Go-to-Market Lead for Sustainability

The Sales Enablement & Operations (SE&O) team plays an essential role in translating Microsoft’s Commercial Strategy to a local execution plan and driving operational excellence to achieve the greatest results possible. Our team drives cross-Region, cross-Area and cross-Subsidiary insight and execution excellence, bringing strategy and priorities to life by accelerating the pace of transformation and enabling Microsoft to deliver business impact at scale.

We are in search of a highly driven and motivated marketing and people leader to join our Go-to-Market (GTM) team as the GTM Lead for Sustainability in CEMA (Central and Southeast Europe, Middle East, and Africa). This pivotal role entails acting as a thought leader representing Microsoft at regional sustainability events and on social media channels, crafting marketing strategies, propelling market-making engines, driving internal awareness and readiness, crafting competitive strategies against competing technologies, and monitoring success criteria and performance metrics. The role involves working with emerging technologies, such as Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, Microsoft Fabric, and the latest Data & AI technologies. Role will also foster alignment and action across teams, navigate through obstacles, and demystify complex concepts.

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.

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• 15+ years marketing strategy, business planning, sales enablement, business development, technical pre-sales, or related work experience.
• Professional experience in environmental or sustainability sectors, including consulting, strategy implementation, or working with NGOs AND direct involvement in ESG reporting, carbon management, and sustainability-focused project leadership.
• Background in renewable energy, sustainable supply chain management, or sustainability-focused research and policy development.
• Working knowledge with Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability or equivalent competing technologies.
  • or equivalent experience.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• 15+ years marketing strategy, business planning, sales enablement, business development, technical pre-sales, or related work experience AND bachelor’s degree in business, Marketing, Computer Science, or related field
• Bachelor's degree in environmental science, sustainability, renewable energy, or related fields.
• Master's degree in environmental management, sustainability science, or environmental policy
• 8+ years experience managing and expanding a product/solution portfolio and driving demand generation and pipeline acceleration within a complex (e.g., multinational or matrixed) organization.
• Cloud Platform. Understanding of Microsoft Cloud platform, or other public cloud platforms, including IaaS and PaaS technologies and how they translate into business impact. Versed in cloud migration and modernization.
• Competitive Landscape. Knowledge of enterprise software solutions and cloud and datacenter infrastructure competitor landscape including AWS, IBM, SAP, and GCP
• Understanding of partner ecosystems and the ability to leverage partner solutions to solve customer needs.

Responsibilities

Sustainability Sales & Deals Strategy

This role is pivotal for a marketing and people leader passionate about sustainability and innovative technology solutions. As the GTM Lead for Sustainability in CEMA, you will engage deeply with Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability and Microsoft Fabric, utilizing these platforms to drive meaningful impact and help our partners/customers navigate their sustainability journey. Leveraging Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, you'll guide partners through data-driven decision making, enabling them to measure, understand, and take charge of their carbon footprint, thereby transforming their sustainability practices. With Microsoft Fabric, you will harness the power of integrated business applications to develop compelling value propositions that speak directly to the partners/customers' evolving needs to unify their ESG Data Estate. In the context of a competitive technology landscape, you will identify and understand the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions. Your strategic approach will involve conducting thorough partner/customer assessments to discern their current infrastructure and propose solutions that not only meet their needs but also position Microsoft's technologies as the superior choice. You will evaluate and prioritize market opportunities, staying ahead of trends and harnessing specialists' insights to advocate for Microsoft's platforms/products. Your leadership will drive account planning in collaboration with partners, delineating clear objectives for attainable targets. This role demands an inclusive strategy, incorporating diverse internal teams—from product and engineering to finance and legal—to align our approach with broader business objectives. You will design strategic deals within a commercial framework that resonates with our strategic business goals and addresses the partners/customers' state and requirements. Ensuring that these strategic deals account for relevant market factors—such as competitive dynamics, economic climates, and industry specifics—is key to driving optimal results and maximizing return on investment.

