Strategic Deals Specialist, Global Security Sales Organization

Cisco•Research Triangle Park, NC

2d•$181,500 - $320,300•Hybrid

About The Position

The Strategic Deals Acceleration Desk Specialist will collaborate with account executives, specialist sellers, solution engineers, and regional sales leaders. This role will also partner closely with Sales & Commerce, Finance, Legal, Compliance, Pricing, Product Management, Customer Experience, Partner teams, and Competitive Intelligence. The specialist will be engaged in opportunities that are strategic, highly complex, competitively intense, or forecast-critical, as well as those hindered by legal or commercial blockers, new product constructs, non-standard terms, Leave of Absence (LOA) coverage, or the need for creative financial modeling. In this role, the individual will serve as a "deal quarterback," positioning themselves at the center of our most significant security opportunities to help field teams remove friction, establish viable commercial paths, and close complex deals with confidence.

Requirements

5+ years of experience in enterprise sales, specialist sales, deal desk, commercial finance, pricing, revenue operations, sales operations, legal operations, contracting, or a related B2B technology function.
Proven experience supporting complex enterprise technology deals involving pricing, discounting, legal review, non-standard terms, finance approvals, or executive escalation.
Strong financial modeling, analytical, and business case development skills.
Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively across sales, finance, legal, product, operations, and executive stakeholders in a matrixed environment.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to produce executive-ready escalation summaries and deal narratives.
BA/BS degree or equivalent practical experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience in Cybersecurity, SaaS, software subscriptions, or the Cisco Security portfolio.
Proficiency with Salesforce, Clari, Gong, quote-to-cash tools, pricing workflows, pipeline dashboards, or deal approval processes.
Experience structuring enterprise agreements, consumption-based offers, ramp deals, financing options, or multi-year commercial constructs.
Familiarity with competitive deal strategy, win/loss analysis, objection handling, and field enablement.
Comfortable managing quarter-end escalations, forecast-critical opportunities, and time-sensitive executive requests.
MBA or professional experience in finance, legal, pricing, or strategy consulting.
Ability to travel as needed (estimated up to 20%).
Flexibility to work varied hours to support global geographic locations (AMERICAS, EMEA, and APJC).

Responsibilities

Support Complex Deals: Orchestrate resources across sales, legal, finance, pricing, operations, product, and partner teams to operationalize and finalize deals.
Pipeline Validation and Risk Analysis: Collaborate with field leaders to inspect assigned pipelines, validate deal health, test close plans, identify slippage risks, document blockers, and recommend actions to ensure forecast accuracy.
Close Big Deals: Manage deal rooms, coordinate cross-functional follow-through, and develop escalation packages to drive forecast-critical opportunities to completion.
Deal Financial Modeling: Structure pricing, terms, ramp models, enterprise agreement options, consumption constructs, and financing scenarios to ensure deals are competitive, compliant, and commercially viable.
Win/Loss Analysis: Analyze closed deals to identify trends in wins and losses, capture competitive signals, pricing themes, and process blockers, and relay these insights to Competitive Intelligence, Product, Pricing, and Enablement teams.
Commercial Execution: Develop Letters of Intent, Statements of Work (SOWs), and approval packages while reducing ambiguity in non-standard requests to improve turnaround times.
Field Partnership: Co-own late-stage strategic opportunities with account teams while maintaining clear accountability for seller ownership, customer engagement, and internal approvals.
Product Feedback Loop: Document recurring blockers related to emerging or immature offers and provide prioritized feedback to product, pricing, support, and enablement teams.
Operating Discipline: Track desk engagement metrics, including cycle-time impact, exception cycles, bookings influenced, win-rate lift, forecast movement, and field satisfaction.

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 (non-exempt)
flexible vacation time off program (exempt)
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
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 (for sales roles)