Director, Marketing

Senior Director Of Global Sponsorship Marketing

You will be part of a dynamic marketing leadership team driving Cisco's global sponsorship strategy. This team integrates sponsorships into broader marketing efforts to fuel demand generation, accelerate sales pipeline, and amplify brand impact. The team collaborates closely with Field & Partner Marketing, Demand Generation, Brand, Events, and external partners such as McLaren F1, Live Nation, USGA, Riot Games, and LA28 Olympics. The culture is collaborative, strategic, and focused on measurable business outcomes.

As the Senior Director of Global Sponsorship Marketing, you'll be at the heart of transforming how Cisco approaches sponsorships. Instead of treating them as separate activities, you'll help make sponsorships a powerful, integrated part of our overall marketing strategy. You'll own the global sponsorship portfolio—including big names like McLaren F1, Live Nation, and the LA28 Olympics—and lead a talented team to drive real business results. You'll bring a sharp focus on ROI, making sure every sponsorship investment is delivering value and aligned with our revenue and brand goals. By working closely with Sales, Field Marketing, and Demand Generation teams, you'll turn sponsorship opportunities into measurable pipeline and revenue. You'll also redesign the team's structure and ways of working to boost efficiency and collaboration, while managing key relationships with agencies and partners. With full accountability for budget and performance, you'll set clear success metrics and regularly report on how sponsorships contribute to Cisco's growth. Finally, you'll represent Cisco with confidence at industry events and sponsorship properties, showcasing our brand and leadership in the market.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree plus 17 years of related marketing experience, or Master's degree plus 14 years, or equivalent related work experience
• Proven experience managing managers and leading multi-layered teams
• Direct experience in sponsorship marketing and/or sports & entertainment marketing, or B2B marketing leadership with substantive sponsorship portfolio exposure
• Demonstrated track record of delivering measurable pipeline, revenue, and ROI from marketing investments
• Experience leading large, matrixed, cross-functional initiatives across global teams

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience managing premium agency and property partner relationships at scale
• Proven ability to evolve, consolidate, or sunset marketing programs based on data and ROI
• Background in or close partnership with Field Marketing, Partner/Channel Marketing, or Demand Generation
• Experience designing ROI frameworks and integration KPIs for non-traditional marketing investments
• Comfortable operating in fast-paced, ambiguous environments and leading organizational change
• Strong executive presence with ability to influence at SVP/EVP and external C-suite levels

Measures of Success:

• Defined and adopted ROI assessment model for sponsorship agreements, consistently applied
• Sharper Value-First gatekeeping with clear entry/exit criteria and improved portfolio quality
• Measurable increase in sponsorship-sourced and sponsorship-influenced pipeline
• Established integration KPIs with transparent quarterly reporting
• Portfolio rationalization decisions executed where ROI does not justify continued investment

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.

Message To Applicants Applying To Work In The U.S. And/Or Canada:

The starting salary range posted for this position is $278,000.00 to $350,300.00 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:

$278,000.00 - $402,800.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$250,000.00 - $362,300.00

* 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.