Strategy & Planning Manager

Senior Manager, GTM Strategy for Cisco's AI Software and Agentic Capabilities

The ideal candidate will be able to work in a hybrid capacity from either San Jose or San Francisco.

Cisco is growing its agentic capabilities, delivering Cloud Control, AI Defense, AI Assistant, and a growing portfolio, along with acquisitions in agentic observability and orchestration. The pace of innovation demands a new way of bringing products to market.

The GTM Strategy and Execution group operates as an extension of the AI Software and Platform organization. Our mission: build GTM playbooks that capture Cisco's scale at the speed of product velocity.

Your Impact

As Senior Manager, you will be hands-on in turning this vision into reality—architecting frameworks and driving execution. In this role, you will orchestrate GTM strategies that drive business growth, collaborating across Sales, Marketing, Product, Finance, and Customer Success to ensure alignment, operational excellence, and measurable outcomes. This role requires strong leadership, cross-functional collaboration, and the ability to translate high-level strategies into actionable execution plans.

Responsibilities

GTM Strategy for Cisco's AI Software and Agentic Capabilities

• Develop and implement Go-To-Market strategies aligned with business objectives.
• Translate strategy into initiatives with measurable outcomes.
• Develop and operationalize GTM frameworks for PLG + SLG motions across the agentic platform, working closely with AI product teams and GTM operations teams.

Commercialization Strategy and Frameworks

• Support commercialization strategies including pricing, packaging, and adoption models for agentic platforms.
• Help build open source-to-monetization motions, DevOps buying motions, and agent-as-buyer ICPs in partnership with Sales and Product teams.
• Define modern product enablement structures.

Program Development

• Build scalable frameworks and processes for Go-To-Market program execution across GTM teams.
• Establish governance models to ensure consistency and accountability.

Cross-Functional Alignment

• Partner with Sales, Marketing, Product, Finance, and Customer Success teams to ensure alignment and coordinated execution across organizations.

Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement

• Build performance measurement frameworks and KPIs for GTM programs.
• Drive continuous improvement through retrospectives and lessons learned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Operations, or a related field.
• 10+ years of experience in go-to-market leadership roles such as Product Management, Sales, Sales Acceleration, Customer Success, or Marketing.
• Industry experience within the AI and agentic market, either at an AI company or supporting AI products within a SaaS environment.
• Experience developing and leading strategic GTM initiatives within a cross-functional organization.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with AI, agentic AI, platform, or developer-focused product launches.
• Experience with 0-to-1 product launches and customer adoption motions.
• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, agile environment with constant change.
• Strong builder mindset with hands-on execution capabilities.
• Exposure to open source-to-monetization motions, DevOps buying centers, or modern commercialization models such as usage-based pricing, consumption models, or platform packaging.
• Experience partnering with Sales, Partner, and Customer Experience organizations.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

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 $199,200.00 to $273,800.00 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:

$199,200.00 - $317,600.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$179,900.00 - $291,700.00

* For quota-