Principal Product Manager - Splunk AI Foundations

Cisco is seeking a Principal Product Manager for their AI Foundations Team to help develop core models and tools for their product portfolio. This role involves defining the roadmap for high-scale AI, focusing on domain-specific models and orchestration platforms to enhance Cisco and Splunk products.

Responsibilities:

• Drive AI Platform Strategy: Lead the roadmap for AI foundational elements, including tools, frameworks, APIs and SDKs used by both internal teams and external customers
• Develop Specialized Models: Oversee the shipping of models optimized for machine data, ensuring they outperform general-purpose alternatives through rigorous evaluation
• Build Connectivity: Standardize AI skills for the Cisco products using protocols like MCP to create universal connectors for AI workflows
• Enable Agentic Workflows: Develop tools that allow developers to build autonomous agents capable of reasoning and planning across complex data environments
• Responsible AI & Governance: Advance the AI frontier responsibly by engaging with Compliance, Legal, and Finance to ensure products meet ethical AI standards, data privacy, and security while addressing financial goals (e.g., cloud margin)
• GTM & Ecosystem: Partner with Product Marketing and Sales to package these foundational capabilities for external customers, including pricing, positioning, and developer documentation
• Customer Advocacy: Engage deeply with customers to develop insights into what is possible and uncover unarticulated needs to ensure customer success

Requirements:

• Bachelors + 12 years of related experience, or Masters + 8 years of related experience, or PhD + 5 years of related experience, or equivalent related work experience in Product Management, with a focus on prioritizing AI/ML platform products
• Technical Depth: Solid understanding of AI/ML architectures (LLMs, Deep Learning), training, and evaluation. Familiarity with Vector DBs and Agentic Workflows
• Data Skills: Proficiency in SQL and Python for data analysis, along with experience in large-scale data pipelines
• Growth Mindset: Proven ability to drive adoption for developer-centric products and scale AI solutions from concept to market
• Collaborative Leadership: Experience working with early design partners to validate and iterate on new features
• Communication: Ability to translate complex AI roadmaps into clear strategic narratives for partners
• Education: Bachelor's degree in an AI related technical field like CS, Data Science, or Engineering
• Advanced degree (Master's or Ph.D.) in a quantitative field or an MBA
• Hands-on experience with the end-to-end model development lifecycle
• Knowledge of MLOps principles within networking or cybersecurity
• Experience building AI ecosystems or managing partnerships with hyperscalers and model providers