Customer Success Architect, Isovalent
Cisco
The application window is expected to close August 22, 2025. Note: Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.
The position is open to remote candidates; preference will be given to candidates located in the Eastern Region,
Meet the Team
Isovalent, now part of Cisco, is the company founded by the creators of Cilium and eBPF. Cisco Isovalent builds open-source software and enterprise solutions solving networking, security, and observability needs for modern cloud native infrastructure. The flagship technology, Cilium, is the choice of numerous, industry-leading, global organizations.
The Customer Success Architect group is a distributed team of subject matter experts on Kubernetes, Cloud Native technologies, and networking. The team is a key driver of our customers' value realization with Cisco Hypershield and Isovalent Platform. CSAs engage daily with customers, they are leaders with vision who bring their deep expertise in cloud native and networking to ensure our customers are running reliable production workloads. As great collaborators and problem solvers, they are not afraid of coordinating and engaging with multiple groups (engineering, partners, product, marketing etc...) to bring the best of Cisco/Isovalent and our products in partnership with our customers. Last, CSAs are great coaches, capable of distilling new concepts and technologies, and presenting optimal solutions and their tradeoffs to our customers. Above all, Customer Success Architects are amazing teammates.
Your Impact
- Engage with assigned customer accounts to accelerate their value realization by assisting in the deployment of Nexus Smart Switches and Hypershield into customer networks to ensure their success.
- Build deep technical relationships with key customer team members and be a trusted advisor
- Bring your customer's expertise to collaborate with engineering and support teams to unblock customer issues
- Build and conduct workshops, training material, reference architectures, product documentation, and any relevant artifacts that would help us provide additional value to our customers, deepen their understanding of our technology, and run the most reliably in production
Minimum Qualifications
- Minimum of 3 years of experience configuring and managing Cisco Nexus switches or Cisco devices OR minimum of 5 years of experience configuring and managing networking infrastructure from another major vendor
- Minimum of 3 years of experience with Linux
- Minimum of 1 year of experience with at least one major cloud provider (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
- Minimum of 1 years of experience securing operating system (OS) instances, applications, and/or distributed systems
Preferred Qualifications
- Knowledge of standard methodologies for operating systems security and their application in cloud-native technologies and environments
- Evidence of direct experience using network troubleshooting tools, including but not limited to packet capture and analysis utilities
- Proven familiarity with tools and technologies for automating repetitive tasks
- Experience with designing and implementing security solutions across multiple platforms
- A solid understanding of the pillars of observability
- Prior experience working with and supporting open source software (OSS)
- Ability to provide well-structured reasoning and insights about various cloud-native technologies and security frameworks
- Demonstrated ability to make informed recommendations based on technical and business needs
- Possessing CCNP Data Center, CCNP Enterprise, DevNet Professional, CCIE Data Center, CCIE Enterprise, or DevNet Expert certifications will be a key advantage.
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. Simply put – we power the future.
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.
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.