Strategy & Planning Manager

About the Role

At Cisco, we connect and secure the world's leading organizations while powering the global infrastructure for the AI era. As a Strategy & Planning Manager, you will serve as a strategic co-pilot and internal advisor—translating multi-year executive visions into concrete business priorities, competitive market positioning, and enterprise transformation roadmaps.

In this high-visibility position, you will sit at the intersection of business strategy, commercial transformation, and advanced analytics. You will harness internal and external data signals, prompt engineering, and predictive scenario modeling to guide strategic investment decisions, apply rigorous prioritization to optimize resource allocation, and accelerate a holistic 'OneCisco' AI and recurring software revenue growth strategy.

What You'll Do (Key Responsibilities)

·       Strategic Vision & Transformation: Translate overarching executive vision into structured multi-year business roadmaps, measurable milestones, and recurring revenue models, defining clear success criteria for all initiatives.

·       AI-Augmented Scenario Modeling: Set targets, build multi-variable forecasts, and conduct scenario modeling by integrating advanced analytics and AI-driven signals into daily workflows to evaluate trade-offs and long-term feasibility.

·       Executive Advisory & Prioritization: Advise senior leaders on business unit strategies, investment priorities, and capability alignment, applying disciplined prioritization to identify low-value initiatives for sunsetting or outsourcing.

·       Market & Competitive Analysis: Lead competitive intelligence and market dynamics research using AI-enabled synthesis tools to uncover emerging growth vectors, disruptive trends, and shifts in customer buying priorities.

·       Annual & Multi-Year Planning (S&P): Facilitate global and regional Strategy & Planning cycles, embedding feedback loops and AI-driven anomaly detection to measure execution impact and implement timely course corrections.

·       Cross-Functional Dependency Mapping: Coordinate cross-functional agendas across Sales, Product Engineering, Finance/FP&A, and Customer Experience, ensuring deliverables reflect end-to-end organizational interdependencies.

·       Executive Storylining: Synthesize complex multifaceted quantitative and qualitative analyses into compelling, C-suite-ready presentations and narratives that drive executive consensus.

Who You'll Work With

You will partner directly with Cisco’s executive leadership, Regional Sales Directors, General Managers, and global Strategy & Planning peers. Operating as a strategic advisor, you will collaborate closely with Finance, Operations, Corporate Development, and Marketing teams to resolve operational friction, sequence strategic investments, and drive unified Go-To-Market execution across diverse global markets.

Minimum Qualifications:

·       Education: Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) or equivalent advanced degree from a premier business school.

·       Experience: 7+ years of progressive experience in management consulting (Tier-1 / top-tier strategy firm) and/or Corporate Strategy / Strategy & Planning within high-tech, enterprise software, or SaaS.

·       Strategic & Financial Modeling: Demonstrated experience designing multi-year business plans, target-setting frameworks, financial forecasts, and complex scenario models.

• ·       Executive Stakeholder Management: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills with proven success influencing VP- and C-level executives.
• Preferred Qualifications:
• ·       Hands-on experience shaping enterprise AI strategy, subscription/ARR transitions, or large-scale digital business transformations.
• ·       Proficiency in utilizing AI-assisted analytics, prompt engineering workflows, and advanced business intelligence/visualization tools.
• ·       Deep familiarity with enterprise technology architectures (Networking, Cybersecurity, Cloud, Observability, and AI Data Center infrastructure).
• ·       Demonstrated agility and success operating in complex, matrixed global business environments.

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. 

Disclaimer

To ensure that we hire the best talent in the right way, we follow a strict hiring process and recently, Cisco has been made aware of fraudulent recruiters claiming to be from the company. Please be advised that any communication from Cisco about careers will:

• be in direct response to an application you have submitted through the company career site
• begin with screening or an interview
• originate from a Cisco email address, and
• be conducted across email, phone, or WebEx

Cisco will never make a job offer without conducting an interview process or ask you for money in any way. If you have been requested to apply for a role or have received an offer from a site other than https://careers.cisco.com or cisco.wd5.myworkday.com, do not provide any personal identifying information, including your Aadhaar or other personal identifying number, birth certificate, banking information, driver's license, or passport.

If you are the target of a recruiting scam, consider filing a report with your local law enforcement authorities. Cisco bears no responsibility, and cannot be held liable, for any claims, damages, expenses, or other inconvenience resulting from or in any way connected to recruiting scams.