Business Strategy Lead - Higher Education

The Business Strategy Lead - Higher Education within Microsoft's Worldwide Public Sector will head the global go-to-market strategy, and sales enablement plan for Higher Education as part of the Education Industry team. This role requires orchestration of internal and external resources serving the global Higher Education community. In this role, you will be a leader with a nuanced understanding of the Higher Education sector, broad technology knowledge, business acumen, and a clear interest in opportunities to help Higher Education institutions transform through cloud-based, AI-enhanced services. This leader will formalize a multi-year strategic go-to-market plan, set annual operational objectives, and collaborate with multiple Microsoft organizations such as Worldwide Public Sector, Engineering, Marketing, and Civic Engagement and Legal Affairs (CELA) to drive revenue attainment in Microsoft's Higher Education vertical.

In this role, you will understand the mission and business objectives of Higher Education institutions spanning student lifecycle, academic services, and grant-funded research. This leader will have foundational fluency of Enterprise Architecture, Cloud Services, Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, and Data Estate Management. With proven ability to engage academic and administrative leaders in higher education institutions and communicate how technology can improve student experiences and academic outcomes, this role will allow you to showcase your familiarity with technology providers serving the industry, the funding landscape, support organizations, and technology infrastructure for higher education. This role is flexible in that you can work up to 100% work from home.

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.

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Finance, Engineering, or related field AND 5+ years experience in business consulting, sales, sales operations, information technology (IT), account management, business development, marketing, IT field sales, or a related field
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 6+ years experience in Near Term Strategy (2 years out), Management Consulting, information technology (IT), Sales, Finance, or related.
• 3+ years of experience working in or with Higher Education institutions.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Computer Science, or related field AND 7+ years marketing, strategy, sales, sales leadership, program management, project management, business planning, consulting, finance, economics, and/or partner organization experience
  • OR Master's Degree in Business Administration or related field AND 5+ years marketing, strategy, sales, sales leadership, program management, project management, business planning, consulting, banking, finance, economics, and/or partner organization experience
  • OR equivalent experience.
• Deep familiarity with cloud-enabled capabilities
• Exceptional business and technical acumen
• Experience working in distributed virtual teams across many different geographies and cultures, demonstrating solid collaboration and relationship skills that result in positive outcomes for many stakeholders

Sales Strategy Enablement IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $129,200 - $248,800 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 $162,000 - $268,900 per year.

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

Microsoft will accept applications for the role until October 15, 2024.

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 .

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.

#IPS

Responsibilities

• Guide a geographically distributed global team of field personnel (account executives, technology specialists, industry advisors, etc.) to identify and support target accounts, assist account teams in customer engagements, build pipeline, and grow revenue.
• Establish and maintain relationships with Microsoft's regional leaders, and broader Public Sector.
• Monitor regional trends and evolving needs of digital transformation initiatives in Higher Education globally.
• Gather, synthesize, and prioritize technology and business model needs, and identify gaps in Microsoft offerings to inform roadmaps in alignment with business strategy.
• Represent Microsoft to the market via direct customer engagement, industry events, and social media.
• Leverage customer and partner success stories to build use cases, case studies, references, and evidence to articulate and amplify the impact of Microsoft capabilities in Higher Education.
• Communicate insights and influences key stakeholders on current and future sales planning initiatives. Act as high-level business conduit to internal and external stakeholders. Oversee the outputs from business, tools, and platform experts to assist in changing the sales planning operations and processes. Communicate with field sales on business updates and plans within all geographic regions and territories. Share best practices with peers.
• Manages the field landing strategy and priorities to ensure smooth landing, field execution and sellers' capability building.
• Guides others in conducting innovative market-based research by leveraging and interpreting information (e.g., product reports, previous sales revenue, geographic sales data, stakeholder feedback, expert calls) around high-impact strategic sales questions, including researching within existing businesses and identifying new spaces for Microsoft sales strategies. Involves stakeholders as appropriate. Leverages analyses of others to synthesize information and challenges research of others. Owns framing for broad research projects, ratifying with executives.
• Other: Embody our culture and values

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