hero

The Storyboard

Welcome to the Storyboard, a place to explore career adventures at start-ups and companies founded by Claremont alumni and the Claremont community. Choose your next adventure at a company where you’ll have an edge from day one, and leverage our Claremont network to build your career.

Also, make sure to check out our newsletter, StoryHouse Review, to find out more about these companies in the Claremont ecosystem.

Solutions Engineer - UAE

Cisco

Cisco

Dubai - United Arab Emirates
Posted on Mar 13, 2025

Meet the Team

Join the Cisco Solutions Engineering team, where collaboration drives innovative solutions for our clients. We support and empower you to grow with our customers, encouraging a culture of care, fun, and active involvement in local community initiatives.

What You'll Do

As a Solution Engineer, you will provide technical support and guidance to customers, collaborating with the Account Manager to develop tailored solutions. You’ll define and communicate the benefits of Cisco's solutions, demonstrate ROI, and own the development of proof of concepts, presentations, and solution documentation.

Who You Are

  • Develop knowledge of industry trends and understand how Cisco solutions provide financial and strategic value.
  • Build relationships within and outside of Cisco, establishing credibility through self-confidence.
  • Understand customer business models and financial pain points, framing Cisco offerings around business drivers.
  • Comprehend Cisco’s vision and technology and articulate it from the customer's perspective.
  • Map customer business drivers to their network platform.

Minimum Qualifications

  • 7+ years of related experience.
  • Cisco product experience or relevant experience in key competitor offerings in the technology area of emphasis.
  • Pre-Sales experience.
  • Typically requires a BS/BA (EE/CS) or equivalent.
  • CCIE Certification preferred.
  • Fluency in Arabic and/or experience in the Gulf region is required.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Expertise in internetworking industry trends, including SD-WAN, ACI, DNA, Security SASE, AI, Cloud, Digital Transformation, Automation, and more.
  • Experience with AI, Machine Learning, Cloud Native applications, Kubernetes, and Docker.
  • Knowledge of ML Ops, AI Ops, and CI/CD pipelines.
  • Understanding of competitive product and solution landscapes.
  • Advanced knowledge in Routing & Switching, Data Center, and Security.
  • Strong technical consulting skills, including defining trade-offs, asking probing questions, and integrating Cisco solutions into broader environments.
  • Ability to share replicable architectures tailored to customers' needs.
  • Programming skills are a plus.
  • In-depth knowledge of your specialization and adjacent technologies, including product, technology, and competitive insights.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
  • Strong presentation skills, delivering clear explanations of Cisco's architectures, business outcomes, and value.

We Are Cisco

#WeAreCisco, where each person is unique, but we bring our talents to work as a team and make a difference. Here’s how we do it.

We embrace digital, and help our customers implement change in their digital businesses. Some may think we’re “old” (30 years strong!) and only about hardware, but we’re also a software company. And a security company. An AI/Machine Learning company. We even invented an intuitive network that adapts, predicts, learns and protects. No other company can do what we do – you can’t put us in a box!

But “Digital Transformation” is an empty buzz phrase without a culture that allows for innovation, creativity, and yes, even failure (if you learn from it.)

Day to day, we focus on the give and take. We give our best, we give our egos a break and we give of ourselves (because giving back is built into our DNA.) We take accountability, we take bold steps, and we take difference to heart. Because without diversity of thought and a commitment to equality for all, there is no moving forward.

So, you have colorful hair? Don’t care. Tattoos? Show off your ink. Like polka dots? That’s cool.

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

When available, the salary range posted for this position reflects the projected hiring range for new hire, full-time salaries in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including equity or benefits. For non-sales roles the hiring ranges reflect base salary only; employees are also eligible to receive annual bonuses. Hiring ranges for sales positions include base and incentive compensation target. Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location and additional factors, including but not limited to skillset, experience, and relevant education, certifications, or training. Applicants may not be eligible for the full salary range based on their U.S. or Canada hiring location. The recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.

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, which does not place a defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use, but is subject to availability and some business limitations. All new hires are eligible for Sick Time Off subject to Cisco’s Sick Time Off Policy and will have eighty (80) hours of sick time off provided on their hire date and on January 1st of each year thereafter. Up to 80 hours of unused sick time will be carried forward from one calendar year to the next such that the maximum number of sick time hours an employee may have available is 160 hours. Employees in Illinois have a unique time off program designed specifically with local requirements in mind. All employees also have access to paid time away to deal with critical or emergency issues. We offer 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, which is split between quota and non-quota components. 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 up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.