Partner Systems Engineer

Role details

Meet the Team We are seeking a high-caliber Partner Systems Engineer to join our Germany-based team. As a strategic technical ambassador, you will drive Cisco preference through proactive enablement and relationship management. Our team empowers partners to build, sell, and deliver complex solutions. By leveraging AI-driven insights and multi-level enablement, we scale Cisco’s reach, displace competition, and optimize full-lifecycle adoption, ultimately driving partner-led revenue growth and market share. Your Impact Acting as a trusted technical advisor, you will work closely with one or more partners to accelerate practice development and technical self-sufficiency. You will serve as the primary technical liaison, aligning partner initiatives with Cisco’s technology strategy to ensure long-term architectural alignment. Key Responsibilities: Strategic Architectural Leadership: Leverage deep-domain expertise across the Cisco portfolio to drive technology adoption. Identify cross-sell and up-sell opportunities, executing competitive displacement strategies to secure Cisco as the preferred architectural standard. Partner Engagement & Enablement: Equip partners with the skills, tools, and blueprints to build and deliver high-value Cisco offerings. Orchestrate the technical track of the Partner Account Plan, aligning partner labs and demo capabilities with Cisco’s strategic roadmap. Driving GTM Success: Focus on growth in Secure Networking, Full Stack AI infrastructure, and Workplace Experiences. Facilitate creative solution workshops and lead Proof of Concept (POC) engagements to demonstrate technical superiority. Corporate Interlock: Act as a critical field intelligence feedback loop, syncing with Cisco’s direct Portfolio SEs to ensure a unified "One Cisco" technical front. Capture and articulate key partner and customer requirements to influence product development. Technical Sales Cycle: Guide partners through complex support and TAC escalation processes while driving long-term feature adoption to maximize renewal outcomes. Demand Generation and Pipeline Support: Partner with sales stakeholders to identify and drive new lines of business, contributing technical credibility that enables partner-led pipeline conversion. Event & Community Leadership: Represent Cisco at partner events, trade shows, webinars, and technical forums, driving thought leadership and fostering a technical community across the region. Minimum Qualifications: 7+ years of technical experience in the networking industry. Demonstrable expertise in one or more domains: Networking, Security (e.g., Firewalls, ISE), Data Center Networking, or Collaboration Devices. Proven experience engaging with partner roles, from technical engineers to C-suite decision-makers. Excellent presentation and communication skills, with the ability to value-sell and deliver engaging technical workshops. Strong analytical skills to assess complex business and technical challenges and resolve them with effective, scalable actions. Self-driven mindset with the ability to build relationships, formulate structured account plans, and execute independently within the German market. Ability and willingness to travel up to 50% of the time to support partner engagements and regional activities across Germany. Fluent/Native language skills in English and German Preferred Qualifications: Detailed knowledge of Cisco’s Secure Networking portfolio (Catalyst, Meraki, Hybrid Mesh Firewalls, and Secure Routers). Experience with Workplace Experience and Collaboration solutions (Collaboration Devices, RoomOS). Understanding of Full Stack AI infrastructure and networking requirements for optimal AI workload performance. Relevant Certifications (e.g., CCIE/CCNP, AWS Certified Advanced Networking, Microsoft Certified: Azure Network Engineer Expert, CompTIA Network+). Experience contributing to Partner Business Planning and QBR cycles. Proven track record of exceeding targets and driving partner-sourced revenue. Experience leading competitive displacement engagements. 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.