Leader, Incubation Partner Ecosystems

Cisco Systems, Inc; United States; Remote; USD 313,000 - 400,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental & vision insurance

401(k) with Cisco matching

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. in the United States seeks a Leader, Partner Sales to build and scale partner go-to-market for incubation products across five routes.

You will lead a dedicated team, shaping the partner operating plan, setting portfolio goals, and aligning with executive leadership to drive strategic investments. You will work closely with Portfolio and Specialist Partner Managers, and sponsor GSI activation and managed services across routes.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of proven experience managing and coaching a team of sales professionals or individual contributors to achieve performance goals.
• 6+ years of demonstrated ability to build and implement an annual partner operating plan across multiple routes to market, including GSI, SP, ISV, or hyperscalers.
• 5+ years of experience with financial and data proficiency and leading partner economics, MDF, and co-sell incentives.
• Consistent track record of successful executive interlock, stakeholder management, and cross-functional team leadership to drive strategic alignment.

Responsibilities

• Lead and scale partner go-to-market across routes: GSI/advisory, SP/telco, ISV/OEM, hyperscaler/neocloud, and frontier-model providers.
• Own the incubation partner operating plan, set goals for the partner portfolio, team performance, and investment priorities.
• Collaborate with portfolio and specialist partner managers to drive shared plans and account activity.
• Build capability across Cisco teams and partner organizations with repeatable plays and dedicated practices.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic planning

Partner management

Cross-functional collaboration

Executive interlock

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 10/28/2026 This remote role is open to US based candidates, no relation is available.

Meet the Team

You will join the Global GTM Incubation & Emerging Technologies team, responsible for commercializing and scaling Cisco’s newest technology innovations. Sourced directly from our Product and Business Units, these rapid innovations require a specialized, agile approach to find market fit before they can be absorbed by the mainstream sales force.

Our mission is to partner with Product leaders to develop, test, and validate early-stage GTM hypotheses. We will work to secure the company’s first "lighthouse" customer wins, and build the repeatable sales and partner playbooks required to bring these products into the broader Specialist and Generalist sales organizations.

Your Impact

As Leader, Partner Sales, you’ll build and scale partner go-to-market for products under incubation across five interconnected routes: GSI/advisory, SP/telco, ISV/OEM, hyperscaler/neocloud, and frontier-model providers.

You will lead a dedicated team and the Incubation partner operating plan, setting goals for the partner portfolio, team performance, and investment priorities, with an executive interlock into the category organization.

Your focus is the Incubation product practice and the opportunities it builds within existing partner relationships.

You will work in close lockstep with Portfolio and Specialist Partner Managers, Splunk Partner Managers, and the relevant partner relationship owners; you bring the Incubation products, offers, and execution into shared partner plans and account activity.

A significant part of your impact will be building capability across adjacent Cisco teams and partner organizations.

You will strengthen their understanding of Incubation products and services, equip them with repeatable plays, and help establish dedicated practices on the partner side.

For Incubation opportunities, you will shape partner segmentation, target waves, route-to-market choices, and joint offers; sponsor GSI activation and SP/telco managed services in coordination with the relevant partner managers; coach senior individual contributors; and supervise verified partner-sourced pipeline and bookings.

Minimum Qualifications

• 12+ years of proven experience managing and coaching a team of sales professionals or individual contributors to achieve performance goals.
• 6+ years of demonstrated ability to build and implement an annual partner operating plan across multiple routes to market, including GSI, SP, ISV, or hyperscalers.
• 5+ years of experience with financial and data proficiency and leading partner economics, market development funds (MDF), and co-sell incentives.
• Consistent track record of successful executive interlock, stakeholder management, and cross-functional team leadership to drive strategic alignment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with incubation and emerging technologies, taking early-stage products to market and securing lighthouse customer wins.
• Sophisticated program design skills for scaling partner businesses and building repeatable sales playbooks.
• Deep understanding of joint offer strategies, including managed service, sell-to, sell-through, embedded/OEM, and marketplace co-sell motions.
• Exceptional strategic alignment and discernment, with the ability to resolve cross-route conflicts and prioritize investments effectively.
• Validated ability to navigate ambiguity and drive decision issues for complex compliance, data-rights, and third-party liability requirements.

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 $313,400.00 to $399,900.00 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.

Benefits and Compensation

• 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.
• Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.
• 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.
• 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.

State Salary Ranges

• New York City Metro Area: $313,400.00 - $460,000.00
• Non-Metro New York state & Washington state: $293,300.00 - $443,400.00
• 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.