Optics Deal Acceleration, Business Development Manager

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  • Location:
    Offsite, San Jose, California, US
  • Alternate Location
    Anywhere US Remote
  • Area of Interest
    Business Development
  • Compensation Range
    175200 USD - 281900 USD
  • Job Type
    Professional
  • Technology Interest
    *None
  • Job Id
    1444451

 Application window is expected to close on: July 3, 2025

 Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.

Location: Anywhere US Remote

  

Meet the Team

Cisco is a global leader in networking hardware and top seller of hardware ports. We have built a significant portfolio in Optics through in-house development and M&A. Optics has become extremely relevant in the build-out of AI-driven infrastructure and is a driver for Cisco’s valuation. The Optics Center of Excellence, a small cross-functional team in our global specialist sales organization, accelerates, enables and drives a significant Optics P&L in close collaboration with various specialist and portfolio sales organizations globally. 

 

Your Impact

As an Optics Deal Acceleration Business Development Manager (BDM), you will drive sales growth and strategic partnerships in the Optics industry worldwide to accelerate sales. This role focuses on making sure we can close our largest, most important Optics deals by optimizing pricing and availability, simplifying the deal sales process, identifying barriers to growth, developing forecasting and sales tools, and ensuring alignment with customers and key partners to accelerate business outcomes. The BDM will work with a global scope, and cross-functionally to enhance deal velocity and achieve revenue targets.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Optimize Pricing and Discounting: Develop optimized pricing and discounting strategies for individual deals and for entire sales pipelines, and work with product, engineering, IT and finance stakeholders to implement them.
  • Simplify Deal Sales Process: Streamline sales workflows by identifying inefficiencies, implementing best practices, and reducing friction in the deal-closing and supply chain processes to accelerate revenue generation.
  • Develop Forecasting: Design and implement robust forecasting models tools to improve accuracy, visibility, and decision-making for the sales team.
  • Identify Barriers to Growth: Analyze market trends, customer feedback, and internal processes to pinpoint obstacles to business expansion and propose actionable solutions.
  • Partner Alignment: Build and maintain strong relationships with strategic GTM partners, ensuring alignment on goals, co-selling opportunities, and collaborative growth initiatives.
  • Performance Tracking: Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs), provide regular updates on deal progress, and adjust strategies to meet or exceed targets.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with account teams, specialist teams, product, engineering, marketing, IT and operations teams to align on customer needs and deliver a seamless client experience.
 

Minimum Qualifications 


  • Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Engineering, or a related field; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
  • 7+ years of experience in business development, sales, or account management, preferably in the optics, photonics, or technology sectors.
  • Proven track record of simplifying complex sales processes and driving measurable revenue growth.
  • Strong analytical skills with experience developing pricing models, discounting strategies as well as forecasting models and sales tools (Proficiency in Salesforce.com and data analysis tools e.g., CCW, Tableau).
  • Familiarity with Webscalers, NeoCloud customers, Cisco Partners and Optics industry stakeholders globally. In particular, experience in business development and interfacing with engineering and procurement stakeholders in hyperscale data centers, AI solution providers, or high-performance computing environments. 

 

Preferred Qualifications 

  • Ability to identify and resolve barriers to growth through creative problem-solving and strategic thinking.
  • Exceptional relationship-building, communication, negotiation skills.
  • Ability to work independently and collaboratively, and to thrive in a global, fast-paced, ambiguous, target-driven environment at a market-leading technology company..
  • Demonstrate results-orientation and deal-closing skills .
  • Knowledge of Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel and AI tools.

 

#WeAreCisco 

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.

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.

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