Director of Partner Technology Strategy

Within WDS, the Device Technology Sales (DTS) team is looking for a leader with experience working with partners to build devices and solutions that drive edge-to-cloud growth and keep us on the forefront of innovation. As a Director of Partner Technology Strategy, you will develop deep relationships with the partner and internal teams to influence roadmaps and maximize the opportunity across key initiatives and priorities.  

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.    

In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.     

Responsibilities

People Management

• Managers deliver success through empowerment and accountability by modeling, coaching, and caring.
• Model - Live our culture; Embody our values; Practice our leadership principles.
• Coach - Define team objectives and outcomes; Enable success across boundaries; Help the team adapt and learn.
• Care - Attract and retain great people; Know each individual’s capabilities and aspirations; Invest in the growth of others.

Gathering Insights

• Acts as a thought leader in synthesizing and assessing business and technology insights, drawing on information across teams, global best practices, experience across countries and regions, and deep industry expertise. 
• Orchestrates teams across the organization to gather and utilize information to drive development of new products aligned to the strategy and goals.
• Ensures execution of technology strategy and adoption of technology by anticipating and/or leading the resolution of technical blockers that arise during strategy planning and implementation and driving technology adoption.

Trusted Advisor

• Acts as the voice of the customer/partner and internal advocate by providing insights, feedback, and challenges from the customer/partner to internal teams (e.g., product groups, engineers) across all levels of the organization. Drives action to ensure that internal teams understand and respond to insights.
• Acts as the "virtual Chief Technical Officer (CTO)" or "go-to" person in established, long-term relationships with technical decision makers (TDMs) and/or business decision makers (BDM) at the C-level (to the extent that the customer/partner will call for consultation without being prompted) and advises on solutions/opportunities and positions Microsoft offerings.
• Acts as a trusted advisor to internal teams at Microsoft by educating teams on the portfolio of available and upcoming products, educating leaders on the impacts of technology changes, providing roadmaps to Microsofts business, and consulting on future opportunities and future roadmaps. Ensures internal teams are prepared to engage with partners on future opportunities.

Building Portfolio/Delivering Key Technologies

• Leads design-in and portfolio planning, identifies key technologies to add to partner portfolio, and works with partner to get feedback on solutions and align with needs. Scales technologies out to new partners and continuously anticipates drives new opportunities to integrate Microsoft technology into the partner solution portfolio.
• Manages planning and execution to drive key technologies to market by leading regular meetings with partner, driving long lead planning, and managing escalations from the partner. Considers product manufacturing and launch activities and engages as needed to ensure landing.

Value Selling

• Partners with leaders to create and customize the business case to articulate Microsofts relevancy within the partner portfolio to meet business objectives and competitive advantage. Builds and tailors the pitch for the partner while selling the long-term strategic vision.
• Aligns the partners strength to identify maximum value opportunities and creates potential investments in certain products or solutions to maximize commercial success. Works with account leaders to help position investment vehicles.

Thought Leadership

• Participates in external tech community events (conference, hack-a-thon, ideathon), becomes a mentor to colleagues to provide technical education, and creates content to present at events and contribute to thought leadership.
• Partners with line-of-business (LOB) leaders or executives within the customer/partner organization to optimize technology consumption and adoption across the enterprise. Creates benchmark processes that are adopted by others across accounts. Ensures satisfaction with Microsoft partnership across key product leadership stakeholders (business/product unit Vice President [VP] and above).

Other

• Embody our culture and values

Qualifications

Required/minimum qualifications

• Masters Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, or related field AND 6+ years technical consulting, technical consultative selling, product development, or related technical or sales experience OR Bachelors Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, or related field AND 8+ years technical consulting, technical consultative selling, product development, or related technical or sales experience OR equivalent experience.

Additional or preferred qualifications

• Masters Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business or related field AND 8+ years technical consulting, technical consultative selling, product development, or related technical/sales experience OR Bachelors Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, or related field AND 12+ years technical consulting, technical consultative selling, product development, or related technical/sales experience OR equivalent experience.
• 8+ years experience with relevant technologies (e.g., cloud, infrastructure, Microsoft platform).
• 3+ years people management experience.

Partner Technology Strategy M5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $130,900 - $251,900 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $165,600 - $272,300 per year.