Senior Manager, Strategy & Special Projects 1432751

Cisco Operations strives to power a secure Cisco with simplicity, speed, and growth so customers, partners, and employees choose Cisco every time.

Acceleration Center, within Cisco Operations, helps Cisco incubate, accelerate, and scale new and better ways of operating to the best position Cisco for future success. Acceleration Center focuses on cross-functional initiatives that are critical to Cisco's strategy and future, with a focus on driving four outcomes:

• Fully enabling a recurring revenue model
• Elevating Cisco's revenue from software
• Demonstrating what an integrated Cisco portfolio can do for customers
• Re-imagining our customers' experience with our technologies at every step of technology lifecycle to delivery simplicity, agility, and innovation

• Taking on complex cross functional projects that emerge and critical to the success of Cisco and support other teams within Acceleration Center & Operations to help accelerate their efforts

Our team will also lead the change management required to get BUs, Sales & Marketing, Finance, and CX ready to implement outcomes. This role will report to the Senior Director of Strategy & Special Projects and will work with other Acceleration Center leaders.

• Own and drive topic "sprints" based on a defined objective or problem, while scoping out a work plan, build an engagement cadence with partners, and perform the necessary analysis
• Handle components of strategy & planning, operations, and communications topics
• Assist Engineering, Sales, Operations, CX, Finance, and all other functions to become a collaborative unit that can provide clarity and alignment for the strategic pillars set by Cisco

As our next Senior Manager on the Strategy & Special Projects team, you will be a versatile person strategic problem solver and doer. Collaborate on complicated projects with team members and leaders from across our Acceleration Center and Cisco on a variety of topics such as:

Standing up a new program to drive licensing improvements across Cisco products

-Building a comprehensive experience map to understand Seller, Partner, and Customer struggles when engaging in commerce activities

-Leading a diagnostic on support operations and processes and collaborate with product management to create a new automated tool

-Gather and analyze sophisticated data shrewdly and expeditiously

-Develop compelling and insightful strategic recommendations for leadership and team

-Lead execution against recommendations quickly and with flawless accuracy whike driving the "right" conversation at senior levels on risks and roadblocks

-Build operational processes and practices that drive efficiency across our team and broader Cisco Operations

-Build consensus among cross-functional teams and influence decision-making within the senior level and peer audiences

-Enable and lead a culture of high organizational performance through partnerships and collaboration

• Bachelor's degree with 4+ years of proven experience in Strategy
• 3+ years of experience in management consulting is required for consideration
• Executive level communication skills: your written (including PowerPoint presentations) and verbal communication is compelling and detailed in both in-person and virtual settings. You can quickly take complex concepts and communicate them briefly, simply, and persuasively. You have confidence to communicate at executive levels of large companies or organizations. Effective at navigating and engaging senior-level partners and leaders to shape discussions and drive outcomes.
• Ownership mentality: you have high initiative, self-starting capabilities and can drive accelerated progress, often without decision-rights. You can identify and seize opportunities for impact in ambiguous contexts without direction or oversight. You have a sense of humbleness with no job being too big or too small to undertake.
• Executional excellence: you have the organizational skills, meticulous attention to detail, high sense of responsibility, and generalist skills to tackle a wide range of high priority tasks in support of SEO & the leadership team. You are diligent and always deliver high quality work. You multitask and understand how to prioritize tasks based on importance vs. immediacy

• MBA or equivalent experience highly preferred
• Large scale organizational experience with senior collaborators

Why Cisco?

#WeAreCisco. We are all unique, but collectively we bring our talents to work as a team, to develop innovative technology and power a more inclusive, digital future for everyone. How do we do it? Well, for starters - with people like you!

Nearly every internet connection around the world touches Cisco. We're the Internet's optimists. Our technology makes sure the data traveling at light speed across connections does so securely, yet it's not what we make but what we make happen which marks us out. We're helping those who work in the health service to connect with patients and each other; schools, colleges, and universities to teach in even the most challenging of times. We're helping businesses of all shapes and sizes to connect with their employees and customers in new ways, providing people with access to the digital skills they need and connecting the most remote parts of the world - whether through 5G, or otherwise.

We tackle whatever challenges come our way. We have each other's backs, we recognize our accomplishments, and we grow together. We celebrate and support one another - from big and small things in life to big career moments. And giving back is in our DNA (we get 10 days off each year to do just that).

We know that powering an inclusive future starts with us. Because without diversity and a dedication to equality, there is no moving forward. Our 30 Inclusive Communities, that bring people together around commonalities or passions, are leading the way. Together we're committed to learning, listening, caring for our communities, whilst supporting the most vulnerable with a collective effort to make this world a better place either with technology, or through our actions.

So, you have colorful hair? Don't care. Tattoos? Show off your ink. Like polka dots? That's cool. Pop culture geek? Many of us are. Passion for technology and world changing? Be you, with us! #WeAreCisco