Senior Category Manager

Overview

Our purpose on the Microsoft Consumer Sales Team is to earn fans and drive growth by building emotional connections to delight and empower everyone. We engage with consumers globally throughout their shopping journeys, navigating both physical storefronts and digital visits across Partner Channels in Windows, M365 and Surface. Together with retail, OEM and Silicon partners, we drive profitable growth in Windows, Surface, and M365 and inspire customers to use Copilot as their preferred AI companion to achieve more.

As a member of our team, you'll be part of growing a multi-billion-dollar business, charting new areas of innovation, and impacting billions of lives around the world. You also will be a part of a culture centred on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day.We are hiring for two roles on this team:The US Senior Market Maker Category Manager Lead is responsible for ensuring the right Windows consumer devices are available at the right time, in the retail channels, with the right program structures to drive Windows consumer business share growth and compete effectively in the US and Canada. This role offers a unique opportunity to shape product and portfolio strategy by leveraging market and regional insights to influence OS and device developmentThe US Senior Silicon Category Manager Lead is responsible for ensuring the strategy, portfolio, and category management for Silicon, shaping how each silicon partner shows up for Windows consumers across the US and Canada. It translates strategy into a coordinated regional play, connecting partner roadmaps, category guidance, and go-to-market activation into a cohesive execution engine that drives conversion, partner confidence, and competitive share.

Responsibilities

Key deliverables

• Lead and manage the end-to-end account strategy, programs, investments and portfolio planning process in partnership with Retail teams, Silicon teams and OEM teams, ensuring alignment particularly around retailer assortment cycles.
• Drive account-level execution rigor across silicon and OEM, integrating account, partner, and supply signals down to the deal level, connecting category, sales, marketing, silicon, and worldwide teams to close gaps and land decisions with clear owners and timing.
• Build the operating tools, trackers, dashboards, and reporting that give leadership visibility into risks, priorities, and performance across accounts, OEMs, and silicon, and use those insights to recommend corrective actions and investment shifts.
• Serve as a regional advocate, influencing OEM and Product Marketing to prioritize the right devices, programs, investments and decisions for future cycle designs based on market needs and feedback.
• Oversee and evolve incentive program structure to create the right behavior towards gaining market share

Qualifications

Required/minimum qualifications

• Bachelors Degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, Economics, Public Relations, Engineering, or related field AND 4+ years category management, product management, marketing strategy, business planning, product planning, or related work experience

• OR equivalent experience.

• Experience building performance reporting, business reviews, dashboards, executive narratives, or operating rhythms.

• Strong Excel and PowerPoint skills; working knowledge of Power BI or similar analytics and visualization tools.

• Demonstrated ability to collaborate across functions, manage ambiguity, and communicate clearly with senior stakeholders

Additional or preferred qualifications

• Masters Degree in Business Administration, Business, Marketing, Communications, Economics, Public Relations, or related field AND 6+ years category management, product management, marketing strategy, business planning, product planning, or related work experience

• OR Bachelors Degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, Economics, Public Relations, Engineering, or related field AND 8+ years category management, product management, marketing strategy, business planning, product planning, or related work experience

• OR equivalent experience.

• 4+ years experience managing and expanding a category and attaining sales and profitability targets within a complex (e.g., multinational or matrixed) organization OR equivalent experience.

• Experience with consumer subscriptions, retail or digital channels, partner programs, investment governance, or go-to-market planning.

• Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders through data-driven recommendations and clear decision framing.

• Experience improving operating models, business rhythms, governance frameworks, or scalable reporting processes.

Category Management IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $106,400 - $203,600 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 $137,600 - $222,600 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:

https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

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 with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.