Lead Product Designer, AI and Intelligence

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Lead Product Designer, AI and Intelligence

Company: Cisco

Location: Denver, Colorado; Atlanta, Georgia; Austin, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Phoenix, Arizona; Portland, Oregon

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: Product Design / UX Design (AI & Intelligence Focus)

Date Posted: 2026-09-04

Experience Level: 10+ Years Professional Experience

Remote Status: On-site

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the design of AI-enabled product experiences across Cisco's core networking platforms, focusing on user understanding, decision-making, and confident action.

• Define and implement reusable UX patterns for AI explanations, user control, review, correction, feedback, and intelligent interactions to foster trust and utility.

• Translate complex user goals and ambiguous AI/ML opportunities into tangible product concepts, detailed flows, and functional prototypes.

• Collaborate closely with product management, engineering, data science, and AI teams to shape both customer-facing interfaces and the underlying intelligent system behaviors.

• Drive the design process from discovery and ideation through to launch and iterative improvement, ensuring customer value is realized through technical systems.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is deeply embedded within the "Network Platform Experiences" team, a subset of Cisco Networking UX, which implies a focus on creating cohesive and standardized user experiences across a broad portfolio of network management and intelligence tools. The emphasis on "AI and Intelligence" suggests a forward-thinking position at the forefront of integrating advanced technologies into enterprise networking solutions.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Spearhead the design strategy for AI and ML-powered features within Cisco's networking products, ensuring intuitive and effective user interactions.

• Develop comprehensive user flows, wireframes, interactive prototypes, and high-fidelity mockups for new and existing AI-driven functionalities.

• Champion user-centered design principles by conducting user research, synthesizing findings, and translating them into actionable design recommendations.

• Define requirements for data models, telemetry, and AI model training based on user needs and product objectives to ensure the effective performance of intelligent systems.

• Establish and evangelize reusable UX design patterns for AI and intelligent systems, ensuring consistency and best practices across the Cisco Networking portfolio.

• Partner with engineering teams to ensure accurate implementation of designs and provide ongoing design support throughout the development lifecycle.

• Collaborate with product managers and data scientists to define product roadmaps and identify opportunities for AI and automation to enhance customer value.

• Design for trust, control, personalization, and responsible failure states within AI-driven experiences to build user confidence.

• Mentor junior designers, contribute to design team growth, and foster a culture of high-craft and collaborative design practices.

• Utilize modern AI tools, prototyping techniques, user research methodologies, and lean UX principles to align teams and accelerate product delivery.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibility to "define reusable UX patterns for AI explanations, user control, review, correction, feedback, and intelligent interactions" highlights a strategic imperative for Cisco to standardize how AI is presented and interacted with across its product suite. This implies a need for a designer who can think at a system level and create design frameworks that scale.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is mandated, a strong foundation in Design (e.g., UX Design, Interaction Design, HCI, Graphic Design) or a related technical field is implied by the experience requirements and the nature of the role.

Experience: 10+ years of professional product design experience, with a significant focus on enterprise, platform, or technical products, and a proven track record of designing and shipping AI-enabled products.

Required Skills:

• Portfolio: A compelling portfolio demonstrating shipped AI-powered, ML-enabled, automation-heavy, or data-intensive product experiences, showcasing complex customer journeys, data visualization, and decision-support interfaces.

• Enterprise Product Design: 10+ years of professional experience designing for enterprise, platform, or technical products.

• AI/ML Product Experience: Proven experience designing and shipping customer-facing AI-enabled products, including generative AI, ML-powered, or other intelligent product experiences in production.

• Adaptive Design: Experience designing adaptive experiences that respond to different personas, workflows, and customer contexts, enabling users to understand what matters, decide what to do, and act with confidence.

• User Goal Translation: Expertise in translating user goals into detailed product flows, prototypes, telemetry needs, data requirements, or model-related design specifications.

• Systems Thinking: Strong ability to conceptualize and design across complex customer journeys, personas, workflows, and interconnected ecosystems.

• Technical Fluency: Ability to effectively communicate and collaborate with technical partners in AI, data science, platform development, and engineering.

Preferred Skills:

• Trust & Responsibility Design: Experience designing for user trust, control, personalization, review mechanisms, feedback loops, adoption strategies, and graceful handling of responsible failure states in AI systems.

• Mentorship & Craft: Demonstrated experience mentoring junior designers, elevating design craft quality, and improving design collaboration processes.

• Modern Design Tooling: Proficiency in using modern AI tools, advanced prototyping techniques, user research methodologies, lean UX principles, and a focus on measurable outcomes to align teams and accelerate delivery.

