Business Operations Manager-Legal

Members of the Legal organization at select locations will generally be expected to follow a hybrid work model, which includes two days of in-office attendance each week, with limited exceptions.

Meet the Team  

Join the OPAL team, a global, multi-disciplinary organization of ~40 attorneys and legal professionals who provide critical regulatory and governance oversight alongside expert day-to-day counseling to enable Cisco’s most ambitious technology initiatives. Led by our VP & Deputy General Counsel, we integrate legal strategy into every stage of development across our four core technology law pillars: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Privacy & Data, Open Source, and Legal Engineering & Governance Operations. We thrive at the intersection of law and innovation, partnering with cross-functional leaders to build the frameworks that ensure compliance and trust in an increasingly complex digital landscape. Our work is essential to sustaining Cisco’s success while navigating the rapid evolution of global technology regulations. 

Your Impact  

We are seeking a highly strategic and execution-oriented Business Operations Manager / Project Manager to serve as the operational lead, partnering directly with the VP and pillar leads to drive a robust operational cadence across our core pillars. This individual will function as the primary architect for our organization’s operational infrastructure—ensuring complex cross-functional initiatives across the pillars are delivered to standard, establishing rigorous performance frameworks, and facilitating high-level strategic alignment across the organization. Primary responsibilities include: 

• Operational Architecture: Partner with the VP and pillar leads to define and manage the rhythm of business, including recurring review cycles and performance frameworks, while institutionalizing executive operational models. 

• Project Delivery & KPI Management: Oversee critical cross-functional project lifecycles, proactively identify bottlenecks, define review gates, and develop the reporting infrastructure required to ensure all commitments are achieved on schedule. 

• Meeting Governance & Executive Facilitation: Elevate meeting effectiveness by defining clear objectives, curating strategic agendas (reflecting the priorities and constraints of all pillars), and facilitating sessions that drive consensus, accountability, and measurable outcomes.  

• Cross-Pillar Alignment & Measurement: Coordinate initiatives across our four technology law pillars to eliminate silos, ensure transparency, and evaluate collective progress against institutional performance metrics. 

• Synthesis & Executive Reporting: Aggregate complex status updates, performance metrics, and project developments into clear, executive-ready summaries to inform leadership decision-making. 

• Governance & Workflow Coordination: Standardize communication channels and governance protocols across legal and key business partners to streamline cross-functional projects. 

Minimum Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Communications, Project Management, or a related field. 

• 8+ years of professional experience in business operations, executive program management, or strategic operations within a corporate legal or technology environment. 

• Demonstrated track record of designing operational cadence models, developing performance metrics (KPIs), facilitating executive-level engagements, and managing complex timelines. 

• Superior stakeholder management, communication, and organizational skills, characterized by meticulous attention to detail and a commitment to data-driven decision-making. 

Preferred Qualifications 

• Advanced degree or professional certifications (e.g., PMP, Scrum Master). 

• Prior experience providing operational support to a corporate legal department, executive leadership, or technical governance team. 

• Proven ability to anticipate leadership requirements, drive accountability, and navigate ambiguous, fast-paced environments with discretion and poise.

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. 

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 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:

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

* 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.