Director - Critical Escalations (CAP)

What You'll Do:
Cisco's Critical Accounts Program (CAP) sets the industry standard in anticipating and solving the critical customer problems no one else could. We provide outstanding critical issue expertise and ownership in solving and preventing critical problems for our customers and Cisco.
Who You'll Work With:
The Critical Accounts Program is the highest level of escalation in the company. The team does "whatever it takes" to drive resolution on critical problems when normal issues are no longer meeting the customers' expectations of Cisco. The CAP Team is fully empowered to truly influence outcomes for our customers and change the way they view Cisco. You will work with every division in the company at all levels to solve our customers most critical issues.
Who You Are:
Cisco is seeking a Director to lead a team of highly functioning individuals who solve some of the toughest challenges our customers face. Your responsibilities will include:

• Build and lead the CAP team
• Leverage escalation experience and knowledge of processes and tools to coach team members ensuring operational excellence
• Champion CAP as an exception process and protect it from abuse
• Be a living example of CAP culture, Cisco culture and ethics
• Provide the highest level of escalation for Cisco's critical customers and business situations, with authorized access to warranty funds and prioritization of company resources
• Define and implement the vision and strategy of the CAP program in collaboration with the CAP leadership team while remaining operationally consistent with the wider objectives of Cisco, Customer Engagements and Customer Experience.
• Set and drive the strategy of CAP in Americas theatre, aligned and consistent with the global direction of CAP
• Communicate CAP direction, activities and trends to theatre and corporate leadership
• Leverage unique knowledge, insight and experience derived from customers' critical engagements, to influence corporate strategic direction and practices
• Demonstrate accountability for making decisions that are impactful, influential and positively impact functional and company performance
• Collaborate on organizational development of methods, techniques and evaluation criteria for projects, programs and people
• Build and grow strong working relationships with the relevant functional groups and execs within theatre and across Cisco.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Demonstrated high level of executive presence. The incumbent will deal directly with the most senior leaders of our major customers and within Cisco
• 10+ years of direct customer experience with 5+ years in a management role
• Exceptional business acumen and decision-making ability
• The incumbent will need to guide and mentor CAP Managers assessing business risks and efficient resolution for very sophisticated customer issues which can ultimately involve authorizing millions of dollars for remediation
• High stress tolerance. The incumbent must be someone who remains calm under pressure and is comfortable taking care of ambiguity, tension, and unpredictable workloads
• Credibility and integrity - The incumbent must establish credibility and integrity with key stakeholders to earn their trust as the final arbiter of complex issues
• Strong team player - The CAP group functions as one global team with CAP Managers and leaders regularly backing each other up as required
• Escalation Experience - The incumbent must be familiar with the escalation process and have engaged in and resolved critical customer escalations.

Desired Qualifications:

• MBA
• Crisis Management Communications Certification
• Incident Management Training
• ITIL Certified

Cisco Covid-19 Vaccination Requirements
The health and safety of Cisco's employees, customers, and partners is a top priority. Our goal is to protect and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 infection for strong business resiliency during the pandemic. Therefore, Cisco may require new hires to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 if the role requires business-related travel, meeting with customers/partners (including visiting third-party sites on behalf of Cisco), attending trade events, and Cisco office entry, unless otherwise prohibited by applicable law, and in countries where COVID-19 vaccination is legally required. The company will consider legally required accommodations/exceptions for medical, religious, and other reasons as per the requirements of the role and in accordance with applicable law. Additional information will be provided to candidates about the requirements and accommodation process at the offer time based on region.