Account Executive - Splunk at Cisco in Chicago, IL

Account Executive - Splunk Location: Chicago, Illinois, US The application window is expected to close on: 05/27/2026 Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received. Influences and drives strategic decisions within Splunk customer’s buying center by leveraging SaaS and cloud expertise with cybersecurity and observability competitor and market insights. Serves as the Account Orchestrator, aligning and integrating Splunk products, services, and solutions with customers’ strategic goals and needs, driving incremental revenue growth and recurring revenue. Maintains a comprehensive understanding of Splunk’s products, services, and solutions. Liaises with other portfolio sellers to ensure adherence and alignment to GTM processes, tools, and methodologies. Owns the legal goal, creates and manages quality pipeline, develops business, negotiates, and closes the deal. Builds the sales funnel through opportunity prospecting, develops and owns opportunities through to sales completion to achieve revenue goals. Analyses data and creates forecasts to set weekly, monthly, and quarterly sales commitments. Conducts business and technical evaluations to ensure proposals meet customers’ business objectives. Identifies new land opportunities, develops proposals, and creates account plans. Closely monitors cybersecurity and observability trends, market dynamics, and competitive landscapes • Specialization and Focus - Specialist in Splunk solutions, services, and products • Customer Engagement and Accountability - Primary influencer. Oversees overall customer strategy, value, and relationship. Develops deep understanding of customer business risk and opportunities to ensure value realization • The Internal Sales Process - All deal stages. Spends most of the time between prospect/qualification and proposal of the deal • Corporate Interlock - Low corporate interlock • Typical Sales Cycle - Medium Sales complexity. Average length of deal is 3-6 months but can be as long as 12-18 months in more complex accounts/opportunities. Variable deal size, can be between $50K to $750K (over $1M for SP) • Success Measures - Sustained Splunk portfolio growth, account growth, account retention, incremental annual contract value (IACV) This role can be performed anywhere in the Midwest Region of the United States. Role: • Orchestrates multi-faceted, highly complex deal cycles, often involving multiple stakeholders with significant incremental revenue growth • Typically prospects new deals with C-suite, buyers, executives at all levels • Cultivates expert knowledge of the security, observability and cloud/SaaS market knowledge, advising customers on lifecycle adoption and alignment with customer strategic initiatives • Anticipates evolving customer needs, leveraging specialized knowledge of customer business models, industry trends, and value drivers • Applies competitor and customer insights to build effective account strategy and relationship map • Identifies and interprets shifts in the security and observability competitive landscape (including competitor insights) to provide strategic recommendations to internal and external stakeholders • Leads executive-level engagements by championing innovative, customer-first strategies that drive business transformation and long-term value realization • Expertly navigates commercial, legal, and technical requirements and risks to realize business value • Leads negotiations with a consultative approach by balancing competitive pricing, service levels, and contractual commitments to secure customer-first agreements • Reviews, prioritizes, and aligns customer needs and Splunk portfolio strategy to drive significant incremental annual contract value • Leads Splunk account planning and leverages innovative channels to identify new consumption options within Splunk while mitigating risk • Demonstrates deep technical comprehension of technical solutions and their long-term value/ROI in customer context • Integrates CRM data with business intelligence tools to develop scalable operational frameworks for sales process optimization and tool utilization • Partners with other account executive resources to provide insights to Rev Ops, finance, legal, and procurement teams for cross-functional workflow enhancement • Champions GTM-wide collaboration that influences Splunk and customer organizations Requirements: Bachelors + 5 years of related experience, or Masters + 4 years of related experience, or PhD + 3 years of related experience Preferred: Varies based on the team and business needs | Preferred Qualifications are desired education, experience, and skills that are in addition to Minimum Qualifications. THIS JOB DESCRIPTION DOES NOT APPLY FOR EMPLOYEES IN AUSTRIA, BELGIUM, FRANCE, GERMANY & NETHERLANDS 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. Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada: The starting salary range posted for this position is $198,000.00 to $333,800.00 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: $277,200.00 - $406,000.00 Non-Metro New York state & Washington state: $269,100.00 - $409,600.00 * 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.