Customer Success Specialist

Application window is expected to close on 10/26/24. The Preferred location for this requisition is Islin, NJ.

*The role that requires an in-depth understanding of advanced networking protocols and services, particularly in the context of large-scale, high-performance network environments.

Who we are:

The Customer Success Specialist (CSS) role is a critical, strategic advisor and technical expert that engages with customers to accelerate their adoption of Cisco products & solutions that transform their business and drive business outcomes. The role resides within the Cisco Customer Experience (CX) organization.

What youll do:

CSSs are subject matter experts in their aligned product or architecture. They deliver targeted engagements to increase product awareness, share best practices, and drive product consumption and business value. CSSs bring strategic vision, the latest technology from Cisco Engineering, and tactical expertise to ensure successful customer engagements. They also participate in the global CSS Community to share best practices and success stories. Combining deep technical knowledge with business acumen, CSSs provide consultative solutions to help customers realize value faster. Mastery of relationship management, account handling, and soft skills, along with a keen understanding of the competitive landscape and how Cisco's solutions are differentiated in the market, will be key to driving adoption and ensuring customers achieve accelerated business outcomes.

This highly technical role supports customers with adoption challenges across the Internet and Mass Scale Infrastructure (SP) architecture, specifically Cisco's NCS 5xx, ASR 9000, NCS 5500, Cisco 8000 product suite running XR FCM(SIA) licenses.

Key Responsibilities:

* Customer Engagement: Conduct targeted consultative sessions and interactive technical presentations to increase product awareness, share best practices, and drive software adoption and business value.

* Technical Expertise: Utilize deep technical knowledge, business acumen, and automation skills to provide consultative solutions and ensure successful customer engagements.

* Risk Management: Identify and mitigate renewal risks, including those associated with low technical adoption, to ensure successful product integration and consistently meet customer expectations.

* Collaboration: Work closely with Account teams, Customer Success, and Partners to enhance customer adoption, address product concerns, and drive growth.

* Product Feedback and Advocacy: Provide feedback to Engineering and Product Management Teams for product improvements, promote the CX offer strategy, and highlight feature opportunities.

* Strategic Advice and Adoption Journey: Guide customers on deployment decisions and long-term business outcomes, develop onboarding and adoption journeys, lead architectural initiatives, and address product challenges.

Who You Are:

* Technical Expert: Possesses deep technical knowledge with a focus on connecting Cisco solutions to customer use cases, continuously learning new technologies and best practices.

* Customer-Centric Mindset: Proactively understands customer needs and drives decisions to enhance customer value and satisfaction.

* Cross-Team Collaborator: Works seamlessly across internal and external teams to encourage technical implementation decisions, operating effectively in both remote and face-to-face environments.

* Business Acumen: Understands high-level business landscapes, strategic priorities, and the competitive marketplace to align technical solutions with business goals.

* Results Oriented: Demonstrates proven execution ability with relevant technologies, driving successful customer outcomes.

* Effective Communicator: Delivers complex information clearly and convincingly to diverse audiences, with the ability to engage both technical architects and C-level executives, ensuring understanding and alignment.

Required Qualifications:

* 7 to 10 years experience and expert-level knowledge of below protocols/services:

* L2 Advanced Services:

* VPLS, EVPN L2 GW, EVPN IRB w/ Anycast GW, EVPN VxLAN

* ): L2VPN PW Services, EVPN-VPWS, MS-PW, MC-LAG, pMC-LAG

* > 8 VRFs, MPLS IPv4/v6 VPN (L3VPN/6VPE), Multicast VPN (MVPN) IPv4, IPv6 Provider Edge (6PE), GRE ,

* Segment Routing

* BGP FlowSpec, BGP attribute-download, BGP Policy Accounting, BGP Monitoring Protocol (BMP), Peering Scale (> 512K v4 routes, > 50K v6 routes)

* MPLS-TE, RSVP-TE, SR-TE

* IEEE 802.1EA-2006, IEEE 802.1AEbn- 2011 (256-bit key), IEEE 802.1AEbw-2013 (extended packet numbering), AES-256/GCM, XPN, Link Bundle Member Support

* Batch updates straight to RIB, Bring your own Protocol, Lower-Level Functionality-for e.g., Route Conflict resolution (RIB), label management etc. offloaded to XR

* BNG Enablement

Preferred Qualifications:

* Preferred knowledge in Ciscos NCS 5xx, ASR 9000, NCS 5500, Cisco 8000 product suite.

* Proven experience engaging with key customers, understanding their unique needs, and applying industry best practices to drive successful outcomes.

* Delivered consultative sessions, interactive technical presentations, and collaborating on quarterly business reviews (QBRs).

* Demonstrated ability to apply deep understanding of relevant Cisco products to define how technology solves Customers business challenges. This includes baselining customer environments, capturing heatmaps of products and tools (including third-party), and developing comprehensive on-boarding and adoption journeys.

* Conducted product and solution demos to drive product adoption with a strong understanding of software licensing models and running competitive SWOT analyses.

* Demonstrated success with complex technologies and conducting high-risk architecture reviews.

* Provided strategic advice on deployment decisions, led architectural initiatives, incorporating best practices and validated designs from across Cisco to ensure successful implementation and adoption with customers.

* Expert understanding and experience with public cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, and GCP, as well as knowledge of virtualization technologies.

* Expertise in automation, including leveraging APIs and programmability to orchestrate workflows and integrate with existing ecosystems (e.g., ITSM, Open Source).

* Suggested Certifications: DevNet, CCNA, CCNP, or CCDP required; CCIE, CISM, CISSP or equivalent strongly preferred.

* Suggested Cisco Success Management certifications: Cisco Certified Success Specialist.

* BS in Engineering, Computer Science; Masters preferred.

Why Cisco

#WeAreCisco, where individuality and teamwork drive us to power an inclusive future. Embracing digital transformation, we innovate beyond hardware into software and security, creating intuitive networks that adapt and protect. Our culture fosters innovation, creativity, and learning from failures. We give our best, take accountability, and embrace diversity and equality. Whether you have colorful hair, tattoos, or a passion for technology and world-changing ideas, be yourself with us

Cisco is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, genetic information, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis.

Cisco will consider for employment, on a case by case basis, qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.