Strategy & Planning Manager
Meet the Team
Join Cisco’s Global Supply Chain Strategy & Planning team, an internal consulting organization focused on solving the most complex, cross-functional supply chain challenges that span multiple functions.
The team takes ambiguous business problems from problem framing through analysis, recommendation, and leadership decision-making. Recent engagements have included designing operating models for new fulfillment capabilities, benchmarking Cisco against competitors, and building analytical business cases for significant inventory and sourcing decisions.
Your Impact
As a Strategy & Planning Manager, you will own a workstream within a larger strategic engagement and work closely with the Engagement Lead. You will be accountable for structuring the problem, leading the analysis, engaging stakeholders, and developing a clear recommendation that leadership can act on.
You will combine quantitative analysis, business judgment, external benchmarking, and stakeholder management to develop a point of view, clearly articulate trade-offs, and influence senior leaders toward informed decisions.
What You’ll Do
You will own a workstream end-to-end, from problem definition and structuring through analysis and final recommendation.
You will build the quantitative analysis that underpins strategic decisions, including financial models, scenarios, business cases, and analytical frameworks, using clearly defined assumptions where data is incomplete.
You will independently manage stakeholder relationships across Business Units, Planning, Sourcing, Logistics, Channel, and Finance, bringing together conflicting inputs and driving alignment without unnecessary escalation.
You will conduct external benchmarking and competitive analysis where relevant, translating findings into clear implications and recommendations for Cisco.
You will develop and defend a clear point of view, articulate key trade-offs, and confidently respond to challenge from senior stakeholders.
You will present your workstream findings to senior leaders and contribute to the broader engagement storyline and recommendation.
You will guide analysts supporting your workstream by reviewing their analysis, strengthening problem structuring, and developing their communication and presentation skills.
Who You’ll Work With
You will collaborate with Business Units, Supply Chain Planning, Sourcing, Logistics, Channel, Finance, and senior business stakeholders across Cisco.
You will also work closely with the broader Strategy & Planning team and Engagement Leads on cross-functional strategic engagements.
Who You Are
You are a structured, analytical, and commercially minded problem solver who is comfortable working with ambiguity and incomplete information.
You can quickly break down open-ended problems, determine the key questions that need to be answered, build a fact base, and turn analysis into a clear recommendation.
You are confident working directly with senior stakeholders, can navigate conflicting perspectives, and are comfortable defending your point of view with data and business logic.
You communicate top-down and answer-first, ensuring that your recommendations are clear, concise, and actionable.
Minimum Qualifications
- 7+ years of experience in management consulting, corporate strategy, or supply chain operations.
- Proven experience owning workstreams from problem definition through completion.
- Demonstrated ability to structure open-ended and loosely defined business problems into an actionable analytical framework.
- Strong ability to build quantitative models from incomplete data using clearly stated assumptions.
- Experience independently managing relationships with senior stakeholders.
- Strong ability to communicate top-down and lead with the answer rather than the analysis.
- Demonstrated ability to form, communicate, and defend a recommendation under challenge.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in operations or supply chain consulting, particularly in operating model design, inventory, network design, or process improvement.
- Experience mentoring, coaching, or reviewing the work of junior analysts.
- Experience with analytical tools such as Python, SQL, Power BI, or Tableau.
- Experience working across global teams, geographies, and time zones.
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.
Disclaimer
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