Operation Solutions Engineer - SLED

The application window is expected to close on: 11/05/2026

Preferred locations: Chicago, Denver, Seattle

Required to live in or relocate to a state in the Operation: IL, CO, WA, OR, UT, ID, MT, UT, KS, NE, MN, IA, MO, WI

Meet the Team

As a Solutions Engineer in the SLED – North Star Operation, you will be focused on being a pre-sales field technical customer facing engineer influencing the most strategic and innovative parts of our business across our 14-state geography. You will spend 50-75% of your time with customers and collaborating with Account Teams, Connected Teams, Partners, and Product Teams. This role is focused on business outcomes through bringing high customer intimacy, thought leadership, executive engagement, and technical excellence.

Your Impact

• Technical, trusted advisor to SLED Account Teams and Customers

• Bring thought leadership and deep technical knowledge across our solutions and architectures applying it across all verticals

• Participate and lead high impact customer engagements through Tech Days, Connect, Cisco Experience Center Briefings, Executive Discussions, EFT opportunities, Stay Ready, Cisco Live and other similar events

• Champion culture of learning, coaching, and technical excellence

• Develop executive relationships and champions our most strategic technical strategies

• Actively participate in any relevant advisory boards, tiger teams to represent USPS/SLED customer feedback and needs, shaping the future of our portfolio and offerings

• Help create and drive campaigns and initiatives for the operation based on the needs of the business and growth

• Invest in your personal development, such as certifications, self-study, soft skills, executive coaching, market trend analysis, competitive training, and other relevant training to strengthen and sharpen your skills.

Product Team Engagement and Field Influence

• Innovation pilots and early field trials

• Feedback loops from the field into development

Measure impact

• Business growth balanced across the portfolio

• Pipeline Growth

• Uncover and drive modernization opportunities (other supporting alignment)

• Competitive takeouts

• Franchise wins

• Trusted Executive Leadership relationships in our most strategic accounts

This Role is Not

• Ownership of escalation or post-sales support – there may be extreme circumstances, such as Customer Satisfaction, where you could bring a positive impact to a challenging situation

• Heavily internal-facing or stuck in meetings

• Tied to one sales counterpart or partner-dependent role

• Scripted

Minimum Qualifications

• 10+ years industry experience, significant experience as pre-sales solutions engineer

• Deep knowledge across Cisco’s Route/Switch and Security portfolio as well as competitive offerings

• Proven track record leading strategic multi-architecture sales cycles, competitive takeouts, franchise wins, and driving innovation

• Operation/Area support from Senior Leadership (INTERNAL applicants)

• CCNP or similar competitive certification

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong preference given to candidates with CCIE or equivalent expert level competitive certification

• Market expertise in relevant verticals – State/Local Government, Education (K12 and Secondary/Higher Education) and Healthcare

• Serve” mindset

• Ability to travel 50-75% of the time

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:

The starting salary range posted for this position is $209,100.00 to $275,100.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits.

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:

$229,000.00 - $344,700.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$218,600.00 - $329,000.00

• 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.

Cisco is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, genetic information, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis.

Cisco will consider for employment, on a case by case basis, qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.