Responsibilities

• Launch & Positioning Strategy: Own positioning development and go-to-market communications for Cisco Cloud Control and platform innovations. Work closely with product marketing and product management to shape launch narratives, messaging architecture, and media strategy. Move quickly, iterate based on competitive and market signals, and land differentiated positioning.
• Media Relations: Proactively build and nurture relationships with top-tier business, technology, trade and new media covering AI, enterprise networking, security and SaaS. Pitch stories with conviction, secure high-impact coverage, and drive message pull-through.
• Strategic Counsel: Serve as a trusted strategic advisor to product, product marketing, and executive leadership. Bring external market perspective (competitive moves, media sentiment, industry trends) to internal decision-making.
• Thought Leadership & Narrative Building: Develop narratives that connect product innovation to broader industry transformation. Focus on securing profiles and transformation storytelling.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Build strong partnerships with regional communications teams. Balance centralized strategy with local market nuance.
• Partner and Customer Storytelling: Deeply understand the value of partner and customer storytelling, and work hard to create storytelling leverage through these valuable extended networks.
• Execution at Scale: Own end-to-end communications campaign execution—from strategy through measurement. Manage timelines, vendor relationships, and multi-channel delivery. Leverage AI tools and automation to accelerate workflows without sacrificing quality or editorial judgment.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in public relations or communications.
• Strong domain knowledge of relevant enterprise B2B technologies including networking, SaaS platforms, cybersecurity, open source, and AI.
• Proven ability to synthesize competitive landscape, industry trends, analyst sentiment, and media narratives into sharp, strategic recommendations and storytelling.
• Demonstrated ability to navigate complexity and thrive in fast-moving environments where priorities shift quickly. Bias toward action and iterating in real time based on internal and external feedback.
• Strong track record building trust with C-level and senior product leadership. Ability to be a thought partner, not just an executor. Proven skill at managing up, across, and down in matrix ed environments.
• Demonstrated expertise managing external PR and agency partners.

Preferred

• Background at a high-growth tech company, startup, or early-stage venture-backed business—where you've worn multiple hats, moved fast, and navigated rapid pivots.
• Strong use of AI in day-to-day operations with a hunger to always be learning more; early-adopter mentality.
• Well-networked with a finger on the pulse of daily news cycles and a strong sense of who carries narrative influence.
• Extreme bias for action and willingness to be scrappy.
• Active on X.

Benefits

• 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: $196,300.00 - $286,000.00 Non-Metro New York state & Washington state: $174,200.00 - $253,900.00 * 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.