Engineering Project Manager

Meet the team

The Systems & Optics Team (SaO) creates innovative hardware platforms central to the AI era, powering Cisco’s core Switching, Routing, and Wireless products for organizations globally. We serve as the execution engine for Cisco's most strategic hardware initiatives. We partner across silicon, engineering, product management, operations, supply chain, manufacturing, and executive leadership to transform technology strategy into successful product delivery. Our mission is to provide program leadership, governance, transparency, and execution rigor across highly complex system development programs, shaping the future of hyperscale infrastructure.

Your Impact:

• Lead end-to-end Ultra Low End Switching hardware program development from initial concept through customer release, defining clear priorities, breakthroughs, and comprehensive execution plans.
• Orchestrate complex, multi-functional programs by aligning hardware and software engineering, product management, operations and other multi-functional teams to ensure cohesive delivery.
• Proactively monitor program health, identify risks and dependencies, and drive timely issue resolution through actionable recommendations to partners.
• Champion continuous process improvements, governance frameworks, and the integration of automation and AI-enabled tools to enhance operational efficiency.
• Manage financial integrity and resource allocation, ensuring that budgets are tracked accurately and projects remain within scope and on schedule.
• Facilitate seamless collaboration between internal teams, manufacturing partners, and external suppliers while providing transparent status updates to leadership.
• Work independently but receive minimal guidance and direction from leader then determine the best approach to accomplish work.

Minimum qualification:

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical, industrial, mechanical, or a related engineering field with 7+ years of experience in technical hardware program/project management, or a master’s degree with 5+ years of relevant experience.
• Experience handling end-end programs including budget oversight, schedule management, and breakthrough tracking.
• Experience in data analysis, modeling, and visualization to track project metrics and support data-driven decision-making.
• Experience in action tracking, executive updates, dashboards and organizational communications.
• Experience with managing cross-functional dependencies in engineering environments with focus on time-to-market.
• Good English written and verbal skills.

Preferred qualification:

• Experience working in non-program management NPI development roles.
• In-depth knowledge of hardware manufacturing environments and production workflows.