Business Development Manager, Commerical - Start-up at Microsoft

Overview

• Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Africa is one of the best places on the planet to bring our mission to life. It is home to 1.3B people and 54 countries.
• The talent in Africa reflects a tremendously rich and diverse potential that can truly impact the world over the next few decades. Being the youngest continent in the world with a median age of just 19.5 years, Africa is contributing to +12M youth being added to the global labor force every year. By 2040, half of the world's young people will live in Africa. Africa's growth is propelled by being a mobile first continent which is fueling connectivity, innovation, and scalability.
• Our aspiration is to transform Africa to a Cloud-first, Digital-first continent enabling a thriving digital economy across Africa while reinventing Microsoft's digital assets and capabilities to serve the young continent's transformation needs
• As the Business Development Manager, you will be a key member of the Starts Up team primarily working with more established starts ups – that is – Start Ups that are in Series A and above growth stage. Your role will be primarily to execute the ATO Start Up strategy by supporting the business acceleration and scale up initiatives primarily by leveraging Microsoft’s assets through – access to technology, access to new markets, access to financiing through our Africa VC Circle Partners and finally access to skillng.
• The BDM will work closely with the Start Up lead to provide thought leadership in an already  Digital World taking Digital Transformation at the next level – Transforming the Digital Natives and “born in the cloud.
• The BDM will fully optimize Microsoft’s digital assets & engines to enable specialized partnerships with Incubators, Accelerators, VCs, Gov't & MNCs while building the technical and business acumen to win mindshare early on & ensure growth and sustainability.

Responsibilities
Growth & Transformation Business Leader and Startup Advocate:

• Proactively engage with the start-ups and other internal stakeholders to accelerate revenue growth, drive business outcomes, while focussing on the goal of helping startups realize their full potential. 
• Proactively recruit large start ups running on competing cloud technologies whilst engaging in commercial value propositions to allow migration to Azure and support sustainable growth.

Trusted Adviser:

• Earn and maintain trust with startup founders by understanding their needs and addressing them with the right Microsoft solutions; operating with high empathy for founders to build mutually winning scenarios for startups as well as Microsoft. 
• Creates business value propositions based on company, partner, and/or customer needs that drive long-term value creation.
• Drives support and action by influencing internal stakeholders and partners and promoting the value of opportunities.

Deal Negotiator and Closer:

• Lead negotiation with existing startups in mid to long-term planning to form a strategically constructed deal.
• Engage and negotiate internally with key stakeholders (e.g., product, engineering, finance, legal, sales, marketing) to move opportunities forward with.
• Coordinate with all necessary internal stakeholders in the deal to assure that the deal is closed successfully and in a compliant manner.

Stakeholder Management:

• Ensure high potential startups have access to the right resources across Customer Architects, Engineering and Product Groups.

Senior Sales Leader:

• Ensure each startup has a valuable and strategic relationship with Microsoft; driving business growth and transformation through strategic thinking, sales execution, and influence.
• Sells value of new efforts to business partners and/or senior leadership.

Strategic Thinker and Market Expert:

• Accountable for identifying growth opportunities with high potential startups leveraging deep domain/industry knowledge to develop creative and innovative solutions for startups to improve optimization and workflow. Proactively demonstrates thought leadership, opportunities for improvement, best practices, and learnings internally and externally as appropriate.
• Communicates deal thesis and business model while developing a solid business case for investment
• Uses existing knowledge base to drive a recruit deal thesis and business model.
• Develops an understanding of Microsoft’s product portfolio, strategic priorities, competitive position, gaps, and potential opportunities.
• Drives evaluation of Microsoft ATO pillar strategic alternatives (e.g. buy, build, partner) and alternatives.
• Ensures ATO pillar roadmap, go-to-market, integration plans and related issues are considered.
• Represents ATO Start Up Strategy through exposure, presence, and influence of Microsoft stakeholders and leadership.

Qualifications

• 5+ years Africa market exposure.
• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Finance, Computer Science, Engineering, or related field AND experience in business development, technical sales, or consulting:
  • OR equivalent experience
• 3+ years project leadership/management experience.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working within, or demonstrable empathy and passion for, the startup ecosystem.
• Desire to work on a diverse team and perpetuate a culture of inclusion.
• A deep understanding of the startup trends in your respective market.
• Prior exposure to cloud infrastructure and services (Infrastructure, Applications, Data, Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity). 
• An ability to speak to and engage effectively with leadership from different industries as well as first-time founders.
• Preferred experience in a startup, founding member, Cloud Infrastructure solutions sales leadership.
• Sales results-oriented with extreme attention to detail and organizational skills 
• Experience working in a rapidly-scaling environment with multiple variables in play.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills where you are equally comfortable interacting across all levels of an organization.
• Extensive experience in the technology space.