Sustainability Strategy Leader

If you have a passion for empowering our customers on their journey to net-zero and want to be part of the greatest digital revolution, we want to hear from you. Environmental concerns and sustainability initiatives are driving all organizations in every industry through an accelerated energy transition. Customers across all industries are asking Microsoft to help them reinvent their business, innovate, and digitally transform to today’s new realities.

As we embrace a more sustainable future fostered by digital empowerment, we are looking for leaders to enable this transformation for our customers and partners. The Sustainability Industry Team, part of the Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions organization, is accountable for leveraging deep industry and technical expertise to enable sales teams and partners to deliver relevant, customized industry solutions and services, built on a secure, integrated cloud platform, that empower our customers to digitally transform their businesses. It’s no longer just about one simple software solution; it’s about creating a connected, secure, efficient, and scalable digital ecosystem.

Our team culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset, collaboration, inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day. In doing so, we create life-changing innovations that impact billions of lives around the world. 

About the role – Sustainability Strategy Leader

The Sustainability Strategy Leader will define and shape the industry portfolio of sustainability solutions and deep partnerships that empower digital transformation and the energy transition across industries. They will ensure that Microsoft customers and partners are well-positioned for success in a rapidly changing business and technology environment.

Responsibilities

The Sustainability Strategy Leader will focus in a key area of the business including solution strategy, partner strategy, and technology strategy. The key accountabilities will be to:

• Drive a deep understanding of customer business issues, context, challenges, and strategic direction as well as the partner ecosystem relevant to industry-specific sustainability solutions.
• Cultivate relationships with senior management and manage across functional teams.
• Identify new market opportunities, business models, and solution gaps; articulate business value and outcomes; and build strategies around market requirements.
• Develop sustainability solutions and partnerships across industries and engage Field sales, Marketing, Partner and Engineering teams to drive customer opportunities.
• Identify and Cultivate the right partner ecosystem to deliver key sustainability results and align our joint Go To Market team (GTM) for mutual success.
• Collaborate across Microsoft engineering teams to translate sustainability market needs into platform capabilities, investments and partner and customer co-innovation
• Hold others accountable and demonstrate impact and influence without direct control while maintaining excellent cross-boundary collaboration.
• Provide thought leadership and insights for the field, partner, business development and engineering teams on sustainability strategy.
• Enhance client awareness of Microsoft as a solution provider and positions Microsoft as a trusted partner for digital transformation with business decision makers.
• Build long-term trusted relationships with C-Level decision makers which result in solid and meaningful strategic business conversations and opportunities.
• Work closely with the Microsoft partner ecosystem and partner teams to align partners to strategy, identify gaps in partner ecosystem and identify next generation sustainability partners.
• Think in terms of transformation and innovation that drives real industry change.
•  Have a deep knowledge of competitive differentiation.
• Drive executive conversations both in and outside of IT, further expanding and deepening client relationships, value delivery and satisfaction.
• Participate in a cross-team governance process that represents the needs of sustainability solutions, customers, and the field, effectively liaising with engineering and other corporate functions to problem-solve and develop innovative new strategies and programs.
• Partner with key Industry stakeholders, account teams, and marketing to land the business value of Microsoft’s sustainability offerings at executive client touch points, strengthening Microsoft’s role as a trusted energy transition advisor.

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Liberal Arts, Computer Science, Engineering or related field AND 8+ years industry domain expertise and sustainability solution experience working in business roles across key industries including retail, consumer goods, manufacturing, energy and/or financial services.
• OR Master's Degree in Business Administration or related field AND 6+ years marketing, strategy, business planning, consulting, banking, finance, economics, and/or partner organization experience
• OR equivalent experience (e.g., scaling a business, incubation, driving change in a large company, entrepreneurship, management consulting).
• 5+ years’ experience with coaching solution sales, account development strategies, leadership roles in multi-tiered global organizations, selling and delivering complex solutions to enterprise customers
• OR equivalent experience

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Liberal Arts, Computer Science, or related field AND 15+ years industry domain expertise and sustainability solution experience working in business roles across key industries including retail, consumer goods, manufacturing, energy and/or financial services.
• OR Master’s Degree in Business Administration or related field AND 12+ years marketing, strategy, business planning, consulting, banking, finance, economics, and/or partner organization experience
• OR equivalent experience (e.g., scaling a business, incubation, driving change in a large company, entrepreneurship).
• Strong understanding of the energy transition and prior experience in driving sustainability initiatives and solutions.
• In-depth understanding of partner ecosystems (including Tier 1s, ISVs, SIs) related to sustainability for key industries and ability to identify leading solution vendors and/or systems integrators with relevant repeatable solutions or domain practices.
• Strong leadership & interpersonal skills, coaching skills, cross-group collaboration and proven ability to influence across organizational boundaries.
• Proven track record and experience leading organizational transformations while delivering on long- and short-term results.
• Master communicator with ability to translate technology solutions into business outcome driven sales tools.
• Strategic leadership with track record driving results faster than competition in new markets/solution areas (preferred: cloud services growth and consumption)

Strong executive presence and presentation skills.

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.

The salary for this role in the state of Colorado is between $157,300 and $258,200.

At Microsoft, certain roles are eligible for additional rewards, including annual bonus and stock. These awards are allocated based on individual performance. In addition, certain roles also have the opportunity to earn sales incentives based on revenue or utilization, depending on the terms of the plan and the employee’s role.

Benefits/perks listed here may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.US-based employees gain access to healthcare benefits, a 401(k) plan and company match, short-term and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance, and fitness benefits, among others.

Location/Travel: You may be based anywhere in the United States. You can expect limited global travel, 0 – 25%, contingent upon Covid-19 restrictions.