At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Our mission statement is a commitment to all employees, teams, customers and partners to achieve impact greater than any one individual with a purpose driven mission to support the betterment of all. We work across geographies, with customers of all sizes, incredible partners, a talented team and with respect for diversity and the communities in which we operate.
In the Chief Digital Office, our mission is clear. We will unlock opportunities to support growth, digital transformation and solve the biggest challenges that face us within the Industry, Government and Society. Our goal is to create markets that connect our government, public and private sector together through the power of Data and AI to make the transformational changes, create policy and remove barriers that will help us address the biggest societal challenges in the US market.
Microsoft has become a market leader in developing AI for good solutions and programs, building the ecosystem in communities to help solve equity and access issues. As local communities and the world continue to experience employment disruption from COVID-19, Microsoft has released a commitment to skill 25 million people worldwide to address the growing digital divide. As part of this initiative the US business has made a commitment to increase economic development by creating skills for high-demand jobs in specific cities across the US. The first city in this initiative is Atlanta; more information about Accelerate Atlanta can be found here: https://accelerateatlanta.event.microsoft.com/
We're looking for someone who can take the US market strategy and activation of Accelerate forward broadly in five areas:
Develop the national Accelerate marketing strategy leveraging a connected ecosystem approach of community organizations, corporate sponsors, non profits, government entities and free/paid media
Activate communities in target cities by driving awareness and conversion into learning programs including Global Skills Initiative, Linked In Learning, Microsoft Learn and Microsoft Learning Partners.
Activate the ecosystem: specifically strategic business development and relationship management to increase community engagement and support for skilling initiatives
Lead strategic partnerships for skilling from a marketing lens to build repeatable sales and market making motions to establish Microsoft thought leadership in AI skilling.
Grow share of voice and share of market for digital skilling and Corporate Social Responsibility
Marketing Leadership: We have made commitments in the market to create economic impact in specific communities through our efforts to close the digital skilling divide. This role will lead the market activation strategy to ensure that communities are aware of this skilling opportunity, have access and are engaged in the Accelerate skilling initiative.
Customer engagement with marketing teams : Our customers have their own deep commitments to society's most pressing challenges. Innovators are taking an AI-first approach to developing solutions to empower people and societal impact to solve equity and access issues, including closing the digital skills divide. Our technology and skilling programs can help them on this journey. This role will provide marketing leadership to develop a joint-marketing-plan with the marketing departments of our corporate sponsors. These corporate sponsors of Accelerate are our customers.
Business development building Strategic marketing partnerships : Public and Private partnerships are critical to sustainable local partnerships to support broad scale community skilling initiatives. Partnerships such as our Non-Profits, NGO's, Government Agencies in combination with our corporate partners allow us to build a holistic approach. This role will build upon this partnership framework, to activate our partners to grow and support the Accelerate Program.
Responsibilities
This role will work closely with the Central Marketing Organization, Go-To-Market, One Commercial Partner and field organization to ensure strong visibility, proofpoints and storytelling of Microsoft's vision for societal impact, create the right influencers in market and the innovation to support our global markets. Future projects, announcements and campaigns will need the support, partnership and leadership from this role.
Develop the National Accelerate Marketing Strategy inclusive of business development partnerships required to build a robust candidate funnel with strong conversion rates.
Manage and orchestrate connections across Microsoft including the CMO and Citizenship team to land strategic partnerships, and marketing strategies to support city activation
Develop joint marketing plans with corporate partners ensuring strong and mutually beneficial marketing activation
Develop city and regional specific storytelling and messaging that influences PR activation, and partner enablement.
Lead efforts on local audience identification, narrative creation, and creative brief design to ensure a locally relevant and community driven approach to marketing the Accelerate program.
Develop end to end marketing bill of materials including program landing page, candidate skill assessment and course suggestions, digital assets, Out of Home assets, pitch decks, editorial calendar, case studies, and more
Partner with community organizations to create relevant "campaign in a box" assets and materials for local markets to execute effectively
Build relationships and strategies to activate internal and external partners to scale the Accelerate story beyond Microsoft's traditional audiences. Partnerships to include: LinkedIn, Corporations, Learning Partners, Community and Government Organizations, Educational Institutions, Coalition and Industry Associations, and more.
Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications:
5 years of marketing, business development or related experience
A proven track record of effectively partnering with a wide variety of stakeholder groups ideally within or in support of a corporate context.
A strong ability to collaborate and communicate effectively, demonstrating excellent communication skills and attention to detail
BA/BS required; MBA preferred
Role location: remote (Any major US city)
Additional Qualifications:
Executive Presence: Experience and expertise selling to senior business decision makers by aligning & reinforcing the value of the solution to the customer's overall business pain and/or strategic opportunities and decision criteria
Strategy: Experience developing strategies, execution plans and reporting to achieve business goals through multiple channels and competing to take market share.
Systems thinker: ability to work across diverse groups and initiatives to create cohesive programs and campaigns
Project Management: Proven ability to oversee complex projects with various internal and external stakeholders to successful completion.
Collaborative: Strong relationship-building and negotiation skills
Business Development and relationship management: able to work across external stakeholders to align on priorities and develop mutually beneficial programs and contracts.
Excellent Communicator: Able to distill widely variant feedback into root cause issues and provid