[Hiring] Sourcing Commodity Manager @Cisco

Role Description

As a Technical Sourcing Commodity Manager for Memory and Storage, you own technical decisions and cost outcomes for memory and storage commodities by partnering closely with hardware engineering, manufacturing, and supplier engineering teams. You sit at the intersection of engineering, manufacturing, and supplier technology development—helping bring Cisco products to life that do not yet exist. You will influence design decisions, enable supplier technical readiness, and remove development barriers from concept through mass production.

Your work directly impacts Cisco’s ability to deliver innovative, high-performance networking and AI systems at scale—ensuring designs are manufacturable, resilient, and production-ready while meeting aggressive performance and reliability requirements.

This role is engineering-facing, technically hands-on, and requires comfort engaging in detailed technical discussions related to memory & storage design, materials, and manufacturing processes. Success in this role requires direct experience supporting hardware designs through development, manufacturing, and scale, including hands-on technical problem solving with supplier engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Engineering & Technology Alignment:
  • Partner with Hardware Design Engineering, Component Engineering, and Manufacturing to align supplier technologies with Cisco’s product architecture and roadmap.
  • Participate in technical design reviews with internal teams and suppliers, evaluating feasibility, manufacturability, and performance tradeoffs.
  • Drive early supplier technical engagement for new designs and architectures.
• Supplier Technical Leadership:
  • Lead supplier technology roadmap discussions, assessing design approaches, materials, processes, and manufacturing capabilities.
  • Technical escalation point for supplier-related design, yield, reliability, and manufacturability issues.
  • Hold suppliers accountable to development milestones, technical readiness, and qualification schedules.
• NPI Execution & Scale Readiness:
  • Lead/Own supplier technical readiness from prototype through mass production.
  • Facilitate hands-on collaboration between supplier engineering teams and Cisco engineers to resolve design and manufacturing issues.
  • Support ramp readiness, yield improvement, and transition from NPI into sustained production.
• Value Engineering & Multi-Sourcing:
  • Drive value engineering initiatives that improve cost efficiency without compromising technical performance or reliability.
  • Identify and develop second-source strategies that strengthen design robustness and supply flexibility.
• Supply Resilience & Risk Management:
  • Support geographic diversification and non-China manufacturing strategies.
  • Identify technical and manufacturing risks; develop mitigation plans in partnership with engineering and suppliers.
• Business Reviews & Technical Reporting:
  • Lead supplier reviews covering technology readiness, NPI execution, yield, capacity, and risk.
  • Provide clear technical status updates to cross-functional leadership.
• Operational Excellence:
  • Partner with Component Engineering on quality investigations and corrective actions.
  • Drive continuous improvement using diverse methodologies.
  • Define technical KPIs and enable data-driven execution across suppliers.

Qualifications

• 7+ years technical experience in memory & storage technologies (especially for NAND solutions - SSD, eMMC, UFS, uSD, etc), including design support and manufacturing engagement.
• 10+ years experience working directly with hardware design engineering teams on New Product Introductions (NPI).
• 10+ years experience engaging suppliers on technical development, qualification, and manufacturing readiness, cost negotiations, should-cost modeling, contract management, and obtaining quotations (RFQ/RFI process) from suppliers.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in mechanical engineering or related field.
• Experience with memory & storage technology or in memory suppliers.
• Familiarity with AI system architectures and high-performance computing platforms.
• Excellent technical communication, problem-solving, and stakeholder engagement skills.

Benefits

• Medical, dental and vision insurance.
• 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution.
• Paid parental leave.
• Short and long-term disability coverage.
• Basic life insurance.
• Paid time away including holidays, vacation, and sick time.
• Optional paid days for volunteering.
• Eligibility for grants of Cisco restricted stock units.