Executive Assistant: Senior Director, Strategy & Planning (Remote)

Cisco Systems, Inc; Boston (MA); Remote; USD 85,000 - 112,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

401(k) matching

Paid time off

Parental leave

Volunteer time off

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. is seeking an Executive Assistant to provide essential support to the Americas SP&O leaders.

The role requires proactive, high-energy handling of complex calendars, travel, and confidential matters, with a focus on enabling executives to work efficiently across our global teams. The successful candidate will demonstrate independent judgment, strong interpersonal skills, and the ability to balance strategic and tactical actions in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.

Qualifications

• 4+ years’ experience in administrative environment.
• Expert level knowledge of Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
• Experience in calendar management, planning meetings and coordinating travel.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills including the ability to connect with all levels of Executive/Senior staff and clients.

Responsibilities

• Calendar management for Sr. Director’s calendar and prioritization of meetings.
• Assist in planning and organizing meetings, including agenda, location and logistics.
• Act as proxy for communications and approvals as authorized; handle routine matters.
• Arrange in-depth global travel and manage Cisco expenses.
• Provide analytical support on special projects and research issues.
• Plan offsite events for Sr. Directors and attend when needed.
• Maintain confidentiality with sensitive information.

Skills

Calendar management

Meeting planning

Travel coordination

Executive communication

Education

Associates Degree

Tools

Outlook

Word

Excel

PowerPoint

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 10/22/2026

Location: EST time zone only

Meet the Team

Americas Sales Strategy, Planning, and Operations (SP&O) is a dynamic organization where innovation and technology come together to help our sales teams deliver customer outcomes. We are seeking a best-in-class Executive Assistant, providing essential support across the leaders of this org.

Your Impact

You will be extremely forward-thinking with a professional and approachable demeanor in all interactions; possess outstanding communication skills with all levels of staff, executives, customers, vendors; and good judgment.

• Calendar Management: Handles Sr. Director’s calendars by prioritizing schedules and meetings. You may decide who gets on the principal’s calendar, which meetings are attended, and who can attend in their place.
• Meeting Planning and Organization: Assists Sr. Director’s in planning and organizing meetings by being responsible for the assembling of the agenda, location, meeting technology based upon participant needs, and all other meeting logistics. May further prepare meeting briefing documents by taking and disseminating notes and formulating post meeting action item list.
• Correspondence/Approvals: Supports Sr. Directors by acting as proxy for communications and approvals as authorized. Answers general questions as needed and refers routine matters to appropriate parties and follows up to ensure accurate completion. Takes the initiative to resolve issues within specified policies and guidelines and provides mentoring to administrative community members on problem solving. Figures out when executive action is required and supplies a recommendation where appropriate.
• Travel and Expense Management: Responsible for making in-depth global travel arrangements for Sr. Directors. Carefully considers and decides the optimum travel arrangements and itinerary for calendared meetings while handling Cisco expenses.
• Special Projects: Provides analytical support to assist executives on special projects. Research issues, analyzes problems, compiles data, and prepares reports.
• Offsite Events: Plan offsite events for the Sr. Director’s and attend as needed
• Confidentiality: Candidate will deal professionally with sensitive and confidential matters and materials.

You have experience providing support at the VP/Senior Director’s level. You take initiative, can handle a full desk with ease and thrive in a lively environment. You have high-energy with a passion for thinking bigger and broader than the role itself. This position requires strong interpersonal skills, independent judgment, utmost integrity and ability to balance both strategic and tactical actions. You have outstanding attention to detail and the ability to handle confidential information. You enjoy a collaborative environment, are committed to improvement, solve problems and make decisions.

Minimum Qualifications

• 4+ years’ experience in administrative environment. A minimum of 2 years of experience supporting a principal who was at the Sr. Director level or above.
• Expert level knowledge of Windows desktop computer applications: Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
• Experience in calendar management, planning meetings and coordinating travel.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills including the ability to connect with all levels of Executive/Senior staff and clients.

Preferred Qualifications

• Past work experience in the high-tech industry is desired, prior Cisco experience preferred.
• Associates Degree

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 $84,800.00 to $111,500.00 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

$99,300.00 - $172,800.00

Non-Metro New York State & Washington State

$92,000.00 - $141,800.00

• 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.