Executive Assistant, VP, Strategy & Standards (Hybrid)

020 Cisco Systems, Inc.; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 99,000 - 132,000; Full time

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. in San Jose seeks an experienced Administrative Assistant to support the VP of the Strategy Office.

The role is hybrid, with one day per week at the San Jose office, and requires handling calendar management, meeting planning, travel coordination, and executive communications. You will prepare briefing materials, coordinate large events, brief itineraries for international travel, and serve as a trusted proxy for approvals while maintaining confidentiality and a high standard

Qualifications

• 4+ years’ experience in administrative environment.
• 2+ years supporting a principal at director level or above.
• Expert level knowledge of Windows desktop applications: Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
• Experience in calendar management, planning meetings and coordinating travel.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with all levels of staff and clients.

Responsibilities

• Calendar Management: prioritize VP schedules and meetings.
• Event Speaking Engagement Coordination: ensure content needs are understood and set in motion for engagements.
• Meeting Planning and Organization: assemble agendas, coordinate location and tech, prepare briefing notes.
• Travel Briefing Preparation: build travel packs for international and large domestic events.
• Correspondence/Approvals: act as proxy for communications and approvals as authorized.
• Travel and Expense Management: arrange global travel and manage expenses with vendors.
• Special Projects: provide analytical support for executives on projects.
• Large Corporate Events: brief itineraries and accompany VP for events like GSX.
• Confidentiality: handle sensitive matters with discretion and integrity.

Skills

Calendar management

Meetings coordination

Travel coordination

Verbal communication

Written communication

Administrative support

Education

Associates degree

Tools

Outlook

Word

Excel

PowerPoint

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 11/15/2026

This is a hybrid role with one day per week at Cisco’s San Jose office.

Meet the Team

The Cisco Strategy Office is dedicated to innovation as a path to growth and sustainability of market leadership. It plays an important role in fueling the strategy of innovation for growth. This includes a broad approach with multiple strategies such as acquisitions and investments. The office focuses on identifying and driving market transitions, capturing these transitions through acquisitions, and enabling innovation in technologies and markets globally. It also involves engaging in integration processes for successful acquisitions and leveraging Cisco's experience to inform the company's overall security strategy and portfolio.

Your Impact

• Calendar Management: Handles VP's calendar 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.
• Event Speaking Engagement Coordination: Handles a running list of VP’s engagements and works closely with communications team to ensure content needs are understood and set in motion so VP is prepared for each engagement.
• Meeting Planning and Organization: Assists VP 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.
• Travel Briefing Preparation: Build travel packs for international trips as well as large domestic events such as Cisco Live, etc. This work includes combining all event information in addition to coordinated logistics of travel and also customer/team asks.
• Correspondence/Approvals: Supports VP 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 VP. Carefully considers and decides the optimum travel arrangements and itinerary for calendared meetings while handling Cisco expenses. Works diligently to go above and beyond, working with the airlines directly to accommodate Global Services benefits for upgrades whenever they are available.
• Special Projects: Provides analytical support to assist executives on special projects. Research issues, analyzes problems, compiles data, and prepares reports.
• Large Corporate Events: Prepare and brief itinerary as well as accompany VP for large Corporate Events such as GSX, where EA's are used for executive support.
• Confidentiality: Candidate will deal professionally with sensitive and confidential matters and materials.

You have experience providing support at the VP 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 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 $99,300.00 to $131,800.00 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. Cisconians power the future. We make impact as a team, innovating fast and fearlessly to create meaningful solutions on a large scale. The depth and breadth of our technology doesn't just benefit our customers – it also means limitless opportunities for us to experiment and learn. We understand the power each of our unique backgrounds bring when we work together. Because of that, we have a global network of thinkers, doers, experts, and curious creators who help one another do their life’s best work.