, relationship-building, presentation, facilitation, and executive communication skills.
- Ability to influence complex, multi-stakeholder programs across countries and organisational boundaries.
- Professional fluency in English; additional EMEA languages are advantageous.
- Willingness to travel regularly across EMEA.
- Ability to meet applicable customer-access, security-vetting, export-control, and compliance requirements.
Preferred Background
- Previous service in the armed forces, ideally in signals, communications, operational networks, information systems, or a related function.
- First-hand experience supporting secure communications in deployed, mobile, remote, or infrastructure-constrained environments.
- Experience with ruggedized networking, wireless connectivity, edge environments, industrial infrastructure, or OT security.
- Established credibility within relevant defense communities or professional networks.
- Experience working with defense contractors, System Integrators, public-sector organisations, or strategic technology partners.
- Relevant military, engineering, communications, technology, or business qualifications.
What Success Looks Like
- Achievement of the assigned EMEA Defense quota.
- A healthy vertical pipeline.
- Strong senior relationships and multi-year transformation plans in key accounts.
- Specialist-originated opportunities that progress into disciplined commercial execution.
- Strategic defense engagements converted into qualified initiatives and account expansion.
- Reusable defense plays, customer references, and solution blueprints adopted across EMEA.
- Stronger Cisco credibility and influence within the defense ecosystem.
- Effective collaboration with Cisco account, Regional, Transformation, engineering, and public-sector teams.
- Actionable win/loss, competitive, portfolio, and market insight.