Job Opportunities at Microsoft Nigeria

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.

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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
• The BDM is responsible for the 360-degree business relationship with Microsoft’s key strategic start ups. The BDM is responsible for engaging with the very highest-level ranking executives between the Start Ups and Microsoft, building trust by sharing insights about how to capitalize on market opportunities by partnering with Microsoft.
• The BDM leads the building of the joint business plan with the start ups to define their solutions portfolio, Go-To-Market, sales and marketing strategies, and driving implementation of all aspects of the strategy by orchestrating relationships between the start ups technical, sales and marketing teams and Microsoft’s to ensure excellence in execution of the strategy and achieving partnership growth goals and sales targets.
• The BDM is also responible on the commercial framework and all commercial and Business asspects in the relashionship.
• As the BDM Partner, you will be a key member of the Africa Transformation Offcie Starts Up team with the below responsibilities.

Responsibilities

• Help Start Ups transform and grow their business in the cloud by developing comprehensive Start up Business Plans for a portfolio of start ups to identify short and long-term strategic goals and tactical execution.
• Build strong relationships with Microsoft and Start Up key stakeholders to design a portfolio of differentiated Cloud solutions/ applications that leverages the Microsoft cloud.
• Guides Start Ups to build a solutions portfolio aligned with market opportunities.
• Identify an effective path to market with solutions and Go-To-Market (GTM) activities.
• Track pipeline health on key deals to accelerate sales momentum and cloud consumption; manages and maintains a global community of Microsoft field PDMs that have been assigned to drive co-selling with the start ups and partners in their geography.
• Ensure hand-offs to and engagements with the appropriate resources at the appropriate sales phase, to maximize win probability and minimize time to close, make proper decisions resolve issues with local leadership and escalate as required.
• Drive performance management through monthly/quarterly reviews to review overall start up business performance across the organization and to measure progress against the goals/KPIs in the start up Business Plan.
• Drive continuous optimization of start up performance as measured by revenue, pipeline, consumption, usage, and start up.
• Develop strategic content that will allow better positioning of our partnership internally and externally.

Start Up Centered:

• Recruits new Start ups and leverages current partners to grow business. Interacts with partners and key decision makers to identify new opportunities to sell Microsoft products and services.
• Uses a variety of strategies to convey the value of partnering with Microsoft over competitors based on start up Combats competition throughout the selling and account management lifecycle.
• Sells account vision to decision makers and complex partners by aligning overall Microsoft value proposition and value propositions of products, channels, or solutions to the start ups business goals.

Start Up Transformation:

• Develops and executes strategic start up business plans for all managed start ups that grow partner business and promote cloud consumption and digital transformation.
• Develops plans that fully consider short- and long-term goals and performance expectations that are aligned with start up needs and capabilities.
• Participates in internal and external events as a Microsoft representative to learn about start up business, build a strong professional network, and maintain up-to-date awareness of industry and competitors

Solution and Services:

• Assembles and leads cross-functional virtual internal teams (e.g., category, surface, specialist sales, marketing) to guide start ups and to develop comprehensive business plans based on start up needs and Microsoft sales goals.

Sales Leadership:

• Leverages internal resources to develop go-to-market and co-selling strategies that define activities and expectations to meet Microsoft and Start Up sales goals. Prioritizes accounts for developing go-to-market strategies.
• Evaluates managed Start Up portfolio to identify patterns, opportunities, and gaps in Start Up Proposes existing products and solutions or recommends new solutions in which Start Ups can jointly invest to fill gaps. Aligns Start Ups needs and interests with market opportunities.

Qualifications

• 5+ years Start up partner management, sales, business development, or partner channel development in the technology industry.

OR

• Bachelor's Degree in Sales, Marketing, Business Operations or related field AND 5+ years partner management, sales, business development, or partner channel development in the technology industry.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications:

• Deep understanding of digital transformation business drivers, cloud platforms, capabilities and solutions that generate partner growth and innovation..
• 5 -10+ years of experience in core sales experience, partner channel development, sales, business development, alliance management in the technology industry.
• Deep strategic advisor and executive relationship management experience driving sales with partners in commercial businesses.
• Strong experience of managing virtual teams across functions and geographies.
• Strong influence and orchestrator skills helping align Microsoft and partner resources to drive solutions that support customer needs.
• Inclusive and collaborative - driving teamwork and cross-team alignment.
• Strong partner relationship management and solution development skills.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills with a high degree of comfort.
• Challenger mentality leveraging internal and/or external resources, conflict resolution, and follow through.
• Experience with technology platforms and solutions with a reasonable level of technical proficiency.
• Cloud technology backgound or education/ certifications  will be a big advantage.