Solutions Designer

The application window is expected to close on: 12/05/2026

SOLUTIONS DESIGNER

MEET THE TEAM

Cisco’s vision is to change the way the world works, lives, plays, and learns. We helped build the Internet as it is known today. In the Agentic AI era, our vision is more relevant than ever. Cisco is building the critical infrastructure that powers the intelligent, secure, and high-performance networks required for AI-driven transformation. This includes connecting people, processes, data, and things through networks that form an essential foundation for an AI-powered future.

You will join a team of Cisco pre-sales Solutions Designers supporting the Ontario public sector, including government, utilities, education and healthcare. Our technically skilled and solutions-focused team members build trusted relationships, understand customer needs, and deliver innovative and effective outcomes.

Your ideas can have meaningful, real-world impact. You will work with a collaborative group of forward-thinking technical professionals who turn complex challenges into practical solutions for Canadian Federal customers.

YOUR IMPACT

Cisco is seeking a Solutions Designer based in the Toronto area to work with public sector customers in the city and around the province of Ontario.

As a Solutions Designer, you will combine technical expertise, consultative engagement, and business acumen to help customers address complex operational and technology challenges. Working closely with Account Executives, specialists, partners, and customers, you will shape secure and scalable solutions and develop technology roadmaps that support customer mission, business, and operational outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Consultative Partnership: Act as a trusted technical advisor to Canadian public sector customers, applying architecture, delivery, and implementation expertise to align solutions with their mission, business, and operational objectives.
• Technical Sales Leadership: Partner with Account Executives and cross-functional teams throughout the pre-sales cycle. Serve as the technical lead for discovery, solution design, customer presentations, proposal development, demonstrations, and high-impact proof-of-concept activities.
• Discovery and Solution Alignment: Lead comprehensive discovery sessions to uncover mission-critical challenges, technical requirements, constraints, and desired outcomes. Translate these insights into architectures that address applicable regulatory, security, and operational requirements in Canadian Federal environments.
• Strategic Roadmap Development: Collaborate across Cisco, customer, and partner teams to develop, document, and present clear technology roadmaps that guide customers from their current environments toward their desired future state.
• Technology Leadership and Advocacy: Maintain current knowledge of Cisco technologies, industry trends, and emerging capabilities - including AI infrastructure - and communicate their relevance and business value to technical teams, business stakeholders, and executive leaders.
• Complex Problem-Solving: Draw on Cisco’s broad portfolio and partner ecosystem to architect secure, resilient, scalable, and operationally practical solutions for complex customer environments.
• Customer Influence and Business Value: Translate complex technical considerations into clear recommendations, architectural trade-offs, and business value. Help stakeholders make informed technology decisions and build confidence in the proposed approach.
  
  

Minimum Qualifications

• Minimum of 5+ years of professional experience in systems architecture, solution design, systems Designering, technical consulting, delivery, or implementation within enterprise environments.
• Completion of at least 3 large-scale, end-to-end solution architectures, implementations, or delivery leadership projects within enterprise, critical infrastructure, public sector, or regulated environments.
• Documented technical competency in at least two of the following domains: networking, security, data centre, collaboration, or observability, evidenced by past project work or technical portfolios.
• Experience delivering a minimum of 5 technical presentations or architecture reviews to audiences including technical teams, business stakeholders, and executive leadership.
• Experience producing written technical documentation, including customer requirements analyses, solution architecture diagrams, and actionable implementation roadmaps.
• A bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline, or a minimum of 14 years of combined education, formal certifications, technical training, and practical work experience.
• Current residency in the Toronto area, and availability to fulfill hybrid office, customer-site, and travel requirements.
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Minimum of 5+ years of professional experience providing technical services, solution architecture, or sales engineering for Canadian Public Sector accounts, including Federal, Provincial, Municipal, Utilities, Higher Education, or Healthcare organizations.
• Possession of at least one active industry-recognized certification, such as Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE), Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP), or Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).
• Minimum of 3 years of hands-on configuration or architecture experience utilizing Cisco enterprise networking, security, or data centre portfolios, or equivalent enterprise-grade vendor technologies.
• Completion of at least 1 project involving the design or implementation of AI infrastructure, AI workloads, or solutions across secure on-premises, hybrid, or cloud-connected environments.
• Minimum of 2 years of direct pre-sales or technical advocacy experience resulting in approved technical architectures or technology adoption strategies.
• Experience authoring at least 2 formal technology roadmaps or strategic architectural decision documents submitted to senior organizational stakeholders.
• Verified bilingual proficiency in English and French (reading, writing, and speaking).
  
  

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.

Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:

The starting salary range posted for this position is $201,900.00 to $255,200.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits.

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 of unused sick time carried forward from one calendar year to 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

$212,200.00 - $308,300.00

Non-Metro New York State & Washington State

$202,400.00 - $296,900.00

• 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.