Principal Product Manager - Competitive Strategist

Microsoft Corporation•San Francisco, CA

52d

About The Position

Windows powers over 1.4 billion devices globally and anchors the commercial PC ecosystem-spanning OEM (Original Equipment Manufacture) partners, enterprise customers, education, public sector, MSPs, ISVs, and silicon providers. The Windows organization drives innovation across client platforms, commercial strategy, and ecosystem partnerships. We are looking for a Principal Product Manager - Competitive Strategist to lead competitive intelligence and signal routing for competitors ecosystem. This role ensures Microsoft has a real-time, data-backed understanding of how and where competive hardware is gaining ground-and turns that awareness into targeted action across product, OEM, and commercial teams. This is a high-impact, horizontal role reporting to the CVP of Windows Ecosystem & Engagement, operating across engineering, commercial insights, and partner strategy. What Success Looks Like: • Microsoft knows where competition is gaining ground-before it shows in market share. • OEM, engineering, and commercial leaders have actionable clarity, not just reports. • Competitive insight informs roadmaps, device portfolio decisions, and partner motions. This role is ideal for someone who thrives on ambiguity, seeks patterns in complex data, and drives impact through insight. If you're ready to shape how Microsoft competes in a rapidly evolving ecosystem, we'd love to hear from you. 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.

Requirements

Bachelor's Degree AND 8+ years experience in product/service/program management or software development OR equivalent experience.
5+ years in competitive intelligence, strategy, market insights, or product planning.
Experience with device/OS ecosystems, enterprise IT trends, or hardware OEMs.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with Windows quality metrics and enterprise customer needs.
Experience with tools like Kusto, Power BI, or Azure ML.
Ability to influence without authority and operate across cross-functional teams.
Solid analytical skills with the ability to synthesize incomplete signals.
Proven ability in storytelling and communication skills, especially with executive audiences.

Responsibilities

Track competitive device adoption, attach, pricing, and deployment trends across segments (EDU, SMB, Enterprise, Consumer).
Aggregate competitive intelligence from field teams, customer accounts, and market signals.
Monitor competive momentum across hardware, silicon, OS, ecosystem, and services.
Partner with data science and BI teams to surface telemetry and share erosion signals.
Identify early signs of displacement and competitive creep.
Build narratives around customer preference for competive over Windows.
Translate qualitative and quantitative signals into structured risks and directional asks.
Route insights to action owners across Product, Engineering, and OEM teams.
Define "so what?" and "what must change?" scenarios to drive roadmap influence.
Create sharp, data-backed briefs and red alerts for executive audiences.
Support share-defense, GTM, and OEM strategy with competitive intelligence.