Solutions Engineer - Louisiana - SLED Gulf States

SLED Solutions Engineer

Why You'll Love SLED

The vision of Cisco's SLED organization (State, Local Government and Education) is to help governments protect, educate, and serve citizens. We serve five distinct market segment verticals: State governments, local/municipal governments, K-12 education, Higher Education (2 and 4-year), and University medical centers. From classrooms to traffic intersections, we connect, secure, and automate critical government and educational missions to improve our communities.

Who You Are

The Solutions Engineer is a customer-focused technical sales professional who provides high-level technical guidance and support to customers. You will partner with our Account Manager to discover customer priorities and needs, recommend, and develop appropriate customer solution offerings, and ensure customer success by leveraging Cisco and partner resources. You act in an increasingly consultative fashion and are looked to as an expert, or trusted technical adviser, by partners and customers. The role of the Solutions Engineer is broad and includes activities such relationship building, discovery, as building relationships and discovery across all relevant technology teams in a customer, identifying opportunities and defining solution options, articulating Cisco's differentiation and the benefits of proposed solutions, developing and executing proof-of-concept/proof-of-value, creating a technical account plan while influencing the overall account plan, and advocating for customers through adoption and operation of Cisco solutions. You are a hunter - you tenaciously work to find the most exceptional solutions that fit a customers' set of challenges.

In this role you will gain access to the broad palette of Cisco technologies and applications in a variety of vertical markets. In additional to technological aptitude and the ability to learn quickly and know the latest, you have interpersonal, presentation and problem-solving skills that evoke passion and confidence.

Experience in software sales, with iACV compensation elements a plus.

What You'll Do

Do you want to be a Trusted Advisor that is an advocate for your customers? You will look to develop the technical relationship with your customers every single day. Do you love technology? Then working as a Solutions Engineer at Cisco will be like a kid in a candy store. Come be a Collaborator, a Consultant and a Visionary.

Do you want to lead a cutting-edge business transformation, and usher in a new era of software expertise? You will work alongside the best in the business to develop flexible and agile solutions that solve customers' most complex issues!

Required skills & abilities:

Business Acumen

* Learn a broad level of knowledge of the business economics and trends in the SLED market segments and how Cisco solutions add financial and strategic value.

* Build relationships both within and outside of Cisco; establish credibility quickly through personal self-confidence.

* Strong understanding of the customer business model and common financial pain points; ability to frame Cisco offerings in terms of business or mission drivers. In addition, understand customer drivers and how to map these to a customer network platform.

* Advanced understanding of Cisco's vision and technology; articulate the vision from the customer perspective.

Technical Acumen

* Understand internetworking industry trends, including new products and solutions.

* Understand the competitive product and solution landscape.

* Advanced knowledge in Switching, Wireless, Routing, Data Centers, Security and Networking Platform Design

* Strong understanding of Collaboration, Security, SDN, server and desktop virtualization is also highly desirable.

* Excellent technical consulting skills, including the ability to define trade-offs, ask probing questions, and incorporate Cisco solutions into a broader technology environment.

Communication Skills

* The Solutions Engineer role is very dynamic and applies your technical knowledge and curiosity to solve complex challenges in sometimes complex customer environments.

* Excellent written and verbal communications skills are required.

* Excellent presentation skills are needed to describe Cisco's Architectures, Business Outcomes, and Business Value in each customer's context.

Minimum Qualifications

* 7+ years of related experience

* Cisco product experience or relevant experience in key competitor offerings required.

* Pre-Sales experience required.

* Typically requires BS/BA (EE/CS) or equivalent.

* Professional and expert-level certifications (CCIE) not required, but desirable.

Who You'll Work With

The SLED United team is the driving force for not only our customers and partners, but for our governments, schools, and communities.

SLED United has a commitment to people and the inclusion of the communities around us. Individually we are strong, but the power of our collective team is unstoppable!

At Cisco, we believe diversity and inclusion are not just buzzwords; they are the very essence of who we are. We embrace the unique perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences that each team member brings, as it enriches our collective creativity and innovation. Our commitment to diversity goes beyond mere representation; it is about fostering an inclusive environment where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to contribute their best. Join Cisco and bring your fresh ideas and diverse viewpoints to the table. Come BE YOU with us.