• Networking Domain Knowledge: Familiarity with networking concepts, enterprise IT infrastructure, and the challenges faced by IT professionals in managing complex networks.

📝 Enhancement Note: The requirement for a portfolio demonstrating "shipped AI-powered, ML-enabled, automation-heavy, or data-intensive product experiences" is critical. Candidates should be prepared to showcase specific examples of how they've translated complex technical capabilities into user-friendly, impactful product features, detailing their individual contribution and the resulting outcomes.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Shipped AI/ML Products: Detailed case studies of at least 2-3 products or significant features that leverage AI, Machine Learning, or advanced data analytics, clearly showing the problem, your design process, and the impact.

• Complex User Journeys: Demonstrations of how you've mapped and designed for intricate, multi-step user journeys within enterprise software environments.

• Data Visualization & Decision Support: Examples of interfaces designed to present complex data clearly and support user decision-making, particularly in technical or analytical contexts.

• System-Level Design: Evidence of systems thinking, illustrating how your designs integrate with broader platform architectures and influence multiple user touchpoints or workflows.

• Collaboration & Impact: Documentation of cross-functional collaboration (with engineering, product, data science) and quantifiable results or metrics demonstrating the success of your designs.

Process Documentation:

• User-Centered Design Methodology: Showcase a structured approach to understanding user needs, including research methods (interviews, surveys, usability testing), persona development, and journey mapping.

• Prototyping & Iteration: Illustrate your process for creating interactive prototypes (low to high fidelity) and how you use them for testing, feedback, and iterative refinement.

• Translating Ambiguity: Demonstrate how you take ambiguous requirements or nascent AI capabilities and translate them into clear, actionable design specifications, including requirements for data, telemetry, and AI model behavior.

• Pattern Definition: Examples of how you have identified, defined, and documented reusable design patterns to ensure consistency and scalability across a product suite.

📝 Enhancement Note: The portfolio should not just showcase final designs but the process behind them. For an AI/ML role, this means detailing how user needs were balanced with technical constraints, how abstract AI concepts were made tangible, and how the impact of these intelligent features was measured.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

• Base Range (U.S.): $169,300 - $237,200 USD per year.

• Specific Location Adjustments:

  • New York City Metro Area: $194,600 - $328,600 USD
  • Non-Metro New York State & Washington State: $179,000 - $294,000 USD

• Explanation: This range reflects the projected salary for new hires in U.S. locations. Individual pay is determined by hiring location, market conditions, skills, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and training. The provided ranges are for base salary and do not include incentive compensation, equity, or benefits. For roles on Cisco's sales plan, the ranges include base pay and target incentive compensation.

Benefits:

• Health & Wellness: Medical, dental, and vision insurance.

• Retirement: 401(k) plan with Cisco matching contribution.

• Financial Growth: Restricted stock units (RSUs) that vest over time.

• Work-Life Balance:

  • Paid parental leave.
  • Short-term and long-term disability coverage.
  • Basic life insurance.
  • 10 paid holidays per year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees.
  • 1 paid day off for employee's birthday.
  • Paid year-end holiday shutdown.
  • 4 paid days off for personal wellness.
  • Paid vacation time: 16 days for non-exempt employees (accrued); flexible vacation time for exempt employees.
  • 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and annually, with carry-forward provisions.
  • Additional paid time away may be requested for family emergencies.
  • Optional 10 paid days per year for volunteering.

• Performance Incentives:

  • Annual bonuses for non-sales roles (subject to Cisco policies).

  • Performance-based incentive pay for sales roles, with structured commission rates and potential for uncapped earnings. Working Hours: Approximately 40 hours per week, with flexibility for exempt employees regarding vacation time. The specific schedule may vary based on project needs and team collaboration.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary ranges provided are substantial, especially for the specified metro areas, reflecting the senior level (Lead) and specialized nature (AI/Intelligence) of this product design role within a major technology corporation like Cisco. The detailed breakdown of benefits highlights Cisco's commitment to employee well-being and long-term financial security.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Technology, Networking, Cybersecurity, AI/ML, Software Development. Cisco is a global leader in networking hardware, software, and telecommunications equipment, increasingly focusing on security, IoT, and AI-driven solutions.

Company Size: Cisco is a large enterprise company, typically employing over 100,000 people globally. This scale offers extensive resources, diverse career paths, and opportunities for significant impact.

Founded: Cisco was founded in 1984. Its long history in the networking industry provides a stable foundation, while its continuous innovation in areas like AI demonstrates a forward-looking approach.

