Leader, Solutions Engineer, Splunk

The Partner Solutions Engineering Team is a strategic technical team focused on enabling and scaling partner capabilities within the Americas ecosystem!

The Partner Solutions Engineering Leader will lead a team of Partner Solutions Engineers (PSEs) who act as the primary technical liaison between Splunk/Cisco and our partner ecosystem (System Integrators, Resellers, MSP, Service Providers, and Consultants). The mission is to mature our partners' technical practices, driving their progression through the Cisco Partner 360 program and ensuring they are fully equipped to deliver Splunk and Cisco solutions that drive revenue and customer outcomes.

To build and lead a high-performing Partner Solutions Engineering function that transforms our partners into independent, technically proficient authorities. Act as a force multiplier, turning ad-hoc partner support into a repeatable operating system of enablement, reference architectures, and joint-solution development that accelerates pipeline conversion and reduces technical risk in the field. Be the technical champion for Cisco’s Data Fabric strategy, using Data Intelligence and AI to help partners build differentiated, high-value practices.

• Partner Program Advancement: Act as a technical catalyst to help partners move up the Cisco Partner 360 tiers. Lead initiatives to ensure partner sales, SE, SA, SP, and MSP staff achieve required Splunk Certifications and badges, directly influencing the partner’s Partner Value Index (PVI) score.
• Strategic Technical Focus: Drive the adoption of Cisco’s Data Fabric strategy, using Data Intelligence and AI to help partners build differentiated practices.
• Partner Practice Maturity: Assess partner technical capabilities and gaps; design multi-quarter enablement roadmaps to build partner capacity and technical maturity around Splunk/Cisco portfolios.
• Strategic Enablement: Lead the design and delivery of technical training, workshops, and labs to accelerate partner readiness. Develop technical playbooks, reference architectures, and demo assets tailored to partner-led GTM priorities (Security, Observability, Cloud, Network, and AI).
• Joint Solution Development: Collaborate with partner engineering and product teams to co-develop joint solutions. Ensure these solutions align with platform strategies, security frameworks, and industry-specific compliance requirements.
• Technical Advocacy & Liaison: Serve as the main technical point of contact for strategic partners, helping them navigate product roadmaps, resolve complex integration challenges, and advocate for partner-specific requirements back to internal Product and Engineering teams.
• Sales & RFP Support: Partner with the channel sales team to provide technical input for RFPs and support high-stakes partner-led demonstrations or Proof of Concepts (POCs).
• Operational Governance: Document partner engagements, track key performance metrics (e.g., partner technical maturity, PVI impact, solution deployments, and pipeline influence), and standardize enablement methodologies to ensure scalable support.
• Leadership & Culture: Hire, coach, and develop a team of PSEs. Foster a culture of technical excellence, customer-first empathy, and partner-centric growth.

• Education: Bachelor’s degree + 8+ years demonstrated ability; OR Master’s degree + 5 years.
• Technical Depth: 5+ years of broad/deep technical knowledge in Security, Observability, Event, or Network Management.
• Leadership: 3+ years of people management experience leading technical pre-sales or partner-facing engineering teams.
• Strategic Attitude: Consistent track record of building high-performing teams and developing talent across different career stages.
• Business Acumen: Strong operational acumen, including experience with partner capacity planning, enablement roadmaps, and measuring business impact.

• Cisco Ecosystem Fluency: Understanding of the Cisco Partner technical enablement to partner program requirements.
• Strategic Vision: Experience articulating the value of Cisco Data Fabric, AI-driven observability, and Data Intelligence to partner leadership.
• Certification Leadership: Demonstrable experience in driving technical certification programs and badge attainment within a channel or partner organization.
• Partner Ecosystem Experience: Experience leading Partner Solutions Engineering teams within the software or technology industry.
• Technical Expertise: Solid understanding of data platforms, SIEM, observability, security operations, or related technologies; Splunk/Cisco ecosystem experience is a strong plus.
• Consultative Communication: Ability to translate complex technical concepts for both C-Level executives and technical practitioners.
• Operational Rigor: Experience leading organizational change and driving adoption of new strategies, processes, and technologies.

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. 

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.