Partner Account Executive (Hybrid)

The application window is expected to close on: 12/03/2026

Meet the Team:

As a Partner Account Executive (PAE) at Cisco, you are the chief orchestrator and strategic business leader for Cisco’s relationship with one of our most impactful channel partners, SHI. In this role, you will be responsible for driving sustainable, profitable revenue growth, expanding Cisco’s architectural footprint across Networking, Security, Cloud & AI Infrastructure, Collaboration, and Splunk, and leading joint go-to-market strategies with partner executive leadership at SHI.  

You will act as the trusted advisor to partner senior executives, sales leaders, and practice heads, while tightly aligning partner capabilities with Cisco’s direct field sales leadership (Regional Managers, Account Executives, and Systems Engineers). 

You will join a high-performing, collaborative Partner Sales team within the Americas Partner Organization (APO) and partner daily with: 

• Partner Leadership: SLT, Practice Leads, and Seller teams at SHI 

• Cisco Direct Sales Teams: Operations Directors (ODs), Regional Managers (RMs), Portfolio Account Executives (AEs), and Systems Engineers (SEs). 

• Extended Ecosystem: Architecture Specialists, Customer Experience (CX) Renewal Managers, Partner Operations, Distribution Account Managers, and Marketing Teams. 

Your Impact:

• Strategic Business Planning & Joint GTM: Develop, execute, and govern comprehensive annual and quarterly Joint Business Plans (JBPs) with SHI leadership, aligning investment funds, practice development, and growth targets. 

• Co-Selling & Pipeline Orchestration: Drive proactive co-selling between partner sales teams and Cisco direct sales teams (Commercial Select, and Enterprise). Manage and accelerate joint pipeline generation, deal registrations, and forecast predictability. 

• Cisco 360 & Profitability Optimization: Guide partners through Cisco 360 Partner Program levers, helping them maximize profitability across the customer lifecycle (Land, Adopt, Expand, Renew) via the Partner Value Index (PVI) and Cisco Partner Incentive (CPI) engine. 

• Practice Maturity & Architectural Focus: Accelerate partner specialization and technical practice maturity across key focus areas: Secure Networking, Hybrid Cloud / AI Infrastructure, Splunk / Observability, and Managed Services (XaaS). 

• Executive Relationship Governance: Cultivate strong, multi-threaded relationships across executive, sales, marketing, and engineering leadership within partner organizations and Cisco field leadership. 

• Cross-Functional Orchestration: Quarterback partner enablement, marketing campaigns, incentive programs, and operational deal escalations (e.g., CCW deal registrations, P2P transfers, EAs) to eliminate friction and accelerate deal velocity. 

Minimum Qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience in technology sales, partner account management, or channel business development within enterprise networking, cybersecurity, cloud, or SaaS. 

• Strategic Thinker & Business Strategist with financial and commercial acumen and ability to analyze partner P&Ls, build business plans, and execute high-growth GTM plays. 

• Relationship-building skills with a track record of influencing cross-functional teams. 

• Self-starter who thrives in a fast-paced, matrixed environment, with a strong commitment to pipeline hygiene, disciplined execution, and celebrating team wins. 

• Team Player - coordinate and collaborate with other members on the National SHI team  

Preferred Qualifications:

• Familiarity with Cisco's portfolio, partner ecosystem, and go-to-market strategies across Networking, Security, Cloud & AI Infrastructure, Collaboration, and/or Splunk. 

• Experience leveraging business analytics, sales performance metrics, pipeline reporting, and financial models to identify growth opportunities and improve partner profitability. 

• Experience leading initiatives across sales, engineering, marketing, operations, and partner enablement teams in a highly matrixed organization. 

• Previous experience working with SHI or other large national solution providers is a plus.

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.

Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:

The starting salary range posted for this position is $213,600.00 to $285,700.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits.

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:

$230,700.00 - $354,400.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$221,600.00 - $338,300.00

* 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.