Leader, Strategy & Planning Operations

Cisco•San Jose, NC

1d•Remote

About The Position

The application window is expected to close on: 10/10/2026. This remote role is open to candidates in the United States, no relocation is available. Global Specialist Sales is standing up a formal Incubation organization to give Cisco's newest platforms and solutions a dedicated path from “0 to 1” — through customer proof points, GTM readiness, and eventual graduation into mainstream Portfolio or Hyper-Specialist coverage. Incubation is home to products including AI Defense, Cisco Cloud Control, Agentic Security, Multicloud Fabric, and other new product introductions (NPIs) as they come online. The Incubation Sales Vice President is building out a central team—including Sales, GSI/Partnerships, Distinguished Solutions Engineering, Forward Deployed Engineers, and Sales Planning & Operations (SP&O)—to lead each product’s transition through defined stage gates based on product-market fit, operational readiness, and alignment with Core. As the Incubation SP&O Leader, you are the day-to-day operating partner to the Incubation Vice President and leadership team. You are responsible for building the “seller-facing plumbing” required to turn strategy into an executable go-to-market and sales operating model. This is a foundational role that requires defining processes from scratch, navigating a fast-changing product roadmap, and ensuring each Incubation product can scale from initial customer acquisition to a repeatable, successful motion.

Requirements

12+ years of experience in sales strategy, sales operations, business/GTM planning, or an equivalent role, ideally within a technology or software sales organization.
5+ years experience crafting or coordinating sales compensation plans and territory/coverage models.
Consistent track record of building GTM processes or sales motions from scratch, with a high degree of comfort in ambiguous and evolving environments.
4+ years experience partnering directly with senior sales leadership (VP-level or above) as a trusted operating partner.
2+ years of proven people leadership experience or clear readiness to lead a small team.
Cross-functional collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across product/BE teams, Finance, Enablement, and Partner organizations.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Economics, or a related field.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with experience preparing high-level materials for executive audiences.
Experience supporting a new-product-introduction (NPI), incubation, or early-stage/emerging-business function.
Familiarity with Cisco's sales organization, systems, and planning cycles.
Experience with GSI/strategic alliance or partner GTM motions.
Background in security, cloud, or AI/infrastructure markets.

Responsibilities

Serve as a strategic sparring partner to the Incubation VP on GTM strategy, resourcing, and portfolio prioritization.
Lead the SP&O operating cadence, including QBRs, forecast reviews, and leadership reporting.
Define GTM strategy and sales plays tailored to the product maturity curve.
Build sales readiness for new products, including process design, tools, customer intake, and cross-functional onboarding.
Support the stage-gate/graduation framework that governs a product’s path from Incubation to Core or Hyper-Specialist coverage, using data-driven criteria to assess readiness.
Determine comp plans and territory/coverage models in partnership with Finance.
Define and supervise metrics to quantify success for both individual products and the function overall.
Hire, lead, and develop a team of 2–3 SP&O professionals.
Set the quality bar for the team’s output and assign coverage across products, partnerships, and "flex" capacity for new-product readiness.
Represent Incubation SP&O in planning sessions with Central Global Specialist Sales, Business Entities (BE), Enablement, Finance, and Customer Experience (CX).

Benefits

medical, dental and vision insurance
a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution
paid parental leave
short and long-term disability coverage
basic life insurance
grants of Cisco restricted stock units
10 paid holidays per full calendar year
1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
1 paid day off for employee’s birthday
paid year-end holiday shutdown
4 paid days off for personal wellness
16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees (non-exempt employees)
flexible vacation time off program (exempt employees)
80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter
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
annual bonuses (for non-sales roles)
performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary (for sales roles)