Director Strategic Business Development

Microsoft is on a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Our culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day. In doing so, we create life-changing innovations that impact billions of lives around the world. You can help us to achieve our mission.
We live in a global, connected, and ever-changing world driven by the 4th industrial revolution where today’s students will need to have digital literacy and new skills to thrive in the digital economy. As we face a new world of work, changing economies, preparing education institutions to build future leaders has never been more vital to society.
This role

• Spearheads extensive initiatives (e.g., multi-year, significant impact, high visibility) with customers and partners by fostering joint value generation and pitching innovative solutions across various business areas.
• Constructs and executes strategic engagement frameworks to capture opportunities from top-tier customers and partners, oversees the customer and partner relationship, and guides the deal-making process to conclude complex negotiations.
• Fosters quality interactions by organizing, shaping, and finalizing deals with key partners or customers to ensure successful outcomes. Designs business proposals tailored to the needs of the company, partners, and/or customers that generate sustainable value.
  

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain strategic relationships with key customers and partners across different lines of business, geographies, and cultures, and act as a trusted advisor on their future direction and needs.
• Drive large scale customer and partner business initiatives by identifying, creating, and selling innovative solutions that leverage Microsofts products, services, and capabilities, and deliver long-term value for all parties.
• Steer business value propositions based on company, partner, and/or customer needs and drive strategy across multiple products/industries over an extended time horizon as applicable.
• Anticipate the Microsoft value proposition versus competitors and work with stakeholders to influence the build/buy/partner decision to meet customer needs, leveraging knowledge in conjunction with product/industry teams to establish a foundation for future opportunities in competitive situations through collaboration.
• Leverage relationships with a diverse set of stakeholders and deep knowledge of customers, partners, and the business to seek out unique opportunities. Develop overarching strategies to address gaps and gains agreements on the opportunity pipeline.
• Lead deal opportunities across deal stages. Drive plans for managing deals with targeted strategies, prioritization, and implementation of communications and reporting.
  
• Collaborate with customers, partners, and Microsoft colleagues to develop post-deal governance and oversee the creation and implementation of execution plans across a portfolio of deals within domains, industries, and/or geographies.
  

Partner & Customer Focus
Drives large scale (e.g., multi-year, high impact, high profile) customer and partner business initiatives by promoting and enabling joint-value creation, and development of creative solutions for multiple lines of business. Forecasts and anticipates future changes and actions to drive influence around the product roadmap, prioritization, and proactively guide customer and partner decision making. Shapes industry-wide or product domain initiatives and norms as applicable.
Leverages internal and external relationships as a trusted advisor to advise complex (e.g., large, high impact) customers and partners in future strategic direction as a sought-out resource across multiple lines of business, geographies, and cultures, as appropriate. Advises partners and decision makers on the industry and company and provides industry expertise internally and externally.

• Partnership Strategy
  

Steers business value propositions based on company, partner, and/or customer needs and drives strategy across multiple products/industries over an extended time horizon as applicable. Drives support and action by influencing internal stakeholders and partners and promoting the value of opportunities.
Anticipates the Microsoft value proposition versus competitors and works with stakeholders to influence the build/buy/partner decision to meet customer needs, leveraging knowledge in conjunction with product/industry teams to establish a foundation for future opportunities in competitive situations through collaboration. Provides subject matter expertise on the industry and competitive trends. Maintains a large industry network and may represent Microsoft externally by speaking at industry conferences and/or participating in industry groups.

• Deal Management/ Governance
  

Collaborates with customers, partners, and Microsoft colleagues to develop post-deal governance and oversee the creation and implementation of execution plans across a portfolio of deals within domains, industries, and/or geographies. Collaborates with complex (e.g., multi-geography large partner, multiple lines of business) customers and partners to create market-changing business value. Demonstrates achieved implementation and high-impact business value (e.g., executive level recognition) for customers, partners, and the company. Anticipates and addresses issues preemptively, leveraging and engaging executives. Provides recommendations into decisions to continue/discontinue deals. Course corrects to maximize deal value and preemptively minimize risk. Engages in fundamental revamping of approach as appropriate, and drives alignment across business groups within Microsoft Business Development (BD).
Drives plans for managing deals with targeted strategies, prioritization, and implementation of communications and reporting. Designs programmatic approaches to address complex business opportunities, balancing risks and rewards.

• Negotiation
  

Leads deal opportunities across deal stages (e.g., Strategic Approval (SA), Approval to Negotiate (A2N), Final Go-no-go (FGNG)). Resolves deal issues as an escalation point for less experienced colleagues. Establishes best practices and drives process improvements based on learnings across deals. Represents Microsoft as a role model in key customer and partner interactions, and determines the deal structures for scalable and durable solutions in custom and complex business opportunities. Develops and implements strategic engagement models that achieve business opportunities from the largest customers and partners, manage the customer and partner interface, and provide deal structure to close complex global deals. Provides coaching and support to less experienced colleagues as a go-to resource for negotiation.
Adaptability | Business Acumen | Business Relationship Management| Competitive Analysis | Creativity | Decision Making | Entrepreneurship| Influence Others | Oral & Written Communication| Problem Solving | Strategic thinking | Tech Industry Knowledge | Negotiation | Collaboration | Analytical Thinking | Organizational Savvy
Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in business, engineering AND 12+ years relevant work experience (e.g., Strategic Account Management, consulting, Technology Sales, corporate strategy, sales, business development, product management, project management, or related field) OR equivalent experience.
Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, 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.