The position is expected to remain available until May 26, 2025, but may close sooner if an adequate number of applications are received. Applicants must be located in San Jose, CA and be prepared to work in the office when the Senior Vice President is present. The role requires up to 40% travel. Meet the Team We change the World; you will become passionate about your employer and the brand you represent. Everything is converging on the Internet, making networked connections more meaningful than ever before in our lives. Our employees' groundbreaking ideas impact everything. Here, that means we take creative ideas from the drawing board to dynamic solutions that have real world impact. You'll collaborate with Cisco leaders, partner with mentors, and develop incredible relationships with colleagues who share your interest in connecting the unconnected. You'll be part a team that cares about its customers, enjoys having fun, and you'll take part in changing the lives of those in our local communities. Come prepared to be encouraged and inspired. At Cisco, we know that technology can connect, empower, and drive us. Our mission is to simplify technology so our customers can focus on what's most meaningful to them. We stand for an inclusive future for all. Your Impact The Chief of Staff for Cisco’s AI Software and Platform team will drive critical initiatives, operational excellence, and cross-functional alignment for a team pioneering innovations in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and software-driven solutions. This position will also play an important role in shaping Cisco’s AI initiatives, supporting product innovation, and driving alignment across the organization. Reporting to the SVP, this role ensures seamless execution of priorities, cultivates collaboration, and supports the development of AI-powered products and services. Key Responsibilities: * Strategic Planning: Partner with the SVP to define and execute AI software strategies, aligning with Cisco’s business goals. Lead planning processes, including strategic reviews and goal-setting. * AI Product Innovation: Collaborate with product, engineering, and design teams to develop AI solutions and support innovation through external partnerships. * Go-to-Market (GTM): Operationalize AI strategies across routes to market, address sales pipeline challenges, and monitor key deals and launches. * Operational Excellence: Establish team metrics, drive program management, and ensure alignment with cross-functional teams. * Employee Engagement: Foster an inclusive, high-performing culture through communications, events, and talent development initiatives. * Executive Support: Represent the SVP in meetings, provide insights for decision-making, and lead special projects. Who you are You are passionate, highly motivated, organized, and persistent. You excel at developing trusted relationships and can influence broadly to reach the best outcome for Cisco. You can apply structure to ambiguity and help drive toward measurable outcomes and results. You have the courage to voice an alternative point of view in a room of senior executives. You have high energy, critical thinking, problem solving superpowers, and can rally the team to achieve a common goal. Minimum qualifications: * Bachelor’s degree with 10+ years of industry experience leading strategic initiatives across matrixed organizations at the enterprise level * Demonstrated experience establishing organizational metrics, leading planning processes and strategic reviews to include goal setting. Preferred qualifications: * Experience in the technology industry to include familiarity with AI initiatives and strategies. * Prior experience directly in a Chief of Staff role within an engineering organization. * Excellent relationship-building skills: you influence, persuade, and build trust across your organizations. * Comfort with ambiguity and a bias towards action and experimentation to drive progress. * A growth mindset, boundless creativity, and adaptability, high situational awareness. * Excellent analysis and problem-solving skills: you see the bigger picture, seek root causes, synthesize details, and break down obstacles into manageable work. * Exceptional written, verbal, and communication skills, and refined skills in tailoring messages to specific audiences in their preferred channels. * Demonstrable experience in strategy & planning, decision-making processes. #WeAreCisco where every individual brings their unique skills and perspectives together to pursue our purpose of powering an inclusive future for all. Our passion is connection—we celebrate our employees’ diverse set of backgrounds and focus on unlocking potential. Cisconians often experience one company, many careers where learning and development are encouraged and supported at every stage. Our technology, tools, and culture pioneered hybrid work trends, allowing all to not only give their best, but be their best. We understand our outstanding opportunity to bring communities together and at the heart of that is our people. One-third of Cisconians collaborate in our 30 employee resource organizations, called Inclusive Communities, to connect, foster belonging, learn to be informed allies, and make a difference. Dedicated paid time off to volunteer—80 hours each year—allows us to give back to causes we are passionate about, and nearly 86% do! Our purpose, driven by our people, is what makes us the worldwide leader in technology that powers the internet. Helping our customers reimagine their applications, secure their enterprise, transform their infrastructure, and meet their sustainability goals is what we do best. We ensure that every step we take is a step towards a more inclusive future for all. Take your next step and be you, with us! Cisco is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, genetic information, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis. Cisco will consider for employment, on a case by case basis, qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.