Director Strategic Planning, International Communications

Meet the Team

Join the dynamic International Communications function which spans the globe and includes Asia Pacific, Japan, China, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Canada. We are at the forefront of the digital disruption narrative, actively shaping global perceptions and conversations around the transformative power of Cisco technology. You’ll be an integral part of a high-impact team amplifying how Cisco is delivering the critical infrastructure for the AI era.

For more than 40 years, Cisco has securely connected the world. With its industry leading AI-powered solutions and services, Cisco enables its customers, partners and communities to unlock innovation, enhance productivity and strengthen digital resilience. With purpose at its core, Cisco remains committed to powering an inclusive future for all.

Your Impact

The Cisco International Communications team is seeking a Director of Strategic Planning to lead the planning, delivery, and measurement of our international communications programs across APJC, EMEA, Latin America, and Canada. Reporting to the VP of International Communications, this role leads a lean, focused team in strategic planning and operations, leveraging data and audience insights to drive campaign prioritisation and performance. Serving as the central point of interconnection between our corporate, digital, and international teams, this leader will help shape and translate global and regional priorities into one clear, streamlined, and data-backed international communications plan. By building a strategic operational framework that integrates AI-driven workflows, this role bridges planning and execution, allowing the team to focus efforts on high-impact work, and building an operating rhythm that ensures programmes deliver measurable results to shape Cisco's reputation in the AI era.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Planning & Synthesis: Own the planning process, synthesizing complex business and comms inputs into one clear, unified plan, prioritized for high-impact.
• Cross-Functional Partnering: Partner with corporate and regional comms leads to help shape strategy to ensure international teams have the clarity, assets, and lead time to execute successfully.
• Operational Excellence: Drive planning and delivery with a "completer-finisher" mindset. Leverage a highly organized approach to build AI-integrated workflows and rigorous frameworks that ensure consistent execution of complex, multi-market initiatives from inception to completion.
• Insights-Led Measurement: Lead the audience insights and measurement capability for the function. Define campaign metrics, track performance against annual KPIs, and translate data into actionable insights that simplify future campaign strategy.
• Team Leadership & Capability Building: Lead, develop, and coach a lean direct team as well as influence virtual teams. Foster a culture of operational discipline, ensuring the team is equipped to simplify the complex and deliver measurable results.

Minimum Qualifications

• 14+ years in communications, with senior level public relations experience and at least 3 years in strategic planning or operations. Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders with gravitas, executive-ready plans, and exceptional writing skills that articulate clear, meaningful goals.
• Expertise in complex, multi-region communications, with a highly organized approach and meticulous attention to detail. Capable of synthesizing vast amounts of information to simplify the complex.
• Proven track record of building measurement frameworks, defining KPIs, and reporting outcomes to senior leadership.
• Experience managing, coaching, and developing communications professionals at varying career levels.
• Application of AI tools to communications planning, content development, or workflow automation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strategic prioritization judgment in making trade-offs explicit and defending resource decisions with data, ensuring the team remains focused on the highest-value work.
• Storytelling instincts: Strong instincts for identifying regionally significant stories that hold global relevance, and the ability to see how global campaigns can scale to the regions.
• Advanced AI & tooling innovation: Beyond basic application, a desire to innovate by optimizing planning and workflow automation and audience insight tools to advance the function’s efficiency and strategic output.
• Matrixed Organization Fluency: Proven success operating within a large, complex global organization, with the ability to build consensus and collaborate effectively across diverse time zones and markets.

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.