Team Structure:

• Network Platform Experiences Team: This team is part of Cisco Networking UX, focusing on creating cohesive, platform-wide user experiences.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Designers work closely with Product Management, Engineering (Software Development, AI/ML Engineers), Data Science, and other Platform UX teams.

• Reporting: The Lead Product Designer likely reports into a Design Manager or Director within the Cisco Networking UX organization, with direct collaboration across multiple product lines and engineering teams.

Methodology:

• User-Centered Design (UCD): Emphasis on understanding customer needs through research and translating them into effective product solutions.

• Agile/Lean UX: Likely employs iterative development processes, rapid prototyping, user testing, and a focus on delivering measurable outcomes.

• Data-Driven Design: Integration of data analysis, telemetry, and AI/ML insights to inform design decisions and product strategy.

• Pattern-Based Design: Development and application of reusable design patterns to ensure consistency and efficiency across a large product portfolio.

Company Website: https://careers.cisco.com/global/en

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Network Platform Experiences" team's focus on "shared patterns for recommendations, automation, agentic workflows, predictive insights, and data-rich intelligence experiences" indicates a strategic effort to create a unified and intelligent user experience across Cisco's diverse networking offerings. This role is central to that effort, requiring a designer who can think holistically about the user journey across multiple products.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This is a "Lead" position, signifying a senior individual contributor role with significant autonomy and influence. It requires extensive experience and the ability to guide design strategy for complex, cutting-edge product areas like AI and Intelligence. The role demands not only design craft but also strategic thinking, cross-functional leadership, and potentially mentorship.

Reporting Structure: The Lead Product Designer will likely report to a Design Manager or Director within Cisco's UX organization. They will collaborate extensively with Product Managers, Engineering Leads, and Data Scientists across various product teams within Cisco Networking.

Operations Impact: The work directly impacts how customers interact with and derive value from Cisco's AI and intelligence capabilities within their networks. This includes shaping user trust, adoption, and efficiency gains derived from intelligent automation, predictive insights, and advanced analytics. The success of these features is critical to Cisco's continued leadership in the evolving networking landscape.

Growth Opportunities:

• Leadership & Specialization: Opportunity to become a recognized expert in AI/ML product design within the networking domain, potentially leading design for major initiatives or product lines.

• Mentorship & Team Development: Potential to mentor junior designers, contribute to design process improvements, and influence the overall design culture at Cisco.

• Cross-Functional Expertise: Deepen understanding of AI/ML technologies, data science principles, and enterprise networking infrastructure through close collaboration.

• Strategic Influence: Shape the future direction of AI-driven user experiences across Cisco's extensive product portfolio.

• Career Progression: Potential pathways to Senior Lead Designer, Principal Designer, Design Manager, or specialized roles focusing on AI ethics or advanced interaction design.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Lead" title suggests a role that requires not only expert-level design skills but also the ability to influence product strategy and mentor others. Candidates should highlight instances where they've driven design direction and fostered collaboration to achieve significant product outcomes.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: This is an on-site role, indicating a traditional office environment where in-person collaboration is expected. Cisco offices are typically well-equipped modern corporate campuses.

Office Location(s): The role is available in multiple major U.S. cities: Denver (CO), Atlanta (GA), Austin (TX), Chicago (IL), Dallas (TX), Philadelphia (PA), Phoenix (AZ), and Portland (OR). This offers flexibility in choosing a preferred work location.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Spaces: Cisco offices generally feature open-plan areas, meeting rooms, and collaboration zones designed to facilitate teamwork and brainstorming.

• Technology Access: Employees will have access to state-of-the-art hardware, software, and design tools necessary for their roles.

• Team Interaction: The on-site nature facilitates spontaneous discussions, whiteboarding sessions, and strong team cohesion with colleagues in the immediate office and across remote teams.

Work Schedule: The standard work week is approximately 40 hours. While the role is on-site, Cisco offers flexible vacation time for exempt employees, suggesting a balance between structured work and personal time management. The nature of product design, especially in AI, may occasionally require focused work outside standard hours to meet project deadlines.

📝 Enhancement Note: The availability across multiple U.S. locations is a significant advantage, allowing candidates to choose a base city that suits their lifestyle while still being part of a large, cohesive design team. The on-site requirement suggests Cisco values in-person collaboration for its complex product development processes.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process: While not explicitly detailed, a typical senior design role interview process at a company like Cisco would likely include:

• Initial Screening: HR or recruiter call to assess basic qualifications, experience, and cultural fit.

