Sourcing Commodity Manager (HYBRID) San Jose, CA 2000917

The application window is expected to close on: December 16, 2025.NOTE: Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.

Cisco Global Supplier Management (GSM) team is seeking a motivated Technical Sourcing Commodity Manager for Interconnect commodity. You will join a highly impactful and dynamic organization collaborating with cross-functional teams and suppliers on early technology sensing and sourcing engagement across Cisco engineering teams.

We work closely with hardware design engineering, component engineering, Manufacturing, and Suppliers to develop the next generation of Products including AI. We work with the industry leading Interconnects suppliers to develop the technology roadmaps, aligned to Cisco's Next Generation Technology development, delivering the cut edge technologies at price. We take a lot of pride in developing these next generation technologies for our customers!

As a Sourcing Commodity Manager, you will play a mission-critical role in enabling Cisco's next-generation and AI product roadmap. You'll partner closely with engineering and cross-functional teams to align supplier technologies with Cisco's strategy, drive sourcing decisions that balance innovation and cost, and ensure supplier readiness from early development through mass production. Your leadership will strengthen supply chain resilience, accelerate NPI execution, and unlock competitive advantage through supplier performance, technology enablement, and operational excellence.

Technology & Cross-Functional Alignment

• Partner with Hardware Engineering, Product Operations, and Component Engineering to ensure suppliers align with Cisco's technology roadmap.
• Lead technology roadmap reviews with suppliers: gather proposals, analyze technical and commercial trade-offs, and recommend solutions to Business Units.
• Drive early supplier engagement for new products and ensure technical readiness.

Sourcing Strategy & Negotiation

• Develop and execute sourcing strategies that support innovation, cost competitiveness, resiliency, and flexibility.
• Lead negotiations across NPI and mass-production pricing, quality, capacity, resiliency (including non-China enablement), NREs, IP protection, and contractual terms.

Supplier Relationship & Issue Management

• Serve as the primary point of escalation for supplier-related issues.
• Build and maintain strong supplier relationships through regular engagement and business reviews.
• Monitor supplier performance, development progress, and industry trends.
• Hold suppliers accountable to NPI schedules and development milestones.

NPI Execution & Program Leadership

• Own supplier readiness for NPI: gather RFIs/RFQs, analyze proposals, and present recommendations to stakeholders.
• Facilitate collaboration between suppliers and engineering to remove development roadblocks and maintain project momentum.
• Ensure material availability and support ramp-up from prototype to mass production.
• Partner with Supplier Commodity Managers to ensure smooth transition into MP.

Value Engineering & Second Sourcing

• Lead value engineering initiatives that reduce cost while preserving technical performance.
• Identify and develop second-source strategies to strengthen competitiveness and supply flexibility.

Supply Chain Resilience

• Support geographic diversification and non-China manufacturing strategies.
• Assess supply risks, develop mitigation plans, and ensure continuity across product lifecycles.

Business Reviews & Reporting

• Prepare and deliver supplier business reviews covering technology readiness, NPI execution, cost, risk, and capacity.
• Provide regular status updates on NPI and mass-production readiness to leadership.

Operational Excellence

• Maintain best-in-class cost performance from NPI through production.
• Partner with Component Engineering on quality and supplier escalations.
• Drive continuous improvement through Lean, Six Sigma, and process optimization.
• Define KPIs, enhance analytics, and implement data-driven decision frameworks.
• Collaborate with Supply Chain Central Operations on tools, processes, and governance.

Additional responsibilities may be assigned based on evolving business priorities.

• 5+ years of technical experience in interconnect technologies (e.g., cable and connector design, manufacturing, and sourcing)
• 5+ years of experience in cost negotiations, should-cost modeling, contract management, and obtaining quotations (RFQ/RFI process) from suppliers.
• 5+ years of experience working with design engineering teams on developing New Product Introductions (NPI), developing strategic sourcing, developing suppliers and supplier management.

• Master's degree in mechanical engineering or related field.
• Experience supporting mass production ramp-up, enabling non-China manufacturing, and implementing tariff mitigation strategies is highly valuable
• Experience with technology/component risk rating and mitigation plan
• Expertise in supply chain operations.
• Understanding of AI architecture and applications
• Experience with high-density Twinax cables and, GPU systems, and rack-level integration, configured shipment, and deployment.
• Working knowledge of interconnect engineering and design principles with specific expertise in the areas of design for medium-scale production, DFM/DFA, sheet metal and injection molding, material properties/science, dimensional tolerance analysis, corrosion resistance, water/dust ingress protection, signal integrity, heat transfer, and fluid dynamics.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and analytical skills.

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.

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.

Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training. The full salary range for certain locations is listed below. For locations not listed below, the recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.

U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco's plan eligibility rules, which include medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability coverage, and basic life insurance. Please see the Cisco careers site to discover more benefits and perks. Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.

U.S. employees are eligible for paid time away as described below, subject to Cisco's policies:

• 10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees

• 1 paid day off for employee's birthday, paid year-end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco

• Non-exempt employees** receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees

• Exempt employees participate in Cisco's flexible vacation time off program, which has no defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use (subject to availability and some business limitations)

• 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, and up to 80 hours ofunused sick timecarried forwardfrom one calendar yearto the next

• Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members

• Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer

For non-sales roles, employees are also eligible to earn annual bonuses subject to Cisco's policies.

Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non-quota components, subject to the applicable Cisco plan. 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 0% up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.

The applicable full salary ranges for this position, by specific state, are listed below:

New York City Metro Area:

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

* For quota-based sales roles on Cisco's sales plan, the ranges provided in this posting include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.

** Employees in Illinois, whether exempt or non-exempt, will participate in a unique time off program to meet local requirements.