Director Customer Assurance Strategic Planning Technical Services Cisco San Jose

Job Description: • 2-minute read •
This role will be fundamental to helping CA navigate and realize high value contribution through this transformation. Working closely with CA, Technical Services, Services and Cisco leadership, this role will ensure that we evolve and execute an innovative, outside-in, and fact-based strategy. This individual will lead a virtual strategy team to ensure we keep CA on top of market direction and evolve CA’s strategy by leading and influencing cross-functional strategy initiatives and stakeholder engagements.

Experience leading and participating within a Corporate Quality organization is well suited for this role, including a background managing a global Quality Management System. This position will contribute to a corporate-wide quality risk management process, driving operational excellence through the use of consistent quality processes, product compliance, metrics, and industry standards. The position will build customer experience and quality strategies from the voice of customer, and will contribute to quality boards and committees assuring plans and closure of key customer escalated challenges.

Deep expertise in leading innovative strategy development and execution will be crucial, including outstanding diplomacy and collaborative skills to engage with stakeholders across CA and Cisco. This role will report directly to the VP Customer Assurance, and will be supported by a cross-CA virtual team.

The Director of CA Strategic Planning will be responsible to:
• Lead annual long range planning strategy and execution, linked tightly with Technical Services’ strategy and planning office.
• Drive the evolution and ensure customer and market-in relevance of the CA strategy across multiple horizons, in close partnership with CA, Technical Services and overall Services leadership.
• Take ownership for comprehensive strategic training plan to up-level CA’s capabilities and understanding
• Lead, guide, develop and mentor a small virtual team of professionals to leverage market, customer and Cisco insights to develop CA’s strategy, and who will manage or contribute to key CA strategy development initiatives
• Engage closely with CA, Technical Services, Services and other Cisco business leaders (VPs and Directors) and other stakeholders to identify CA strategic priorities, frame the strategic questions, and structure and resource strategic initiatives to address those questions
• Leverage critical customer insights and analytics to drive internal business functions to resolve customer experience and quality related challenges
• Formulate strategic rationale and supporting strategies that identify customer experience and product quality gaps
• Drive improvement of the corporate quality management system while influencing the development of quality and customer experience performance metrics
• Participate in quarterly business reviews focused on quality and customer experience performance across the enterprise and provide strategic insight
• Participate in design reviews and new product qualification activities to ensure specified quality and reliability requirements are met
• Directly lead select strategic initiatives, and oversee and coach strategy team members in initiatives they are managing to ensure high quality, insightful, and impactful initiative outcomes
• Ensure the team stays closely engaged with the leadership of CA, Technical Services, Services and other Cisco stakeholders to identify, prioritize and share key customer and market insights in collaboration with the CA Experience Intelligence & Insights team.
• Help the strategy team enlist involvement of subject matter experts and other contributors across CA, Technical Services, Services, and Cisco for strategic initiatives
• Develop, refine, and analyze metrics on the success of CA’s business in concert with other members of the cross-functional team.
• Contribute to incubating innovation to support CA’s strategy

Minimum Qualifications
• 10+ years of professional experience in corporate or functional strategy roles, ideally including experience as a principal in a management consulting firm
• Ability to drive results through influence – ability to focus on most critical issues and establish a simple and pragmatic path to decisions
• Strength in executive stakeholder management – consultative approach to stakeholder engagement to achieve desired results
• High threshold for ambiguity during early phases of engagements
• Ability to engage and influence peers and executive level stakeholders independently
• Direct management skills – providing executive direction, growing and developing team
• Strong initiative leadership skills – structuring transformation and execution projects
• Understanding of techniques required to drive improvement of software, hardware, and solutions quality
• Influence development decisions regarding the right balance of quality performance versus revenue producing time to market goals
• Experience implementing identified past lessons into design processes to improve quality and customer experience
• Self-starter and innovative thought leader
• Experience in customer facing roles and demonstrated cross functional leadership effectiveness
• Skill in laying out short & long term strategic plans that are conducive to CA’s agile organization (e.g., easily adapting to quarterly big bets)
• Creative problem solving skills
• Demonstrated ability to work cross-functionally in order to achieve business objectives
• Ideally broad familiarity with Services functions and business objectives within a technology based company.
• Strong presentation, meeting facilitation and communications skills
• 20+ years professional experience
• MBA strongly preferred

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