Partner Excellence - Feedback and Engagement Lead (Remote)

Cisco Systems, Inc; North Carolina; Remote; USD 169,000 - 237,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision insurance

401(k) with company matching

Parental leave

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. seeks a strategic Leader for Partner Excellence - Feedback and Engagement to oversee strategic partner engagements, satisfaction surveys, and capture of partner feedback across the Cisco Partner ecosystem.

The role emphasizes AI-driven prototypes and automation, with responsibility for roadmaps, stakeholder alignment, and driving maturity across partners. You will lead a team of strategists and product managers, influence product roadmaps, and drive adoption of automation

Qualifications

• Minimum Qualifications include Bachelors + 10 years related experience, or Masters + 7 years, or PhD + 4 years, or equivalent.
• Experience maximizing AI to develop and advance prototypes.
• Consistent track record advising complex accounts and managing strategic partner relationships at enterprise level.
• Experience conducting 1x1 strategic engagements with senior leadership.
• Outstanding presentation-building and delivery skills for executive audiences.

Responsibilities

• Own the engagement strategy for all strategic partners; identify target accounts and oversee end-to-end execution and performance tracking.
• Lead and mentor a team of strategists and product managers for large strategic partner engagements.
• Drive end-to-end program management for strategic partner engagements; translate vision into roadmaps and execution strategies.
• Develop business strategy from inception to delivery by influencing product roadmaps and driving adoption of automation/tools.
• Facilitate senior leadership Operating and Steering Committee meetings; manage stakeholder expectations to accelerate decisions.
• Develop compelling narratives for strategy decks and communicate vision from strategy to execution.
• Lead bi-annual Partner Satisfaction and Commerce Application Survey processes; collate feedback and drive improvement themes across products and operations.
• Measure performance by on-time delivery, stakeholder satisfaction, and advancing partner maturity.

Skills

Executive leadership

Strategic thinking

AI prototyping

Stakeholder management

Communication skills

Presentation skills

Team leadership

Program management

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

PhD

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 11/08/2026

Meet the Team

Commerce Growth and Acceleration organization is seeking a strategic and visionary leader to step into the role of Partner Excellence - Feedback and Engagement Lead within our Partner Excellence team.

Your Impact

In this role, you will lead a high-performing team overseeing strategic partner engagements, Commerce Partner Satisfaction Surveys, capture Partner feedback, turn common partner feedback themes into actions, and enable Maturity Growth throughout the entire Cisco Partner ecosystem. You'll execute the strategy by leveraging your executive presence, strategic thinking, deep AI expertise in developing cutting-edge AI prototypes/ automation, and management of the complete product lifecycle.

If you thrive on turning ambitious vision into impactful strategy, flawless execution, and inspire key stakeholders, we want you on our team.

Key responsibilities:

• Own the engagement strategy for all strategic partners by identifying target accounts, aligning leadership across Cisco Operations on shared success criteria and metrics, and overseeing end-to-end execution and performance tracking.
• Lead and mentor a team of strategists and product managers responsible for steering and shaping large strategic partner engagements.
• Drive end-to-end program management for strategic partner engagements, translating high-level vision into actionable product roadmaps and execution strategies.
• Develop business strategy from inception to delivery by influencing product roadmaps, enabling operations with automation and tools, and driving adoption.
• Facilitate senior leadership-level Operating and Steering Committee meetings, managing complex stakeholder expectations to accelerate key decision-making.
• Leverage exceptional written and verbal communication skills to develop compelling narratives for strategy decks, effectively communicating the vision from strategy to execution.
• Lead the bi-annual Partner Satisfaction and Commerce Application Survey processes, oversee the collation of multi-channels feedback, and drive key improvement themes across Commerce product and operations.
• Performance in this role will be measured by on-time delivery, stakeholder satisfaction, and advancing partner maturity. Key deliverables include executing co-design initiatives, launching strategic engagements, and collaborating with the Global Partner Sales Strategy Organization to meet shared metrics.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelors + 10 years of related experience, or Masters + 7 years of related experience, or PhD + 4 years of related experience, or equivalent related work experience.
• Experience maximising AI to develop and advance prototypes.
• Consistent track record in advising complex accounts, managing strategic partner relationships at an enterprise level.
• Experience conducting 1x1 strategic engagements with senior leadership.
• Outstanding presentation-building and delivery skills, with the agility to tailor messaging for executive leadership audiences.

Preferred Qualifications

• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
• Program management and project management experience.
• Familiarity and direct experience within the Tech channel partner ecosystem.
• Prior people leadership experience, managing and developing high-performing product management teams.
• Experience collaborating with cross-functional centers of excellence to drive organization-wide productization.
• Consulting, Partner Facing, Customer Facing, or Customer Success Experience.
• Expertise in developing compelling storytelling for strategy decks and translating vision from strategy to execution.
• Experience in managing stakeholder expectations and facilitating OpCo and SteerCo

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 $169,300.00 to $237,200.00 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 ofunused sick timecarried forwardfrom one calendar yearto 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:

$194,600.00 - $328,600.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$179,000.00 - $294,000.00

* 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.