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Consulting Engineering Technical Leader

Role overview

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Information Systems, or related field with 8+ years of related experience; or Master’s degree with 6+ years of related experience
  • 6+ years of experience leading complex, large-scale data center architectural consulting, design, migration, and delivery projects for Enterprise clients
  • 6+ years of deep technical mastery in Cisco Data Center switching architectures, including Cisco ACI and Nexus switches
  • Cisco CCIE Data Center (or CCDE / CCIE Routing & Switching) certification or equivalent recognized expert-level credential

Responsibilities

  • Provide domain-wide and cross-domain architectural leadership as a trusted advisor on Data Center transformations
  • Lead the strategic planning, design, and deployment of Data Center switching fabrics
  • Champion modern Data Center automation using Infrastructure-as-Code and GitOps
  • Design and utilize advanced data center simulation environments, serving as escalation authority for critical issues

Key facts

Hard skills

Other skills

  • Collaboration
  • Mentorship

About the company

Cisco logo

Cisco

  • Computer & Networking Hardware
  • XLarge
  • 10,001+
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) enables people to make powerful connections--whether in business, education, philanthropy, or creativity. Cisco hardware, software, and service offerings are used to create the Internet solutions that make networks possible--providing easy access to information anywhere, at any time. Cisco was founded in 1984 by a small group of computer scientists from Stanford University. Since the company's inception, Cisco engineers have been leaders in the development of Internet Protocol (IP)-based networking technologies. Today, with more than 71,000 employees worldwide, this tradition of innovation continues with industry-leading products and solutions in the company's core development areas of routing and switching, as well as in advanced technologies such as home networking, IP telephony, optical networking, security, storage area networking, and wireless technology. In addition to its products, Cisco provides a broad range of service offerings, including technical support and advanced services. Cisco sells its products and services, both directly through its own sales force as well as through its channel partners, to large enterprises, commercial businesses, service providers, and consumers.

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Job description

Meet the Team

As a Consulting Engineering Technical Leader specializing in Data Center Architectures within Cisco Customer Experience (CX), you will provide senior technical leadership, strategic architectural vision, and innovation across mission-critical data center infrastructures at regional and global scale. You will act as the premier trusted advisor to senior customer executives, guiding large-scale cloud-scale data center transformations, shaping multi-year technology roadmaps, and ensuring investments deliver measurable resilience and agility. Our team leads the industry in deploying next-generation programmable fabrics, including Cisco ACI (Application Centric Infrastructure), Nexus Dashboard, and NX-OS EVPN-VXLAN multi-site fabrics. Marrying deep protocol mastery with modern Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, Ansible, GitOps), AIOps, and AI/ML data center networking, you will influence Cisco's product direction, elevate delivery methodologies, and develop the next generation of data center architects.


Your Impact

Strategic Data Center Architectural Leadership: Provide domain-wide and cross-domain architectural leadership, serving as the primary trusted advisor to senior customer leadership on high-stakes, multi-site Data Center transformations and migrations.

Lead ACI & EVPN-VXLAN Fabric Architecture: Lead the strategic planning, design, and deployment of complex Data Center switching fabrics, including Cisco ACI (Multi-Pod, Multi-Site / Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator, L4-L7 Service Graph integration) and NX-OS EVPN-VXLAN programmable fabrics on Cisco Nexus 9000 series switches.

Infrastructure-as-Code & GitOps Orchestration: Champion modern Data Center automation by developing and scaling Services-as-Code / NetDevOps pipelines using Terraform (Cisco ACI Provider), Ansible, Python, GitOps, and Nexus Dashboard APIs to achieve deterministic, automated fabric provisioning.

Complex DC Simulations & Escalation Authority: Design and utilize advanced data center simulation environments; serve as the highest technical escalation authority for critical fabric outages, complex Multi-Site BGP EVPN routing anomalies, and fabric upgrade strategies.

Influence Product Direction & Methodology: Synthesize field feedback, architectural insights, and emerging AI workload requirements (such as AI/ML high-performance fabrics, RoCEv2, and Ultra Ethernet), partnering with CX Product Management and Engineering to influence Cisco product roadmaps.

Author Intellectual Capital & Develop Talent: Author global reference architectures, Cisco Validated Designs (CVDs), and ACI/VXLAN migration frameworks and mentor senior consulting engineers.

Minimum Qualifications

Education & Experience: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field with 8+ years of related experience; or Master’s degree with 6+ years of related experience; or equivalent related practical work experience.

Data Center Architecture & Consulting Leadership: 6+ years of experience leading complex, large-scale data center architectural consulting, design, migration, and delivery projects for Enterprise clients.

Cisco ACI & Nexus Fabric Mastery: 6+ years of deep technical mastery in Cisco Data Center switching architectures, with demonstrated expertise in Cisco ACI (APIC, Leaf-Spine topology, Multi-Pod, Multi-Site Orchestrator / NDO, Contracts, EPGs, VRFs, Bridge Domains) and Cisco Nexus 9000/3000 switches running NX-OS.

EVPN-VXLAN & Core DC Protocols: 6+ years of advanced expertise in Data Center Routing & Switching protocols, including BGP EVPN, VXLAN Distributed Anycast Gateway, Tenant Routed Multicast (TRM), Data Center Interconnect (DCI), OSPF, IS-IS, and Multi-Chassis EtherChannel / vPC.

Expert-Level Certification: Cisco CCIE Data Center (or CCDE / CCIE Routing & Switching) certification or equivalent recognized expert-level credential.

Preferred Qualifications

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) & Automation Mastery: Advanced expertise in automating Cisco ACI and Nexus fabrics using Terraform, Ansible ACI modules, Python (ACI REST API, Cobra SDK), and CI/CD GitOps pipelines (GitLab/GitHub Actions).

Nexus Dashboard & DC Assurance: Hands-on experience deploying Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (NDFC), Nexus Dashboard Insights (NDI), and Telemetry analytics to deliver predictive fabric operations and proactive compliance.

AI/ML Fabric Networking & Ultra Ethernet: Experience designing high-throughput, low-latency data center fabrics for AI/ML compute clusters, including RoCEv2 (RDMA over Converged Ethernet), Priority Flow Control (PFC), and Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN).

Executive Advisory & Strategic Roadmaps: Proven track record advising C-level executives (CIO, CTO, CISO) on multi-year data center consolidation, hybrid-cloud connectivity, and disaster recovery strategies.

Thought Leadership & Community Influence: History of publishing technical white papers, authoring Cisco Validated Designs, and delivering technical sessions.

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. 

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