Job Description
Customer Project Manager are responsible for leading the projects to achieve on-time, within-budget, high-quality delivery while achieving customer satisfaction. They are responsible for project metric tracking and managing project financials and profitability.
They identify risks and issues and develop risk response strategies. They lead or support the execution of the contract Change Management process and manage partner delivery and commercials when third-party technical delivery resources are engaged. They conduct project support activities and build Cisco's project community by sharing lessons learned, best practices, and participating in the PMO Role Community.
Engagement Context
Customer Program Manager owning end-to-end delivery of Cisco CX services projects 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).
A project/program-management role using Cisco's Global PMO (GPMO) methodology — leading planning, coordination, financials, and control rather than hands-on configuration.
Role Purpose
Lead and manage the full services project lifecycle across the customer's engagements: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring/control, and closure.
Coordinate multiple concurrent projects within the program, ensuring delivery on time, within budget, and to agreed quality while adhering to Cisco's GPMO methodology.
Act as the central point of program control and communication between Cisco delivery teams, partners, and the customer.
Key Responsibilities — Planning & Delivery Control
Create and maintain detailed project/program plans, including scope, schedule, resources, cost, quality, communications, and risk/issue logs.
Drive adherence to scope and manage change requests with the customer, partners, and Cisco account teams.
Monitor baseline dimensions — schedule, cost, and quality — and proactively identify and mitigate risks with clear contingency plans.
Coordinate and direct project staff: CX/project engineers, vendors, partners, and subcontractors to achieve milestones.
Optimize and coordinate interaction between internal, partner, and customer resources across multiple concurrent projects.
Key Responsibilities — Governance & Reporting
Prepare for engagement reviews and quality-assurance procedures, reporting progress against success metrics.
Handle customer concerns or project issues promptly and lead resolution across internal and external stakeholders.
Interpret project/program financial reports, comment on irregularities, propose options, and produce realistic forecasts.
Complete time and expense reporting accurately and on time.
Typical Scope & Interaction
Maintain regular operational and executive touchpoints with the customer's project, engineering, and leadership stakeholders.
Communicate program value and status — milestones, risks, and outcomes — so stakeholders clearly see progress against objectives.
Collaborate with Cisco CX delivery leaders, the Account Team, Customer Success, and partner/subcontractor leads to ensure aligned, consistent delivery.
Translate delivery status into business-impact language for customer stakeholders.
Who You Are — Core Competencies
Strong skills in scheduling, financial reporting, performance reporting, communications, and risk/issue/action management.
Able to interpret project financial reports, comment on irregularities, and propose options; capable of producing realistic forecasts.
Skilled at coordinating matrixed teams of engineers, partners, and subcontractors across concurrent projects.
Calm and structured under pressure, with strong customer-facing communication.
Required Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in business, engineering, IT, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
Demonstrable years of experience managing IT or telecom networking services projects/programs end to end.
Proven track record delivering on time, on budget, and to quality across multiple concurrent projects.
Hands-on experience with scope, schedule, cost, risk, and change management in a services delivery context.
Proficiency with standard PM tooling such as Microsoft Project, Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
Valid Australian working rights.
Around 8+ years in networking/telecom or IT, with strong experience in service delivery and leading large projects or programs.
Preferred Qualifications
PMP certification or equivalent project/program management credential (PRINCE2, etc.).
Extensive project/program delivery knowledge, ideally in IT or telecom networking services.
Executive client-facing experience and prior exposure to business development or services business management in large or strategic accounts.
Working familiarity with Cisco SP delivery contexts (e.g., deployments, migrations, optimizations) sufficient to manage scope and timelines credibly.
Soft Skills & Behavioural Expectations
Excellent communication, negotiation, 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.
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.