Principal Business Strategy Manager

Microsoft’s Cloud business is expanding, and the Cloud Supply Chain (CSCP) organization is responsible for enabling the hardware infrastructure underlying this growth including AI! CSCP’s vision is to empower customers to achieve more by delivering Cloud and AI capabilities at scale. Our mission is to deliver the world's computer with an industry-leading supply chain. The CSCP organization is responsible for traditional supply chain functions such as plan, source, make, deliver, but also manages supportability (spares), sustainability, and decommissioning of datacenter assets worldwide. We deliver the core infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft's over 200 online businesses including Bing, MSN, Office 365, Xbox Live, OneDrive and the Microsoft Azure platform for external customers. Our infrastructure is supported by more than 300 datacenters around the world that enable services for more than 1 billion customers in over 90 countries.

The Cloud Sourcing, Spares, Security and Sustainability (CS4) organization within CSCP manages sourcing, strategy, and suppliers to provide cost, flexibility, and supply advantages that enable our org to become a world-class supply chain. Well-defined and executed sourcing and supply chain management ensures reliable, on-time performance and optimized cost, prevents urgent and unplanned investments, and provides accurate and timely information across the supply base and internally across the infrastructure organization. Our focus is on smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering a trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide.

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.

#CSCP #CSCPJobs

Business Partner Relationships 

• Establishes and maintains key points of contact with internal teams (e.g., Finance, Marketing, Engineering); manages and cultivates relationships with leaders of internal teams. Builds relationships with senior executives (e.g., Directors, GM-level, CVP). Acts as an advisor to senior leadership on a particular area of expertise, leveraging breadth of deep technical/product knowledge, organizational context, and market awareness to guide less experienced colleagues and inform strategic business decisions. Provides career mentorship to less experienced colleagues outside of Strategy function. Identifies compelling projects and positions the team to carry them out. 

Communication

• Communicates and advocates insights to senior business leaders (e.g., Senior Directors, GM-level, CVP) and conveys viewpoints through written documents (e.g., memos, reports) and influence models (e.g., meetings, presentations) through moderate iterations of feedback and vetting; builds end-to-end storylines and creates outlines across multiples projects for less experienced colleagues to leverage. Delivers project findings recommendations, and implications to senior executives to facilitate senior discussions and decision making. 

External Engagement

• Provides support for executive meetings. Engages with industry figures (e.g., equity analyst, partners, acquisition targets) to share Microsoft's perspective as appropriate.
• Supports delivery of external communications on behalf of the Strategy function. Supports external meetings by explaining research and analysis and answering targeted questions.

Market Perspective

• Develops and maintains an understanding of customers, competitors, partners, business models, market sizing, and industry trends; develops and maintains an understanding of the merger and acquisition (M&A), venture funding and public market environment and trends; leads market landscape analyses and reviews of companies of potential interest; provides guidance to business partners to inform decision-making. 

Microsoft Portfolio Strategy and Prioritization

• Develops an understanding of Microsoft’s product portfolio, strategic priorities, competitive position, gaps, and potential opportunities; drives evaluation of Microsoft strategic alternatives (e.g., buy, build, partner) and acquisition alternatives; ensures product roadmap, go-to-market, integration plans, and related issues are considered. 

Problem Solving & Insight

• Synthesizes findings into insights across projects, including implications that inform business