Virtual Earth - Now Hiring

Since I post all kinds of Virtual Earth tidbits up here, I figure I'd ensure you were all aware of some of the positions we have open on our team. Yes - we are hiring! I was sent a couple job descriptions from internal hiring managers and figured, hey, the people reading my blog are probably interested in the mapping space and may be looking for a career move. Well, here's your chance!

We currently have 20 career openings on the Virtual Earth team in the US ranging from Software Development to Sales. You can see a full list of them in the Microsoft Career Site. I turned on some filtering to navigate you right to our offerings. You can see a full list of international opportunities on the Microsoft Career site.

Okay, so there is one job that isn't posted there yet and the reason I'm posting it here is because it's a high demand position and you get to be really fricken' cool and powerful. Love that. It's a Biz Dev role working with our vendors to acquire data! How cool would you be to be in that roll at this time in our industry?? You get to spend Microsoft money!

Here's the full description which should be on the job site soon:

Standard Title: Senior Business Development Manager

Location: Redmond

Job Description:               

The Local Search team is looking for a highly motivated business development manager with a passion for location-based technologies and interest in helping shape the evolution of our Local Search offerings in APAC. Windows Live™ Local Search is a platform, experience and a community for capturing, connecting, sharing and visualizing information based on location. Local Search (including Virtual Earth) extends the current mapping experience into real-world immersive search, browse, navigation and discovery of local information across all devices and experiences. Reporting into the Local Search Product Group, you will play a key role in the development and execution of the Local Search content and monetization strategies in APAC, as well as support the internal Business Groups that leverage the Local Search platform for their Worldwide product offerings.

In this role, you will own the business strategy, drive our content and partner engagement strategy, help influence technology roadmap, and help conduct market analyses. You should be prepared to succeed against aggressive goals with minimum supervision, and be comfortable working with different partners and virtual teams, internally and externally. We are looking for an individual with strong execution skills who has a demonstrated ability to successfully work through the technical, business, and cross functional challenges associated with content and technology licensing.

Responsibilities include:

· Evolving Product & Strategy: Given the level of innovation in this field, you will need to ensure we are making the right business decisions, developing the right products, and ensure we are developing the leading APAC partner and consumer base.

· Content Portfolio Management: You will play a pivotal role in making content, product mix and partnership decisions, and work with the necessary internal & external teams to implement those plans. You will own identifying and evaluating partner-based business opportunities that contribute to leading-edge Internet capabilities in the Local and mapping space.

· Business management: You will manage the P&L for the business and track our business metrics. You will provide input into the financial budgeting/reporting process, executive roll-ups, strategy reviews and support the regional subsidiaries to achieve their goals.

· End-to-end management: Through close interactions with the product development, advertising, marketing, business development and account management teams, you will help ensure that we are organizationally aligned to achieve our goals and implement agreed-upon strategy.

Qualifications & Requirements include:

· The ideal candidate will have an MBA or equivalent plus a minimum of 6-7 years experience in business management or a related field.

· You will need to have the drive, creativity, and flexibility to succeed in a fast paced and challenging environment.

· You should be self-sufficient, able to operate with minimal supervision, a strong communicator, and have good project leadership skills to transform ideas into successful execution.

· You should have experience in managing a business, in identifying and prioritizing industry/consumer trends, translating those priorities into technical and business requirements, and in interacting with multi-functional and multi-regional teams and partners.

· Previous experience and passion for the Local Search and/or online mapping market segment is highly preferred.

· Position requires international travel.

If you're qualified, passionate, interested and don't mind free trips around the world send me your resume - chris.pendleton@microsoft.com. I'm not promising I'll bump you to the top, but I'll ensure the hiring manager gets your resume.

CP