Director, People and Communities

Cisco Systems, Inc.; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 6,000,000 - 12,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. in Bengaluru invites an accomplished Head of People Partners, India, to lead the India People Partner organisation and partner with senior leaders across Engineering, Customer Experience, Go-To-Market, and Corporate Functions to drive a scalable people strategy.

You'll shape leadership capability, succession planning, and workforce planning while championing a cohesive inclusion agenda and advancing organizational change across Cisco's diverse businesses in India.

Qualifications

• 18+ years of progressive HR leadership experience in complex, global organisations.
• Proven success leading strategic HR Business Partner or People Partner functions across multiple businesses or geographies.
• Experience developing and executing enterprise people strategies aligned with business priorities, growth, and transformation.
• Experience leading senior HR teams and influencing through matrix leadership.
• Strong track record partnering with executive leadership teams on organisational design, workforce planning, leadership effectiveness, succession planning, and talent strategy.
• Experience leading large-scale organisational change and cultural transformation initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to use people analytics and business insights to influence strategic decisions and deliver measurable outcomes.
• Master's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organisational Psychology, or a related discipline.

Responsibilities

• Lead the India People Partner organisation, developing capability and delivering measurable business outcomes.
• Partner with senior leaders to translate business strategy into integrated people strategies that accelerate growth.
• Drive a cohesive India-wide talent strategy spanning leadership development, succession planning, workforce planning, and employee engagement.
• Champion a consistent approach to people priorities across India across different business groups.
• Lead the India Inclusion strategy and drive representation, belonging, and inclusive culture.
• Serve as HR4HR leader for India, strengthening capability and leadership across HR functions.
• Act as a strategic change leader for organisational transformation and operating model changes.
• Use data and workforce analytics to identify trends and influence executive decisions.

Skills

HR leadership

Executive coaching

People analytics

Stakeholder management

Organisational design

Education

Master's degree in HR/BA/Organisational Psychology

Tools

HR systems

Job description

Meet the Team

The People & Communities (P&C) team partners closely with Cisco's business and community leaders to bring our people strategy to life in ways that scale globally while remaining locally relevant. We act as trusted advisors, coaches, and transformation leaders—connecting business strategy, talent priorities, leadership capability, and employee experience to enable business growth.

As Cisco's largest theatre outside of the United States, India represents approximately 17,000 employees and a workforce of nearly 30,000 people across Engineering, Customer Experience, Go-To-Market, and Corporate Functions. This role sits at the centre of that ecosystem, leading the India People Partner organisation and shaping the country people agenda across one of Cisco's most strategically important markets.

Working in a highly matrixed, global environment, you'll partner closely with senior business leaders, global P&C leadership, Centres of Excellence, and regional teams to deliver consistent, business-aligned people outcomes while tailoring approaches to the unique needs of diverse businesses and functions. This is an opportunity to influence the future of work, strengthen leadership capability, and shape the employee experience at scale.

Your Impact

As Head of People Partners, India, you will provide strategic leadership for the India People Partner organisation while serving as a trusted advisor to senior leaders across the business. You will lead a team of senior People Partners (directly and through matrix leadership), ensuring a consistent, high-impact people strategy that enables business performance while remaining responsive to the differing needs of Engineering, Customer Experience, Go-To-Market, and Corporate Functions.

You will:

• Lead the India People Partner organisation, developing capability, driving operational excellence, and creating a high-performing team that delivers measurable business outcomes.
• Partner with senior business and community leaders to translate business strategy into integrated people strategies that accelerate growth, strengthen organisational capability, and enable transformation.
• Drive a cohesive India-wide talent strategy spanning leadership development, succession planning, workforce planning, organisational effectiveness, talent movement, performance, and employee engagement.
• Champion a consistent approach to people priorities across India while ensuring solutions are appropriately tailored to the unique needs of different business groups.
• Lead the India Inclusion strategy, bringing together initiatives across the business into a unified country agenda that delivers measurable progress in representation, belonging, leadership capability, and inclusive culture.
• Serve as the HR4HR leader for India, providing people leadership within the P&C organisation and strengthening capability, engagement, and leadership across the HR function.
• Act as a strategic change leader, partnering on organisational transformation, business evolution, operating model changes, and cultural initiatives that improve organisational effectiveness.
• Use data, insights, and workforce analytics to identify trends, influence executive decision-making, and measure the impact of people initiatives.
• Partner across the broader P&C ecosystem to ensure enterprise programmes—including talent, rewards, leadership, inclusion, and employee experience—are effectively embedded across India.
• Foster a One P&C culture built on collaboration, inclusion, innovation, and measurable business impact.

Minimum Qualifications

• 18+ years of progressive HR leadership experience in complex, global organisations.
• Demonstrated success leading strategic HR Business Partner or People Partner functions across multiple businesses or geographies.
• Proven experience developing and executing enterprise people strategies aligned with business priorities, organisational growth, and transformation.
• Experience leading senior HR teams and influencing through matrix leadership.
• Strong track record partnering with executive leadership teams on organisational design, workforce planning, leadership effectiveness, succession planning, and talent strategy.
• Experience leading large-scale organisational change and cultural transformation initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to use people analytics and business insights to influence strategic decisions and deliver measurable outcomes.
• Master's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organisational Psychology, or a related discipline.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting engineering, technology, customer, or sales organisations within a global technology company.
• Experience leading country or regional people strategies across large, complex employee populations.
• Demonstrated leadership of enterprise Inclusion, Diversity, and Belonging strategies with measurable business impact.
• Exceptional executive presence with extensive experience coaching and influencing senior executives.
• Strong commercial acumen with the ability to connect people strategy to business performance.
• Highly effective at navigating ambiguity, complexity, and multiple stakeholder groups in a fast-paced, matrixed environment.
• Passion for developing inclusive leaders, building high-performing teams, and creating exceptional employee experiences.

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.