10 Cisco engineering leaders
Nine of the Cisco engineering leaders here carry vice president of engineering titles, in groups including Unified Computing Systems, IOS-XE Catalyst, data center switching, IOS-XR, Silicon One, wireless and the AI Software and Platform Group; the tenth works in Cisco's Chief Technology and Architecture Office. Talk to them when choosing a network operating system or data center fabric, or deciding how to staff platform, security and quality engineering for hardware products.
Professionals to explore
Arun Arunkumar
LinkedInExperience: Vice President, Engineeering · Cisco
Responsible for data center switching solutions for ACI and NX-OS fabrics as Vice President, Engineering at Cisco since 2020. Arun Arunkumar also held Cisco posts as Senior Director, Engineering, Data Center Switching (2018-2020), Senior Director, Engineering, Cloud Ready Networks (2017-2018) and Senior Director, SD-WAN (2016-2017), covering data center fabric and SD-WAN engineering choices.
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Bart Van de Velde
LinkedInExperience: Sr. Director, Engineering, Chief Technology and Architecture Office · Cisco
Sr. Director, Engineering, Chief Technology and Architecture Office at Cisco since 2014, with Cisco roles as Director, Business Development (2011-2014) and Sr. Manager, Business Development (2004-2011). Bart Van de Velde describes membership of the CTO and Architecture Team reporting to Cisco's CTO and Chief Architect, focused on SDN, network programmability, network architecture, VPN evolution, orchestration and security, which suits questions on architecture direction.
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Chris O'Rourke
LinkedInExperience: Vice President of Engineering, Wireless and Cisco Spaces · Cisco
Wireless engineering at Cisco is Chris O'Rourke's current remit as Vice President of Engineering, Wireless and Cisco Spaces since 2022. Earlier Cisco roles were Senior Director of Engineering, Security Policy and Access (2018-2022) and Principal Engineer, Security Business Group (2015-2018), so the record covers both wireless products and network access security.
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Didi Dotan
LinkedInExperience: Vice President of Engineering · Cisco
Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Oort (now part of Cisco) from 2021 to 2023, Didi Dotan has been Vice President of Engineering at Cisco since 2026 after Senior Director of Software Engineering there (2023-2026). An earlier Cisco role was Director of Engineering, Asset & Identity Services (2020-2021), and Didi has advised Glasswing Ventures since 2025, a fit for identity services and acquisition integration questions.
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Jimit Mehta
LinkedInExperience: Vice President Of Engineering · Cisco
Jimit Mehta has been Vice President Of Engineering at Cisco since 2022, a role Jimit ties to the IOS-XE Catalyst Engineering Team. Other Cisco roles include Senior Director Of Software Development (2020-2022) and Director Of Engineering (2014-2018). A good pick for questions about IOS-XE Catalyst engineering.
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Manish Mukherjee
LinkedInExperience: VP of Engineering · Cisco
Manish Mukherjee is VP of Engineering, Cisco Silicon One Software, since 2024, with other Cisco roles as Senior Director, Cisco Silicon One Software (2022-2024), Senior Director Software Engineering, Enterprise BU (2018-2022) and Director Software Engineering, Service Provider BU (2016-2018). That record speaks to Silicon One software and to engineering in the enterprise and service provider business units.
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Mark Threefoot
LinkedInExperience: Former VP of Engineering · Cisco
Before joining Cisco as VP of Engineering in 2025, Mark Threefoot was VP of SRE DevOps - Prisma Cloud at Palo Alto Networks (2021-2025) and VP of Engineering, Cloud Delivery at MobileIron (2018-2021). At Cisco the role leads the global DevOps organization for the AI Software and Platform Group with a focus on platform reliability and scalability, useful for SaaS operations and site reliability questions.
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Salman Hasan
LinkedInExperience: Vice President of Engineering · Cisco
Salman Hasan has been Vice President of Engineering at Cisco since 2022, following Senior Director of Software Engineering (2019-2022) and Director Software (2015-2019) roles there. The current role covers software engineering and quality assurance for Cisco's Unified Computing Systems business unit, an organization of 850+ engineers in the US, Bangalore and Shanghai, so it fits questions on running a large multi-site software and QA organization.
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Soumya Viswanathan
LinkedInExperience: VP, Engineering · Cisco
VP, Engineering at Cisco since 2021 in the Mass-Scale Infrastructure Group, responsible for platform independent IOS-XR, after serving as Senior Director, Engineering at Cisco (2018-2021). Soumya Viswanathan's record also includes Senior Director, Software Engineering at Juniper Networks (2011-2015) and Engineering Management at Skyport Systems (2015-2018), which adds a view of router software from outside Cisco.
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Tony Jeffs
LinkedInExperience: Vice President of Engineering · Cisco
Tony Jeffs moved from security leadership into a Vice President of Engineering role at Cisco in 2022, after Sr. Director of Information Security (2020-2022), Senior Director, Engineering Security & Privacy Research (2016-2020) and Senior Director of Product Management - SDL (2014-2016). The current role oversees development lab operations, product and enterprise security and software QA, a fit for secure development lifecycle questions.
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Choose the right perspective
Match the product line first: Arun Arunkumar for data center fabrics, Jimit Mehta for IOS-XE Catalyst and Soumya Viswanathan for IOS-XR, Manish Mukherjee for Silicon One, Chris O'Rourke for wireless. Security engineering questions fit Tony Jeffs and Chris O'Rourke, identity services fit Didi Dotan, while Mark Threefoot covers DevOps and reliability and Bart Van de Velde covers architecture work in the CTO office.
Questions to take into the conversation
- 01How do you keep one network operating system consistent across many switch and router platforms while each hardware team ships on its own schedule?
- 02When Silicon One software and the product teams plan together, what has to be agreed between them before a release date is set?
- 03How do you fold an acquired startup's engineering team and codebase into a Cisco business unit without stalling its roadmap?
About this directory
This is a professional research starting point based on business profile data retrieved on . Titles and companies reflect that source snapshot; roles marked former had ended by then. Check the linked profiles for current details. Inclusion does not imply Instant Expert membership or availability.