Education institutions around the world are transforming their learning environments to increase student and educator access to technology and truly enhance the learning opportunities in and outside the classroom. The rise of digital content and ubiquitous access of technology is driving institutions to rethink how they teach and test, and bring about new opportunities to ensure students today develop the skills they need to be successful in the future.

In one of the most important and strategic verticals at Microsoft, the Education Vertical is looking for a passionate, collaborative and creative program manager to lead and execute our school leader audience engagement and strategic partnership engagements around the world. This role requires proven education and business experience, as well as strong people and communication skills. The role reports to the Director of the Education Engagement Team.

The candidate should be a thought leader and thought partner to both internal and external teams and stakeholders. From corporate and field sales, as well as our education marketing and engineering teams to effectively articulate and collaborate on the needs and opportunities for this audience to leading strategy and engagement with key strategic organizations like Global Partnership for Education, UNESCO, World Bank as well as Ministry, regional, city and district education leadership from around the world. This role will be responsible for developing, communicating and executing quality year-round engagements with and through our field teams, Microsoft events and partnerships. The role also has global responsibility, supporting our global field account teams in their daily engagement from student to ministry.

This position will continue to shape one of the most critical areas of the company, but most importantly, elevate Microsoft’s position in the market as a transformational leader of education, beyond just technology. This individual will be expected to be a credible and empathetic business partner to system leaders and strategic industry organizations leadership and members. Their experience should lend to their ability to speak at conferences and events about Microsoft’s education strategy as well as support customer sales engagements. This person will continue to help our team shape our transformation assets and narrative to support school leaders around the world as they venture on their transformational journeys.

The ideal candidate is someone with a tenacious passion for education, experience and understanding of the K-12 system leader audience and technology market.

Responsibilities

• Engage with system leaders in education organizations and governments around the world sharing Microsoft’s point of view in education and ensuring trusted relationships with our key accounts
• Establish presence, be seen as, a leading influencer in education industry events, elevating Microsoft’s market perception/thought leadership with systems leaders
• Lead Microsoft’s system leader event engagement at strategic first and third party events
• Role model effective education transformation conversations and engagements, and provide field and partner readiness plans and engagements to drive adoption of the Microsoft Education Transformation Framework across roles in the business
• Work closely and partner with education internal product, marketing, legal, philanthropic, consulting and engineering teams
• Develop and manage strategic engagements and collaborations with influential industry associations
• Develop audience sales strategy aligned to engage system leaders, including materials to drive scale such as conversation materials, workshop formats and professional development opportunities.
• Lead all K-12 programmatic engagements for system leaders
• Create clarity, generate energy, and deliver success as a trusted team member and help create exceptional team culture

Qualifications

• 5+ years working experience in K-12, higher education, and/or the non-profit sector
• ability to travel at least once per month
• Knowledge of the education industry with particular focus on K-12 vertical
• Exceptional presentation skills and storytelling capability to deliver keynotes with large audiences
• Demonstrable experience collaborating and influencing across multiple stakeholder groups. Ability to work successfully across a complex, highly-matrixed environment 
• Excellent skills in planning, communications, analytical capabilities and attention to detail
• Passion and proven record for execution with measurable results
• Strong interpersonal skills, innovation, and the ability to inspire, and lead to bring others along
• Ability to deal with ambiguity, navigate uncertain situations, and drive for clarity 
• Demonstrate strong verbal and written communications skills across geographically dispersed audiences 
• Excellence and experience in managing budget
• MBA preferred but not required
• Azure Fundamentals certification preferred but not required

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. 

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