• Portfolio Review: In-depth session with hiring managers and/or senior designers to review the candidate's portfolio, focusing on their process, problem-solving skills, and impact.

• Design Challenge/Case Study: A practical exercise, potentially a take-home assignment or a live whiteboarding session, to assess design thinking, problem-solving abilities, and communication skills related to AI/ML product design.

• Cross-Functional Interviews: Meetings with Product Managers, Engineers, and potentially Data Scientists to evaluate collaboration skills and technical understanding.

• Leadership/Culture Fit Interview: A final discussion with senior leadership to assess strategic thinking, leadership potential, and alignment with Cisco's values.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Curate Strategically: Select projects that best showcase experience with AI/ML, complex enterprise systems, data visualization, and user-centric problem-solving.

• Tell a Story: For each project, clearly articulate the problem, your role and process, design decisions, challenges faced, and quantifiable outcomes.

• Highlight AI/ML Specifics: Detail how you approached designing for uncertainty, explainability, user control, and trust in AI systems.

• Showcase Systems Thinking: Demonstrate how your designs fit into a larger ecosystem and address complex user journeys.

• Be Prepared to Discuss: Be ready to delve deep into your design choices, rationale, and the impact of your work.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand the Domain: Familiarize yourself with current trends in AI/ML, UX for intelligent systems, and enterprise networking challenges.

• Practice Problem Framing: Be ready to define a problem space, identify user needs, and brainstorm potential AI-driven solutions.

• Articulate Design Rationale: Clearly explain the "why" behind your design decisions, especially in the context of AI limitations and opportunities.

• Focus on Process: Demonstrate a structured approach to design, even in a timed challenge.

• Consider AI Ethics: Be prepared to discuss ethical considerations related to AI design.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on a "Portfolio demonstrating shipped AI-powered, ML-enabled, automation-heavy, or data-intensive product experiences" strongly suggests that the portfolio review will be a critical gate. Candidates should prepare detailed case studies that highlight their direct contributions and the measurable impact of their design work.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping: Figma, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop), InVision, Axure RP (or similar advanced prototyping tools).

• AI/ML Tools (Familiarity): While not expected to be an engineer, familiarity with tools used in AI/ML development and deployment (e.g., platforms like TensorFlow, PyTorch, or cloud AI services) can be beneficial for understanding technical constraints and opportunities.

• Collaboration & Project Management: Jira, Confluence, Slack, Microsoft Teams.

Analytics & Reporting:

• User Analytics: Tools like Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude for understanding user behavior and feature adoption.

• Data Visualization: Experience with tools like Tableau, Power BI, or built-in platform dashboards to interpret data and present insights.

• Telemetry Data: Understanding how to define and utilize telemetry requirements for product performance and user behavior analysis.

CRM & Automation:

• While this role is design-focused, familiarity with how CRM systems (like Salesforce) and marketing/sales automation platforms impact the user journey and data availability can be advantageous for enterprise product design.

📝 Enhancement Note: The mention of "modern AI tools" and the nature of the role suggest proficiency in cutting-edge design and prototyping software is essential. Experience with tools that facilitate collaboration and integrate with engineering workflows (like Figma with developer handoff features) would be highly valued.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Innovation & Fearlessness: Cisco's culture encourages pushing boundaries and experimenting to create meaningful solutions.

• Customer Focus: A deep commitment to understanding and serving customer needs, ensuring technology "simply works" for them.

• Collaboration & Empathy: Working together as a global team, valuing diverse perspectives and fostering supportive relationships.

• Data-Driven Decision Making: Utilizing data and insights to guide product development and measure impact.

• Excellence & Craft: A dedication to high quality in both product outcomes and the design process itself.

• Trust & Responsibility: Particularly relevant for AI, emphasizing the ethical development and deployment of intelligent systems.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-Functional Partnership: Seamless integration with Product Management, Engineering, and Data Science teams is paramount. The role requires building strong working relationships and fostering mutual understanding.

• Open Communication: Encouraging candid feedback, active listening, and transparent dialogue to drive collective problem-solving.

• Shared Ownership: Promoting a sense of collective responsibility for product success, from initial concept to post-launch iteration.

• Knowledge Sharing: Actively contributing to the design community within Cisco, sharing best practices, insights, and learnings, especially around AI and complex systems.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "trustworthy" and "responsible" AI experiences suggests that ethical considerations and user safety will be core values guiding design decisions within this team. Candidates should be prepared to discuss how they integrate these principles into their design practice.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Complexity of AI/ML: Designing for systems that are inherently complex, probabilistic, and sometimes opaque requires innovative approaches to user understanding and control.

