Corporate Initiatives Partner Manager

Microsoft is in the press more than any corporation in the world. As such, we need to know how our customers are thinking about a broad array of issues, from our corporate image to competition to charitable giving to computer security, to help us understand how we should respond to emerging issues and opportunities. This position is on the market research team that informs our press, public policy and corporate image activities. You will be responsible for managing projects that help guide Microsoft’s broad corporate initiatives and how we communicate with our markets.

You will have ultimate responsibility for informing corporate communications and corporate initiatives at Microsoft using research based insights. You will be the single point of contact to synthesize and integrate research (primary and secondary) to inform business strategy. It will be imperative that you continually study the subject matter, develop deep business acumen, have a concise point of view and be able to articulate this view in a compelling way. The measure of success is whether people take action based on your insights. You will be responsible for championing and evangelizing research related to Microsoft’s corporate image for corporate PR and other corporate teams. You will deliver presentations to audiences and teams of all sizes across Microsoft. You will need to be proficient at understanding and eventually anticipating both research and business questions and issues related to corporate initiatives.

Elements of the Role:

  1. Understand: Communication skills will be critical as the ability to precisely question, deeply understand, and specifically articulate the business question or issue related to a strategic corporate initiative will lead to ultimate success. The ability to build relationships through excellent verbal and written communication skills are imperative as are the ability to think strategically while maintaining a research focus in your communications.
  2. Analyze: The person in this role must have advanced analytic capabilities as well as a strategic perspective. On a day to day basis, you will work with multiple data sources (including data tables, reports, and white papers) pulling information relevant to a business issue or question, and distill this information into actionable insights that help drive the business forward.
  3. Persuade: Answering strategic business questions is perhaps the most important aspect of problem solving. To do this well, you must be able to interpret patterns and tell a convincing, fact-based story that helps unify stakeholders’ decisions. Impacting the business by bringing closure to strategic business questions through the delivery of research based integrated insights based will be a specific measure of success.  

Responsibilities include:

  • Participating in business strategy discussions to evaluate the business need for research
  • Evaluating proprietary and syndicated research to garner insights
  • Developing research proposals and project plans, selecting and managing vendors, and managing budgets
  • Designing and executing messaging and positioning research to inform corporate image strategies and campaigns

Minimum Requirements:

Bachelor Degree (Master’s or Ph.D. strongly preferred) with research and business elements, including statistics, desired. MBA is a plus. Five years experience in business consulting and/or market research or directly related profession required. Technology industry experiences a strong plus. A proven ability applying data and market research to produce fact-based and actionable business insights to drive the business is desired. Applicant must also have a successful track record working collaboratively with teams.

In addition to the above, the candidate also must have a strong theoretical and practical knowledge of research design and execution as these skills will be necessary when communicating with program management teams.

· Demonstrated concise, effective communication both spoken and written.

· Demonstrated ability to form strong working relationships with all levels of partners and co-workers.

· Ability to handle a large variety of tasks simultaneously.

· Ability to handle ambiguity, high workload, and extreme amounts of detail.

· Excellent interpersonal, verbal, writing, analytic, and PowerPoint skills

 

(Please send resumes to Heather.Hamilton@microsoft.com)

 

6/22/2006