Acts as the central point of contact for service delivery across assigned accounts, scopes, or territories, engaging closely with customers, Sales, Customer Experience Managers, and internal stakeholders. Develops and executes service delivery plans to ensure the successful fulfillment of contracted services, maintaining high standards of quality and customer satisfaction.
Oversees the financial health of delivery, including margin, revenue, and level of effort, while leading negotiations on pricing and scope throughout the delivery cycle. Assigns resources, manages capacity, and identifies opportunities for delivery efficiency and portfolio expansion, aligning KPIs with financial and quality targets. Collaborates across teams to build strong customer relationships, proactively manages risks and escalations, and ensures effective issue resolution to drive continuous service excellence.
Engagement Context
- Service Delivery Leader owning the execution and governance of CX delivery for a leading Service Provider in Australia — one of Cisco's strategic SP accounts.
- Sydney-based with on-site presence at the customer's campus and a hybrid working arrangement as required by the account.
- Operates within the customer's carrier-grade environment and Australian telco regulatory and critical-infrastructure obligations (e.g., SOCI Act, TSSR).
- Leads a virtual, matrixed delivery team rather than performing hands-on TAC-style troubleshooting — accountable for delivery outcomes, governance, and customer satisfaction.
Role Purpose
- Own a program or portfolio of CX Professional Services and delivery projects for the customer, ensuring services are delivered on time, within budget, and to a high quality standard.
- Drive customer satisfaction and successful adoption of Cisco SP solutions across deployments, migrations, and optimizations.
- Act as the senior delivery point of contact and"mini-G" for the services program — owning scope, schedule, risk, commercials, and stakeholder alignment.
Key Responsibilities — Delivery& Program Leadership
- Lead and supervise multiple customer-facing projects under a broader services program (deployments, migrations, optimizations, success tracks).
- Coordinate delivery staff across a matrix: CX consultants/engineers, project managers, architects, partners, and subcontractors.
- Act as first point of escalation for delivery issues — working with PMs to resolve risks, scope gaps, schedule slippage, and quality concerns.
- Govern delivery quality and consistency across the program, ensuring artifacts (designs, MOPs, NIPs, acceptance criteria) meet standards before customer handover.
- Align the delivery program with the customer's technical adoption plan and overall account strategy, working with CX Leaders and Customer Success Managers.
Key Responsibilities — Commercial& Governance
- Own or co-own project/program budget: track costs, forecast, and ensure profitability or budget adherence.
- Participate in scoping and proposals: validate that quoted scope matches the work, support Statements of Work, and manage contract change requests at program level.
- Identify opportunities for additional services or expansions, feeding these into presales, renewals, and broader account planning.
- Drive structured risk management and program governance cadences (status, RAID, steering reviews).
Typical Scope& Interaction
- Maintain regular executive and operational touchpoints with the customer's leaders, architects, and engineers.
- Communicate the value of delivered services — outcomes, milestones, risk reduction, adoption — so stakeholders clearly see progress against objectives.
- Collaborate closely with CX Leaders, Customer Experience Managers, the Account Team, and partner/subcontractor leads to ensure a consistent, aligned delivery experience.
- Translate delivery and technical status into business-impact language for customer stakeholders.
Required Skills& Experience — Technical / Domain
- Solid understanding of Cisco SP technology domains relevant to a carrier (MPLS, Segment Routing / SRv6, IGP/BGP, IOS XR platforms such as ASR 9000 and NCS 540/5500/5700/8000), sufficient to govern delivery and challenge designs.
- Familiarity with SP delivery patterns: greenfield builds, brownfield migrations (e.g., ZTP-based device onboarding and router migrations), and network optimization programs.
- Awareness of automation and assurance tooling (Crosswork Network Controller, Provider Connectivity Assurance) and how they fit delivery scope.
Required Skills& Experience — General
- Around 8+ years in networking/telecom or IT, with strong experience in service delivery and leading large projects or programs.
- Proven experience with budget/P, risk management, and contract/change management in a services context.
- Track record delivering for SP, large enterprise, or public sector customers in a matrixed environment.
Team Leadership
- Provide day-to-day leadership to a virtual delivery team: mentor project managers, guide engineers on delivery priorities, and align partner/subcontractor work and commercials.
- Effectively lead a matrix team and act as the accountable owner "mini-G") for the services program, even where not a direct people-manager.
- Set and uphold delivery standards, ways of working, and continuous improvement across the program.
Desirable Skills& Certifications
- Formal project/program management credentials such as PMP or PRINCE2 (or substantial equivalent experience).
- Strong communication, negotiation, and presentation skills; comfortable leading customer workshops and executive updates.
- Good understanding of sales and presales processes, including scoping, risk assessment, and working with legal on contracts.
Soft Skills& Behavioural Expectations
- Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills across both engineering and executive audiences.
- High customer orientation: understands the business impact of delivery outcomes for a carrier and manages expectations transparently.
- Proven ability to work under pressure, juggle multiple workstreams in parallel, and maintain structured, methodical program control.
Eligibility& Working Arrangements
- Must have valid Australian working rights; Australian citizenship may be required given critical-infrastructure obligations.
- Ability to obtain Australian security clearance (e.g., Baseline/NV1) may be required.
- Sydney-based with regular on-site presence at the customer's campus.
Minimum Qualifications
Typically requires Bachelor's degree in relevant field with 8+ years of related experience, or Master's degree with 6+ years of related experience, or equivalent related work experience
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