Bid Manager Lead Apply (https://jobs.cisco.com/jobs/Login?projectId=1444769) + Location:Washington, District of Columbia, US + Alternate LocationRTP, NC, San Jose, CA, US Remote + Area of InterestBusiness Strategy and Operations + Compensation Range172200 USD - 223500 USD + Job TypeProfessional + Technology InterestPortfolio + Job Id1444769 The application window is expected to close on: July 26, 2025 Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received. Location: Washington, D.C., Raleigh, NC or Bay Area, California are strongly preferred locations, due to proximity to team members **Meet the Team** The CPX (Customer Proposal Xceleration) team is a relatively new group within Cisco’s Global Sales Strategy and Planning Organization. You will spend most of your time working with Bid Managers and our stakeholders. You will be part of a larger team whose focus is on accelerating the creation of and the submission of proposals whether through our team of expert Bid Managers or via the tooling that we have developed. **What You'll Do** The Bid Manager Lead oversees a team of Bid Managers responsible for the development and submission of all assigned proposals from initial request through final delivery to customers. You will lead and manage Cisco's bid management organization, ensuring adherence to standard processes and templates while driving continuous improvement across the team. This role involves strategic oversight of the RFP pipeline, resource allocation, team development, stakeholder reporting and collaboration with Account Managers and extended members of the Account Teams to optimize proposal outcomes. This position reports to the Senior Director of Customer Proposal Xceleration (CPX). **Who You Are** The ideal candidate must be a proven leader with strong strategic thinking, team management, and communication skills. Building and maintaining relationships across Cisco Sellers, Subject Matter Experts, Cisco Legal, managing stakeholder expectations, and developing high-performing teams is as critical as ensuring excellence in proposal delivery. The ideal candidate has extensive experience managing both proactive proposals (without an RFx) and RFx responses at scale. This position is responsible for leading, developing, and scaling our Bid Management capabilities across all RFP/RFI responses and proactive proposals. The individual will ensure consistently professional work across the team and must demonstrate proven ability to build and lead diverse teams of bid professionals while fostering synergy with senior executives, sales professionals, and subject matter experts. **Minimum Qualifications:** + Proposal Management Leadership (7+ years experience) + Proven track record managing proposal teams in fast-paced technical environments + Experience with complex, multi-million-dollar opportunities and enterprise-level RFx responses + 3+ years people management and team development experience + Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams (Legal, Sales, SMEs, executives) **Preferred Qualifications** : + Ability to manage matrix relationships and influence without direct authority + Deep understanding of bid process management and proposal development methodologies + Strong people leadership skills with experience developing and retaining high-performing teams + Performance management, coaching, and talent development capabilities + Ability to recruit, hire, and onboard team members effectively + Exceptional verbal and written communication skills with ability to present to senior executive + Ability to translate business requirements into operational excellence + Strong reporting and insights generation capabilities + Specific experience with Responsive platform or similar RFx/content management tool + Knowledge of proposal automation technologies and AI-driven content solution + Understanding of Cisco's product portfolio, competitive landscape, and market positioning + Experience in technology/networking industry proposal environment + Familiarity with enterprise sales cycles and technical solution selling + Experience managing departmental budgets and financial planning + Understanding of cost allocation and resource optimization models + Vendor management and contract negotiation experience 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. Simply put – we power the future. 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:** When available, the salary range posted for this position reflects the projected hiring range for new hire, full-time salaries in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including equity or benefits. For non-sales roles the hiring ranges reflect base salary only; employees are also eligible to receive annual bonuses. Hiring ranges for sales positions include base and incentive compensation target. Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location and additional factors, including but not limited to skillset, experience, and relevant education, certifications, or training. Applicants may not be eligible for the full salary range based on their U.S. or Canada hiring location. The recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process. U.S. employees haveaccess (https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/careers/we-are-cisco/benefits-and-perks.html) to quality medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, short and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance and numerous wellbeing offerings. Employees receive up to twelve paid holidays per calendar year, which includes one floating holiday (for non-exempt employees), plus a day off for their birthday. Non-Exempt new hires accrue up to 16 days of vacation time off each year, at a rate of 4.92 hours per pay period. Exempt new hires participate in Cisco’s flexible Vacation Time Off policy, which does not place a defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use, but is subject to availability and some business limitations. All new hires are eligible for Sick Time Off subject to Cisco’s Sick Time Off Policy and will have eighty (80) hours of sick time off provided on their hire date and on January 1st of each year thereafter. Up to 80 hours of unused sick time will be carried forward from one calendar year to the next such that the maximum number of sick time hours an employee may have available is 160 hours. Employees in Illinois have a unique time off program designed specifically with local requirements in mind. All employees also have access to paid time away to deal with critical or emergency issues. We offer additional paid time to volunteer and give back to the community. Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non-quota components. 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 up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid. Cisco is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, genetic information, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis. Cisco will consider for employment, on a case by case basis, qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.