Are you interested in helping to inform and guide Microsoft’s strategic and technical direction?  Are you interested in making sure we have the right technology, talent and culture across the company to deliver on Microsoft’s ambitions?  Are you a self-starter who can effectively manage strategic partnerships, while representing the CTO of Microsoft? 

The Office of the CTO Strategic Partnerships Team is a small group that manages external customer and partner relationships.  Our mission is to establish and nurture key strategic relationships that align with the CTO’s charter and Microsoft’s key strategies.  We are looking for our next team member: an experienced Program Manager who is excited by new technology trends, ready to dive into emerging technologies, and is motivated by working with partners to deliver joint success. 

This role requires a self-motivated individual, comfortable operating in a fast-paced and highly technical environment.  The role requires collaborating with teams and executives across both Microsoft and our partner companies, managing the interaction of research and development teams and driving successful delivery of joint projects – all while staying focused on Microsoft’s strategic goals. 

#OCTO

Responsibilities

We are looking for passionate people who will: 

• Lead customer and partner engagements, identifying joint opportunities aligned with Microsoft’s strategic ambitions. 
• Define success criteria for key strategic partnerships: partnering with senior leaders across engineering, strategy, and research to identify milestones, responsibilities, and processes that accelerate our product groups’ existing efforts. 
• Apply excellent project and program management techniques to drive clarity and accountability for large, complex collaboration efforts across multiple teams. 

• Evaluate and communicate the health and progress of our partnerships, and brief executives for key customer and partner meetings. 
• Work with the CTO’s Technical Advisors on incubation efforts that demonstrate the promise of new technology breakthroughs, product categories and business models.  Course-correct as incubation teams execute and deliver results, work with teams across Microsoft to scale our efforts, and graduate those projects into product groups. 
• Be a self-starter and be comfortable working in ambiguous environments, keeping shared goals in mind and working with a collaborative and curious mindset 
• Be eager to learn, work hard and have fun! 

Qualifications

Required: 

• 5+ years of experience in Program Management or Software Engineering role.
• BS or MS degree in Computer Science or equivalent industry experience

Preferred: 

• 7+ years of experience in Program Management or Software Engineering role.
• Excellent organizational skills, and demonstrated success managing strategic partnerships, including defining and marshalling large scale collaborative projects with multiple stakeholder groups. 
• Ability to handle ambiguity, drive clarity, and identify/prioritize issues and opportunities. 
• Ability to communicate effectively with senior leaders from both Microsoft and external companies. 
• Experience driving research ideas into production.
• Knowledge of machine learning technologies.
• Ability to establish and nurture broad and deep networks across both commercial partners and open source ecosystems.
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Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances.  We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.