1440707 - Director, AI Defense Product Growth Strategist

About the Role

Key Responsibilities

• Develop Go-to-Market Strategy for new and existing products: Develop and execute the GTM strategy including identifying target sectors, messaging, and positioning.
• Develop Core Product Positioning, Messaging, and Differentiators: Craft compelling and consistent positioning and messaging around the differentiators that align with the overall product strategy and resonate with customers and partners. Work with inbound product management, engineering, and the field to identify and articulate the outstanding value propositions of Cisco Security products, ensuring they are communicated and understood by the target audiences. Passionately represent the voice of our customers to internal teams.
• Enable Sales and Partners: Create impactful content, training materials, and collateral for sales and partner teams. Directly engage with customers, analysts, and industry experts. Act as a subject matter expert and thought leader at industry events.
• Conduct Market Research: Regularly analyze market trends, customer feedback, and competitor activities. Provide strategic insights to maintain product competitiveness.
• Influence Partners, including Executives: Clearly communicate complex concepts to diverse stakeholders. Use analytical and problem-solving skills to provide data-driven recommendations and measure GTM success.

Requirements

• 10+ years in enterprise/b2b tech with at least 5 years of product management experience, including at least 3 in network security.
• AI product experience, including areas such as securing generative AI/LLMs, adversarial AI protection, or AI risk management.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in computer science or related fields.

Nice to Have

• Experience with AI security trends, including generative AI, adversarial threats, model poisoning, governance, and compliance.
• Familiarity with modern application security practices, including Kubernetes, DevOps, and DevSecOps.
• Experience speaking publicly to an executive-level audience.
• Strong project execution skills, attention to detail, and a risk-mitigation mentality.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and reporting skills in customer-facing roles.

Benefits & Perks

• U.S. employees have access to quality medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, short and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance and numerous wellbeing offerings.
• Employees receive up to twelve paid holidays per calendar year, which includes one floating holiday (for non-exempt employees), plus a day off for their birthday.
• Non-Exempt new hires accrue up to 16 days of vacation time off each year, at a rate of 4.92 hours per pay period. Exempt new hires participate in Cisco's flexible Vacation Time Off policy.
• All new hires are eligible for Sick Time Off with 80 hours provided on their hire date and January 1st each year, with carryover up to 160 hours.
• Employees in Illinois have a unique time off program designed specifically with local requirements in mind.
• All employees have access to paid time away for critical or emergency issues.
• Additional paid time to volunteer and give back to the community.
• Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, with detailed incentive structures described.