Senior Business Manager

Microsoft’s Democracy Forward team works globally to safeguard open and secure democratic processes, promote a healthy information ecosystem, and advance corporate civic responsibility. Democracy Forward is part of Microsoft’s Technology for Fundamental Rights (TFR) team.   
 
In TFR, we work to make Microsoft technology useful and trustworthy and continue to up our ambition to evolve in a fast-paced and dynamic business and geopolitical landscape. Our culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset, courageous leadership, and learning at speed to enable teams and leaders to bring their best each day.  

Democracy Forward is seeking a Senior Business Manager to drive business operations for the team, including managing the team’s budget and setting the team’s rhythm of business (ROB). This experienced Business Manager will possess effective communication skills, industry experience and be able to develop and implement corporate strategies and work collaboratively across internal Microsoft and external stakeholders.  

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. 

Responsibilities

Business Operations 

• Drives the architecting, developing, and executing of the team’s rhythm of business (ROB). Works closely with the senior leader to ensure accountability and deliver outcomes.  
• Leverages knowledge of organizational strategy and planned deliverables for the upcoming year(s) to design budgets.  
• Develops forecasting plans in partnership with the leadership team. Oversee the development of metrics for budgeting and forecasting; identifies actions that can be taken to course-correct and drive performance improvement; anticipates business challenges based on forecasts. 
• Collaborates with leaders regarding resource management planning.  

Executive Team Communications 

• Optimizes the leader’s time by organizing regular communications to stakeholders; performs triage and ghostwriting on behalf of the leader to expedite leader's time responding to emails. 
• Develops presentations and messaging related to the team's mission and key projects.  

Maximizing/ Extending the Leader 

• Leverages knowledge of the leader's goals and business approach to ensure business activities are aligned with the leader's objectives.  
• Supports the leader in key business management areas (e.g., setting key goals, priorities, and definitions; team culture and health; communications; budget/finance; industry/specific business knowledge). 
• Synthesizes information into insights that inform business decisions, leveraging expertise to influence the leader and leadership team.  
• Leverages relationships to influence and advise on strategic decisions, content, and/or expertise. 
• Manages and builds relationships with senior leaders and executive internal leaders. 

Organizational Health 

• Monitors team/organization health and sup