Strategy & Planning Manager: Corporate Legal Affairs

Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.

Members of the Legal organization at select locations will generally be expected to follow a hybrid work model, which includes two days of in-office attendance each week, with limited exceptions.

Meet the Team

The Business Operations Director serves as a strategic partner and operational engine for the Corporate Legal Affairs organization. This role requires an individual who is highly adept at rapidly learning and mastering the nuances of each team under the SVP’s remit—Corporate Governance (incl. Corporate Securities, M&A Integration and Procurement), Litigation (IP and Commercial), Antitrust, and Brand Protection. You will act as the "connective tissue" for the department, translating sophisticated legal strategies into measurable business outcomes and ensuring seamless communication with key stakeholders in Finance and Operations.

Your Impact

Key Responsibilities:

Cross-Functional Domain Mastery

• Develop a working understanding of the operational rhythms, challenges, and goals of the Corporate Governance, Litigation, Antitrust, and Brand Protection teams.

• Lead development and execution of long-range planning and priorities aligned to Legal and Cisco goals.

• Identify commonalities between these teams to eliminate silos and promote a culture of shared knowledge and operational excellence.

Strategic Translation & Stakeholder Liaison

• Act as the primary translator: Convert legal and technical work into clear, business-centric narratives for Finance, Operations, and other legal and non-legal stakeholders.

• Bridge the gap between legal risk management and financial performance, ensuring Finance understands the ROI of legal initiatives and the strategic necessity of the department’s resource requirements.

• Serve as the primary liaison to the centralized Legal Operations team, ensuring that department-specific needs are optimally coordinated into Cisco’s broader operational frameworks.

Strategic Planning & Execution

• Lead the annual and quarterly fiscal year (FY) planning process, ensuring all department priorities are mapped to corporate objectives.

• Facilitate department-wide strategic discussions, ensuring decision-making is data-driven and aligned with the SVP’s vision.

• Supervise and report on progress against key strategic outcomes, providing the SVP with actionable insights to share with the Executive Leadership Team (ELT).

• Develop and maintain dashboards that visualize the impact of the department’s successes and initiatives.

Communications & Knowledge Management

• Lead the strategy and execution of executive communications, including ELT updates, All-Hands meetings, and board-level presentations.

• Develop and maintain a Knowledge Management framework, ensuring that expertise is assembled and accessible during team reorganizations and succession planning.

• Act as a sounding board for the SVP, translating sophisticated legal/ issues into concise narratives for internal and external stakeholders.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree and 8+ years of experience in strategy and planning, Chief of Staff roles, or a related field within a technology company.
• Consistent track record to lead sophisticated, cross-functional initiatives and handle organizational change.
• Experience in designing, testing, launching, implementing, and supporting workflow processes and tools.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to distill sophisticated information into simple, compelling executive briefings.
• Strong interest and experience in AI tools, including sop

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. 

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:

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

* 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.