Technical Activation Lead

The application window is expected to close on: 10/28/2026

This remote role is open for US based candidates, no relocation is available.

Meet the Team You will join the Global GTM Incubation & Emerging Technologies team, responsible for commercializing and scaling Cisco’s newest technology innovations. Sourced directly from our Product and Business Units, these rapid innovations require a specialized, agile approach to find market fit before they can be absorbed by the mainstream sales force. Our mission is to partner with Product leaders to develop, test, and validate early-stage GTM hypotheses.

You will also secure the company’s first "lighthouse" customer wins and build the repeatable sales and partner playbooks required to bring these products into the broader Specialist and Generalist sales organizations. Your Impact   As the Incubation Technical Activation Lead, you’ll turn approved cross-product technical and architectural decisions into dated, owned work streams that reach demonstrable customer and field readiness. You will translate approved use cases and architecture into coordinated work streams, accountable owners, dependencies, milestones, and acceptance criteria across AI Defense, Cloud Control, MCF, and future incubation offers.

You will maintain the technical activation register, decision log, readiness checklist, partner-delivery tracker, use-case charter, and structured feedback register, exposing unresolved dependencies and advancing with evidence. You will coordinate product, engineering, SE, dCloud/demo, partner, CX/support, legal/security, and field execution, including partner SOW deliverables, making handoffs and test results reusable across teams. You will develop reference collaterals of proof plans, deployment patterns, and field-readiness evidence, running gates from concept through coordinated proof, pilot, launch readiness, and scale.

For example, you will orchestrate AI Defense competitive-proof readiness, Cloud Control onboarding procedures, and partner Multi Cloud Fabric (MCF) managed service practice high level design, ensuring acceptance proof is driven by tangible results rather than just meetings or demos.  

Minimum Qualifications
· 12+ years of demonstrated expertise in Network software and solutions.
· Strong architectural literacy with the ability to create reference demos, proof plans, deployment patterns, and enablement materials for early-stage technology innovations.
· Experience maintaining technical registers, decision logs, and readiness checklists, identifying dependencies and raising issues using data-driven evidence.
· 5+ years of experience driving rapid prototyping and Proof of Concepts (PoCs) from initial concept through pilot, launch readiness, and scale.
· Proven experience leading an engineering team aligned with sales counterparts.

Preferred Qualifications
· Advanced expertise in orchestrating sophisticated technical proofs, such as AI Defense, Cloud Control, or similar emerging technology validations.
· Outstanding skill in handling ambiguity within fast-paced incubation environments, adapting quickly to shifting priorities and early-stage Go-To-Market hypotheses.
· Deep understanding of product partnership dynamics by building repeatable sales and partner playbooks for lighthouse customer wins.
· Strong background in developing reusable results that streamline processes across cross-functional teams.
· Excellent communication and project management skills, consistently demonstrated through tangible technical milestones rather than conceptual discussions. 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…