Moreover, your role is to amplify our customer-centric ethos, integrating customer feedback and nurturing a robust customer presence. Your strategic development will not only attract customers but will also engage them throughout their journey with us. Building prospective pipelines, converting opportunities into deals, and integrating learnings from prior engagements, you will enhance our strategy and deepen our understanding of customer needs, ensuring internal alignment and mobilizing partners towards our collective goals.

Stakeholder Management

Drives identification of the appropriate executive-level stakeholder within customers to connect and work with, in cooperation with Business Development and in pursuit of new business generation. Drives the orchestration of sales or partnership pursuits with customers/partners. Acts as the voice for customers/partners within internal teams and across the organization to design, implement, and plans/programs. Drives customer awareness of and builds connections with key influencers/players, as well as Microsoft's value proposition, in order to create effective customer models and strategies. Drives creation and management of connections between necessary stakeholders within Microsoft and customers. Builds strategic connections with customers and partners across multiple engagements with Microsoft.

Builds trusted advisor partnerships with cross-functional leaders and managers, representing the organization to area leadership. Begins to accomplish initiatives through influencing cross-functional (e.g., finance, engineering, legal, commercial, product, sales segments) and multi-country team members. Influences and deals with resource (e.g., cash) founding to ensure the availability of resources and appropriate resource allocation. Proactively identifies and drives cross-functional strategic and communication alignment to the customer/partner. Designs internal orchestrations and influences assurances, and contributes to internal feedback loops with stakeholders to align resources, plan up, and support strategic growth. Builds the internal strategy for orchestrating development of sales opportunities and across the organization, especially in solution sales management (e.g., Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, Data & AI) to drive effective capabilities.

Operations

Synthesizes and provides feedback from/to team members and partners/customers regarding experiences and potential improvements to strategic plans. Drives continuous process improvements and in-flight changes through the review and analysis of strategic plan performance. Takes steps to continuously learn and develop self, by bringing losses to the forefront and growing from prior engagements. Drives continuously on customer centricity, technological intensity, and process simplicity. Drives the management of projects in alignment with strategic goals. Drives coordination of projects programmatically across the different areas of engagement with stakeholders and contributors to assure appropriate resources are available and that the project is executing in a timely manner. Sets objectives to assure that outcomes are achieved in accordance with goals. Aligns the vision, outcomes, and indicators of performance against strategic goals, and assures movement forward movement toward goal by all contributing stakeholders and constituents across Microsoft (e.g., ISD, GPS) to meet outcomes and objectives.

Leverages subject matter expertise to drive the development of creative and innovative solutions and business models for cross-team stakeholders and partners/customers to drive business impact, and improve optimizations of workflows. Shares and scales successes, thought leadership, opportunities for improvement, best practices, and learnings internally and externally (e.g., industry events) to help drive digital transformation deals. May brainstorm new initiatives and product/projects for partners/customers in unexplored areas (beyond current offerings).

Models a learning culture for the organization. Influences business improvements and revenue shifts by managing and coaching field and partners through new Sustainability Sales initiatives, focusing on Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability know-how, demos, modern storytelling, compete, and tools. Ensures sales and area leadership understand the impact of new Sustainability Solutions and how to prepare for sales meetings. Educates sellers and partners about the future of Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability product family and enterprise offers, ensuring they are ready to transact, and can strategically position offerings to customers.

Gathers data to evaluate new Sustainability awareness across key groups (e.g., customers, partners, business groups) and identifies where strategic readiness outreach is needed. Develops a strategy to scale across the network (e.g., creating custom readiness teams or modules). Drives Subsidiary readiness by landing consumption of Corporate readiness activities with sellers and partners. Acts as a liaison with area stakeholders to scale readiness efforts.

Supports new Sustainability Sales efforts and trainings across business groups and segments (e.g., webcasts, roadshows, sales workshops, licensing trainings), creating awareness and influencing participation. Advocates for the inclusion of new Sustainability Solutions on readiness efforts and training agendas. Leads and scales on-boarding programs and "stay current" trainings for partners, sellers, and industry sellers.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.

Industry leading healthcare

Educational resources

Discounts on products and services

Savings and investments

Maternity and paternity leave

Generous time away

Giving programs

Opportunities to network and connect

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations .