About Cisco & The Team: At Cisco, we are transforming the way the world connects, protects, and operates. In the UK&I Partner Organisation, our mission is to empower our ecosystem of premier partners, systems integrators, and managed service providers (MSPs/MSSPs) to build industry-leading, scalable, and high-margin recurring revenue practices. We are creating the future of AI-driven, autonomous operations—and we are looking for a visionary Principal Solutions Architect to lead that charge.
Role Purpose: As the Principal Solutions Architect for AI-Native Managed Services & Agentic Operations, you will be the chief technical and operational authority driving the transformation of partner-delivered managed services across the UK & Ireland. You will bridge the gap between enterprise business outcomes, partner profitability, and Cisco's next-generation platform portfolio. You will lead the modernisation of partner Network Operations Centres (NOCs) and Security Operations Centres (SOCs), architecting how Cisco Cloud Control (CCC), Cisco Partner IQ, ThousandEyes, and Agentic AI workflows form the bedrock of self-healing, autonomic IT operations.
In this high-impact role, you will advise Partner CTOs, Managed Service Practice Leads, and Cisco engineering leadership, designing cutting-edge XaaS blueprints that redefine modern managed services. What You'll Do (Key Responsibilities):
- Managed Services Strategy & Blueprint Architecture: Architect and publish next-generation managed service blueprints across enterprise networking, secure access (SASE/SSE), hybrid cloud, and full-stack observability, embedding Day-2 lifecycle automation.
- Agentic NOC/SOC Transformation: Lead strategic engagements with partner executive teams to modernise legacy support desks into AI-augmented operations, deploying multi-agent reasoning, automated alert triage, and governed self-healing remediation pipelines.
- Cisco Cloud Control & Partner IQ Operationalisation: Drive technical adoption of Cisco Cloud Control (CCC) as the multi-tenant managed architecture of choice, integrating Partner IQ telemetry and ThousandEyes Digital Experience Assurance into partner service delivery platforms.
- ITSM & Multi-Vendor Ecosystem Integration: Architect seamless, API-driven integrations between Cisco cloud control planes, partner ticketing platforms (ServiceNow, Jira Service Management, BMC), AIOps engines, and third-party observability tools.
- Commercial Advisory & Cisco 360 Acceleration: Design profitable service commercial models (SLA/SLO/SLX design, pricing structures, unit cost economics) while guiding partners through Cisco 360 Managed Services designations, Cisco Powered Services (CPS) audits, and Partner Value Index (PVI) maximisation.
- Voice of the Partner: Act as the primary voice of the UK&I partner ecosystem into Cisco Global Product Management, Business Entities (Networking, Security, Splunk, Cloud Control), and Partner Engineering teams to shape future platform roadmap capabilities. Who You'll Work With:
- Partner Executives & Technical Leaders: Partner CTOs, Heads of Managed Services, SOC/NOC Directors, and Lead Solutions Architects across top UK&I strategic partners.
- Cisco UK&I Partner Leadership: Partner Account Managers (PAMs), Partner Solutions Engineers (PSEs), Architecture Leads, and Senior Sales Leadership.
- Cisco Product & Platform Teams: Product Managers, Architects, and Engineering Leads for Cisco Cloud Control, Cisco IQ, ThousandEyes, Security Cloud Control, and Splunk.
- Global & EMEA Communities: The global Cisco Managed Services architecture community, contributing reusable blueprints and thought leadership. Who You Are (Qualifications & Skills): Required Experience & Capabilities:
- Extensive Experience in Managed Services Architecture: 8+ years of experience in senior technical architecture, MSP/MSSP engineering leadership, or designing enterprise-scale managed service offerings.
- Deep NOC/SOC Operational Knowledge: Hands-on understanding of how modern 24/7/365 NOCs, SOCs, and service desks operate, including incident response lifecycles, event correlation, ITIL frameworks, and SLA/SLO metrics.
- AIOps & Agentic Automation Fluency: Demonstrated expertise in AIOps, Agentic AI concepts, workflow orchestration, REST APIs, webhooks, and modern scripting (Python) for operational automation.
- Cross-Domain Technical Depth: Strong knowledge across Cisco's portfolio (Catalyst Center, Meraki Dashboard, ThousandEyes, Cisco Security/SASE, Splunk, Nexus) and multi-vendor operational tooling (ServiceNow, Splunk, Datadog).
- Executive Advisory & Commercial Acumen: Exceptional communication and consultative skills, with the ability to articulate technical architecture, operational ROI, and business profitability to C-level executives (CTOs, CIOs, CISOs). Desirable Qualifications & Certifications:
- Industry Architecture Credentials: Cisco CCIE / CCDE, AWS/Azure Solutions Architect Professional, or equivalent practical depth.
- Service Management & SRE: ITIL v4 Managing Professional / Strategic Leader or Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) certifications.
- AI & Automation Credentials: Practical experience with LLM orchestration frameworks, LangChain/LlamaIndex, or agentic automation in enterprise IT. Why Cisco? 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.
