The application window is expected to close on: 10/11/2026
The remote role is open to candidates who reside in the United States and no relocation benefits are available. Your Impact:As a Strategy & Planning Lead (Individual Contributor), you will be the primary architect of narratives and decision frameworks. You will partner directly with S&P leadership to define, structure, and articulate our global strategic priorities-translating sophisticated sales metrics, inflections, and market dynamics into compelling executive storylines. You will bridge the gap between deep data analytics and strategy, directly shaping how leadership evaluates performance, allocates investment, and brings together growth.
Key Responsibilities:- SLT & ELT Executive Narrative Leadership: Drive the end-to-end design, narrative synthesis, and delivery of results, including Quarterly Business Outlooks (QBOs), ELT strategy reviews, and strategic readouts for senior leadership.
- Structured Strategic Problem Solving: Structure ambiguous, complex business challenges across Security & Networking (e.g., portfolio attach motions, pricing elasticity/ASP dynamics, competitive takeouts, and go-to-market model evolution).
- Strategic Storytelling & Data Translation: Partner with the Central Analytics & BI teams to distill financial, bookings, and operational data into clear, top-down, productive insights and executive decision support.
- Cross-Functional & BE Strategic Alignment: Serve as the bridge across Business Entities (BEs), Geo S&P leads, and team members to unify central messaging, establish decision templates, and drive consensus on key business asks.
- Executive Decision Governance: Develop streamlined presentation decision frameworks and governance models that enable sales leadership to evaluate trade-offs, align incentives, and implement high-impact strategic pivots.
Minimum Qualifications:- 6-8+ years of progressive experience in corporate strategy, management consulting (top-tier firm preferred), or sales strategy & operations within a global technology enterprise.
- 3+ years of high level executive communication and narrative synthesis skills, with a proven record of authoring presentation materials for Director, VP, and executive-level audiences.
- 3+ years of mastery in structured problem solving, hypothesis-driven analysis, and top-down communication frameworks.
- 2+ years with command of business metrics, financial modeling, and sales performance analytics.
- 2+ years operating as an influential Individual Contributor (IC) in a highly matrixed environment, aligning cross-functional VP stakeholders without direct authority.
Preferred Qualifications:- MBA from a premier institution or equivalent advanced degree.
- Management consulting background with direct engagement experience in tech, enterprise software, or networking/security verticals.
- Familiarity with enterprise networking, cybersecurity architectures, or recurring SaaS/subscription GTM business models.
- Experience driving cross-architecture strategic alignment across multiple business units or cross-functional teams.
Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:The starting salary range posted for this position is $128,400.00 to $191,600.00 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:
$173,400.00 - $265,200.00
Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:
$161,300.00 - $235,500.00
* 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.
