Strategic and Operational Design Lead

Microsoft

About The Position

With more than 45,000 employees and partners worldwide, the Customer Experience and Success (CE&S) organization is on a mission to empower customers to accelerate business value through differentiated customer experiences that leverage Microsoft’s products and services, ignited by our people and culture. We drive cross-company alignment and execution, ensuring that we consistently exceed customers’ expectations in every interaction, whether in-product, digital, or human-centered. CE&S is responsible for all up services across the company, including consulting, customer success, and support across Microsoft’s portfolio of solutions and products. Join CE&S and help us accelerate AI transformation for our customers and the world. Within CE&S, the Customer Service & Support (CSS) organization builds trust and confidence for every person and organization through delivering a seamless support experience. In CSS, we are powered by Microsoft’s AI technology to help consumers, businesses, partners, and more, resolve their issues quickly and securely, helping prevent future problems from occurring and achieving more from their Microsoft investment. As CSS navigates its transformation of support, opportunities to improve how it delivers and operates are continuously identified, whether through new technology, changes to how support is delivered, or operational improvements driven by AI. We are looking for a Strategic & Operational Design Lead to join our Strategy + Design team and build a function that shapes the strategy for emerging opportunities and gives leadership the clarity and shared understanding to make confident investment decisions. Each opportunity requires leadership to decide whether it is worth pursuing and what pursuing it would actually take. Without deliberate work to define the strategy for how an opportunity will succeed and translate that into what it requires operationally, decisions get made on assumptions rather than clarity, and efforts move forward without the grounding needed to succeed. This role convenes stakeholders who often arrive with different perspectives, competing priorities, or solutions already in mind, and does the work to find where the real value is. They dig beneath surface-level asks to articulate the actual problem being solved, why it matters, and how confident we should be that a proposed approach will deliver. They evaluate how opportunities align with CSS's strategy and roadmap, surfacing where they fit and what trade-offs they create. For opportunities worth pursuing, they develop the strategy: defining the boundaries of the effort, the specific success criteria that will determine whether it succeeded or failed, and the right approach, whether phased rollout, pilot, or full implementation. They then translate that strategy into operational design: surfacing the level of effort involved, which teams would need to engage, and the components that would need to be defined, from technology development and process changes to system updates, role impacts, and commitments from other teams. 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

Master's Degree in Business Administration or related field AND 3+ years marketing, strategy, business planning, consulting, banking, finance, economics, and/or partner organization experience
OR Bachelor's Degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Liberal Arts, Computer Science, or related field AND 4+ years marketing, strategy, business planning, consulting, banking, finance, economics, and/or partner organization experience OR equivalent experience.
Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and / or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include, but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings: Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire / transfer and every two years thereafter.

Nice To Haves

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 Bachelor's Degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Liberal Arts, Computer Science, or related field AND 8+ years marketing, strategy, business planning, consulting, banking, finance, economics, and/or partner organization experience OR equivalent experience.
3+ years experience in Strategy, Management Consulting, and/or Finance.

Responsibilities

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 executive relationships (e.g., Directors, GM-level). Acts as an advisor to senior leadership on a particular area of expertise, leveraging deep technical/product knowledge and market awareness to inform strategic business decisions.
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 decisions, leveraging executive presence to influence decisions and proactively identifying expansive ideas for company strategy, often missed by others; leverages insights to develop recommendations and seeks to provide thought leadership (e.g., trend identification, implications of competitor moves) around potential future growth opportunities and strategic issues for Microsoft. Creates frameworks and methodologies to drive problem solving and insights.
Project Leadership
Contributes to large Strategy projects and defines and manages small projects with guidance from directors as needed, leveraging team resources and less experienced colleagues. Manages projects independently and/or in collaboration with a Director.
Research, Analysis, & Framing
Conducts market-based research by collecting and interpreting information (e.g., financial statements, reports, analyses, stakeholder feedback, expert calls) including researching existing business and identifying new spaces for Microsoft; conducts analyses (e.g., financial modeling) and leverages analyses of others to synthesize information. Creates initial framing for strategic questions with limited input and delivers structured output from analyses; assists less experienced colleagues with framing as needed.
Team Development
Mentors less experienced colleagues in target areas, providing project-specific feedback as appropriate. Supports recruiting and onboarding efforts for Strategy team members by conducting interviews and training; may maintain pipeline of candidates. Contributes to team culture and takes a leadership role in an aspect of team success (e.g., social activities, onboarding).
Other: Embody our culture and values