Overview
Acts as the primary product and technical advocate, evangelizing across products within the Product Manager-owned portfolio and across the business. Develops and executes business strategy and tracks the efficacy of plans across the business to drive sustainable growth within and beyond the boundaries of the fiscal year. Leads definition and orchestration of strategic go-to-market (GTM) plans across the business. Ensures Business Group (BG) Leads and field communities have the leadership and enablement needed to run the business locally. Drives area/subsidiary leadership through revealing and pursuing long-range, white-space growth opportunities and investment plans, including geographical expansion.
Responsibilities
Analytical Thinking
- The ability to collect information and identify fundamental patterns/trends in complex data. This includes the ability to gather, integrate, and interpret information from several sources; use information to generate insights; and make decisions.
Building Business Partnerships
- The ability to build and maintain professional working relationships with clients, business leaders, and stakeholders within and outside the company to understand needs and develop mutually beneficial solutions.
Business Analysis
- The ability to identify business needs and determine solutions to business problems; solutions may include a software-systems development component, process improvement, organizational change or strategic planning and policy development.
Business Knowledge
- The ability to appreciate the technical nature of the business, as well as how a particular function relates to that industry and the competition.
Business Planning
- The ability to create business goals, the methods on how these goals can be attained, and the time frame within which these goals need to be achieved.
Change Management
- The ability to define and implement procedures and/or technologies to deal with changes in the environment. This may include adapting to change, controlling change, and/or affecting change.
Conflict Resolution
- The ability to manage conflict, disharmony, and strife among people and situations, while recognizing and addressing sensitivities.
Continuous Improvement
- The ability to evaluate and improve existing products, processes, or services to achieve greater business results through productivity, efficiency, customer satisfaction, and profitability.
Creativity
- The ability to apply ingenuity, inventiveness, and imagination to the inclusive design and construction of a product, service, program, or initiative.
Decision Making
- The ability to make decisions in a fast-paced, rapidly changing environment. This includes the ability to define, diagnose, and determine an appropriate resolution, recommendation, or decision while considering alternatives and factors (e.g., resources, costs, tradeoffs).
Digital Marketing
- Knowledge of digital marketing, which is the marketing of products or services using digital technologies. This includes knowledge of how digital marketing is used online, via mobile devices, and through other digital mediums.
Entrepreneurship
- The ability to approach challenges and situations with an entrepreneurial mindset, taking calculated risks, and using innovative thinking to drive success.
Executive Relationships
- The ability to interact confidently with senior leaders of the organization in order to present/defend/clarify concerns or issues regarding an existing project, program, or solution. This includes the ability to confidently address difficult questions, handle push back from a high-level audience, and maintain an executive demeanor while engaging in difficult or sometimes high-pressure situations.
Financial Analysis
- Knowledge of and the ability to use basic financial analysis (e.g., return on investment, value chain analysis) related to marketing effectiveness, resource allocations, and new business opportunities.
Industry Trends and Emerging Industry Solutions
- The ability to understand the industry/vertical emerging trends, explore how industry-specific business challenges are being solved through unique partner solutions.
Influence Others
- The ability to garner support for initiatives by gaining the respect of others and inspiring trust and confidence.
Market Knowledge
- Knowledge of the market context in which the business operates; this includes the understanding of market trends and how they will impact customers and the business.
Market Planning
- The ability to organize and define marketing goals, gather strategies and tactics to achieve them, and drive marketing to positively impact demand.
Microsoft Products
- Knowledge of Microsoft products/services and the ability to participate in technical conversations related to products/services.
Negotiation
- The ability to achieve mutually satisfying agreements in negotiations with others by listening to their objectives, acting as the company's representative to effectively communicate the company's objective, and seeking common ground and collaborative solutions.
Opportunity Management
- The ability to identify and manage business development opportunities that could be implemented to drive positive results for the business.
Problem Solving
- The ability to identify problems and review related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
Project Management
- Knowledge of and the ability to carry out the process of planning, organizing, and managing tasks and resources to accomplish a well-defined objective. This includes the ability to manage and provide project deliverables, optimize the contribution of the people involved, and assess the impact of project decisions on quality, productivity, schedules, cost, performance, etc.
Quality Assurance
- Knowledge of and the ability to follow systematic and continuing processes of checking to see whether a product, service, or process is meeting specified requirements. This includes knowledge of quality measurements and defined standards.
Regulatory Compliance
- Knowledge of the rules, regulations, sanctions and other statutory requirements, guidelines and instructions relating to local and/or international governing bodies and organizations, both internally and externally.
Sales Acumen
- Knowledge of sales, sales techniques, and their impact on a company. Includes knowledge of partner sales or direct sales.
Storytelling
- The ability to sell and communicate value within and outside the company by sharing stories and historical anecdotes.
Strategic Thinking
- The ability to examine and understand the organization's competitive strengths and weaknesses. This includes the ability to: look for opportunities to grow the business and reduce costs; monitor the environment for opportunities; formulate strategies that provide distinct competitive advantages; and consider problems and opportunities from a broad, multi-functional perspective.
Technical Communication
- The ability to adapt communications around different technologies, products, and services to the audience's level of understanding.
Written Communication
- The ability to prepare clear, accurate, and understandable written text, and follow the basic rules of spelling, grammar, and punctuation. This may include memos, emails, proposals, reports, and professional or general correspondence.
Qualifications
- 12+ years marketing strategy, business planning, sales enablement, business development, technical pre-sales, or related work experience AND Bachelor's Degree in Business, Marketing, Computer Science, or related field OR equivalent experience
- 8+ years experience managing and expanding a product/solution portfolio and driving demand generation and pipeline acceleration within a complex (e.g., multinational or matrixed) organization OR equivalent experience
Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.
Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.