Director Sales, BFSI

## Director Sales, BFSI Role Scope : The Director Sales, BFSI is a strategic leadership role responsible for driving Cisco's growth, market share, and customer transformation agenda across India's Banking & Financial Services sector. This leader will define and implement the go-to-market strategy for some of Cisco's most significant and complex customer relationships, helping financial institutions accelerate their digital transformation, cybersecurity, AI adoption, and modernization initiatives. Operating in a highly matrixed environment, the role requires strong collaborative leadership to influence and align cross-functional teams across Sales, Solutions Engineering, Customer Experience, Product, Channel, Marketing, Finance, and Strategy. The successful candidate will bring the ability to lead large, complex businesses, build high-performing teams, and translate market opportunities into sustainable business outcomes. Beyond commercial leadership, this individual will serve as a trusted advisor to senior customer executives, champion Cisco's AI and security vision, and play a critical role in shaping Cisco's long-term growth and industry leadership within the BFSI segment. ## Responsibilities - Lead and collaborate across various cross-functional teams, including field sales teams, Account Managers/Client Executives, architecture sales specialists, partner sales teams, Customer Success teams, operations, marketing, finance, and legal to develop the Banking & Financial Services business and grow it sustainably and profitably. - Maintain an in-depth understanding of customer and partner requirements, market opportunities, and competitive conditions in the financial sector. - Possess a solid understanding of software and services sales in a B2B environment. - Develop robust business plans centered on subscription and services lifecycle sales motions to grow Average Order Value (AOV) in every account. - Identify specific routes to market and develop the appropriate business constructs for the financial services industry. - Identify and develop new business opportunities around banking platform solutions, co-sell initiatives, and consumption-based managed services. - Manage 360-degree stakeholder relationships to ensure rounded business growth. - Engage with key customers and channels to understand their needs and evolve the business to address them. - Orchestrate specialized resources-portfolio Business Development Managers, partner teams, marketing, etc.-to implement the complete Go-to-Market (GTM) plan. - Align with Cisco's global transformation strategy. - Benchmark Cisco's business against the competition and understand key drivers to successfully compete and win market share. - Conduct regular business reviews to ensure GTM execution. - Analyse performance and provide GTM enhancement recommendations. - Provide direction and clarity to the team, developing them as professionals and leaders for the future of Cisco. - Ensure an inclusive and diverse culture that helps team members thrive and grow. ## Requirements - Ideally 17+ years of sales management experience in building and managing diverse team environments in a leadership capacity, preferably in sales. - Demonstrated experience driving transformation within client accounts, preferably in the areas of security, AI, or digital banking. - Ability to transition from strategic thinking to managing and solving tactical issues. - Demonstrated leadership and the ability to work cross-functionally to drive outcomes-requiring the ability to influence without direct ownership of processes or organizations. - Ability to lead in a highly matrixed model and build executive-level relationships with customer stakeholders while driving internal executive alignment. ## Nice to Have - Familiarity with Cisco's products, architectures, and services offerings. - Background and understanding of product, service, and channel sales at Cisco or comparable experience from another company. - Track record of successful performance as a "change agent". - Extensive business development or program management experience. - Ability to drive business planning, ensure forecasting accuracy, and work effectively with cross-functional teams. - Experience building actionable mid-term and short-term business plans based on a deep understanding of the market and execution levers. - Bachelor's degree from a reputable university/college. ## Benefits 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.