• Balancing User Needs with Technical Constraints: Effectively translating user goals into feasible AI/ML models and system behaviors, while managing technical limitations and development timelines.

• Establishing Trust in AI: Building user confidence in AI-driven features, especially in critical enterprise environments where reliability and accuracy are paramount.

• Defining Reusable Patterns: Creating design patterns for AI that are versatile enough to apply across a broad range of Cisco Networking products while remaining effective.

• Cross-Functional Alignment: Ensuring consistent vision and execution across diverse teams (Product, Engineering, Data Science, UX) with potentially different priorities.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• AI/ML Design Specialization: Deepen expertise in designing for generative AI, predictive analytics, and other intelligent systems through hands-on project work and internal training.

• Industry Conferences & Certifications: Potential to attend leading UX and AI conferences, and pursue relevant certifications to stay abreast of industry advancements.

• Mentorship: Opportunities to learn from and be mentored by senior design leaders at Cisco, as well as to mentor emerging talent.

• Exposure to Cutting-Edge Technology: Work directly with advanced AI/ML technologies and contribute to shaping their application in the networking domain.

• Strategic Impact: Influence the direction of AI strategy and user experience across a significant portion of Cisco's product portfolio.

📝 Enhancement Note: The primary challenge will be translating abstract AI capabilities into tangible, trustworthy, and useful user experiences. Success will depend on strong design thinking, deep user empathy, and effective collaboration with technical teams.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe a time you had to design for a complex, data-intensive product. What were the key challenges, and how did you approach them?" (Focus on process, problem-solving, and outcomes.)

• "How do you approach designing AI-powered features to ensure user trust and understandability?" (Look for discussion of explainability, control, feedback loops, and ethical considerations.)

• "Walk me through a challenging cross-functional collaboration. How did you align stakeholders with differing perspectives on a product design initiative?" (Emphasize communication, negotiation, and consensus-building skills.)

• "Imagine you need to design a new AI feature for network anomaly detection. What would be your initial steps in understanding user needs and defining the experience?" (Assess problem-framing, user research approach, and ideation process.) Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you specifically about Cisco and its role in the AI and networking space?" (Research Cisco's AI initiatives, networking leadership, and company values.)

• "How do you see your design philosophy aligning with Cisco's focus on 'intelligent network solutions' and 'security'?" (Connect your experience to Cisco's strategic priorities.)

• "Describe your experience with mentoring junior designers or contributing to design team growth." (Highlight leadership potential and collaborative spirit.) Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure Your Narrative: For each case study, clearly outline the problem statement, your specific role and contributions, the design process (research, ideation, prototyping, testing), key design decisions and rationale, challenges overcome, and quantifiable results or impact.

• Emphasize AI/ML Elements: Specifically call out how you addressed the unique challenges of designing for AI/ML, such as explainability, data representation, user control, and managing uncertainty.

• Showcase Systems Thinking: Illustrate how your designs integrate with larger product ecosystems and address end-to-end user journeys.

• Highlight Collaboration: Mention how you worked with engineering, product management, and data science teams.

• Be Ready for Deep Dives: Prepare to answer detailed questions about your design choices, trade-offs, and the impact of your work.

📝 Enhancement Note: Candidates should prepare to discuss their portfolio projects in detail, focusing on their individual contributions to shipped AI/ML products and demonstrating a robust understanding of user-centered design principles applied within complex enterprise systems.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Lead Product Designer position:

• Submit your application through the Cisco Careers portal via the provided job URL.

• Tailor Your Resume: Ensure your resume highlights your 10+ years of experience, specific achievements in AI/ML product design, enterprise software experience, and any leadership or mentorship roles. Use keywords from the job description such as "AI-enabled products," "ML-powered," "automation," "data-intensive," and "systems thinking."

• Curate Your Portfolio: Select 2-3 of your strongest case studies that best demonstrate your experience with AI/ML, complex user journeys, data visualization, and enterprise product design. Ensure each case study clearly outlines the problem, your process, your specific contributions, and the impact. Include a link to your online portfolio prominently on your resume and/or application.

• Prepare Your Narrative: Practice articulating your design process, rationale, and the impact of your work for your portfolio projects. Be ready to discuss your experience with cross-functional collaboration and how you approach designing for complex systems and AI.

• Research Cisco: Understand Cisco's mission, its role in the networking and AI landscape, and its company values. Be prepared to articulate why you are a good fit for Cisco and this specific team.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.