Client Director - Manufacturing

We are looking for a Global Client Director for a flagship global manufacturing account to drive digital transformation and deliver transformative business outcomes. This is a senior role to develop the opportunity with the customer, leading direct and indirect multidisciplinary teams. The Global Client Director role adds value as a people manager, leading a well-managed and high-performing team. The ideal candidate is responsible for driving business and technology innovation across the lines of business. The Client Director’s role provides an executive presence for the customer relationships and plays a critical role in driving our customer’s digital transformation journey.

People Management

Managers deliver success through empowerment and accountability by modelling, coaching, and caring.
Model - Live our culture; Embody our values; Practice our leadership principles.
Coach - Define team objectives and outcomes; Enable success across boundaries; Help the team adapt and learn.
Care - Attract and retain great people; Know each individual’s capabilities and aspirations; Invest in the growth of others.
Account Management

Leads the development and application of a mature/dynamic multi-year customer plan detailing critical insights and new business opportunities aligned to customer priorities. Leads and coordinates a diverse and high-performing team and key stakeholders (e.g., industry experts) on plan execution (e.g., prioritization, delegation) and drives accountability to deliver on account plans and grow the account. Anticipates future needs by incorporating the 3 Horizons Model into account planning and leverages resources equally across the 3 Horizons, as well as provides long-term strategic insight to customers as a trusted partner.
Orchestrates the execution of strategies for the assigned account to ensure engagements yield high-volume sales, drive plans to increase revenue potential, and open new opportunities for both Microsoft and the partners, aligned to goals, budgets, and forecasts. Leads, challenges, and inspires team to focus on top priorities and challenges to drive business case. Leverages deep industry expertise to anticipate industry direction, ecosystem, and transformation.
Proactively expands strategic network of key internal and external partners and decision makers, including vertical industry partners to ensure execution of core tasks and account transactions and to provide a comprehensive account management experience. Leads regular meetings for strategic accounts with relevant partners. Influences transformation for partners to build innovative solutions and applies an ecosystem-wide perspective to better position partner growth at all levels.
Leads efforts with key internal and external partners and business and technical decision makers in developing, sharing, and promoting mutually beneficial, long-term, customizable joint investment plans to grow sales and partner impact, leveraging deep relationships, broad influence, and in-depth industry expertise. Leads efforts to share Microsoft and partner strategies across other segments of the customer’s account and ensure customer success in the acquisition, implementation, and consumption of Microsoft’s and partner’s services and solutions. Collaborates across organization and partners in discussions to impact the broader ecosystem.
Proactively solicits feedback on additional needs, products, and features to develop targeted strategies for customers. Demonstrates a strong understanding of the customer’s business model to articulate growth opportunities, leveraging industry expertise to shape ecosystem. Influences relevant (internal and external) stakeholders and resources to drive change on behalf of the customer and to enhance team capabilities, improve Microsoft offerings, and adapt Microsoft’s messaging to the assigned account
Strategic Thinking

Leverages partnerships with leaders (e.g., C-level executives, board members) and decision makers of the assigned account, the broader ecosystem, and within other areas of their hierarchy to reimagine and shape long-term strategic business direction, digital capabilities, revenue streams, etc. Connects appropriate internal executives and partners to build strategic relationships, leveraging deep knowledge of customer business and ecosystem (e.g., customers, competitors, partners). Conducts ongoing executive mapping exercises to ensure alignment across key internal and external groups.
Engages in strategic discussions by discussing ideas to transform customer business models to better serve their own customers, increase profitability and market share, and transform the ecosystem. Promotes and implements a more holistic digital approach between Microsoft and the customer. Prepares for discussions by thinking through what is important for the customer by establishing return on investment (ROI) models, key customer benefits, etc. Envisions a joint road map around the 3 Horizons, to ensure time spent is allocated strategically across the short-, medium-, and long-term.
Leverages unique, strategic industry-focused business insights and opportunities to create long-term, competitive advantage for the customer. Provides thought leadership and strategic co-innovation ideas, and challenges customers when appropriate to think differently and offer alternative industry-specific points of view.
Customer Engagement

Proactively owns and elevates a transformative customer engagement strategy to foster customer trust and brand growth and loyalty. Sets organizational tone for building and maintaining long-term strategic customer relationships and for driving larger impact for the customer. Proactively defines and executes governance model to ensure mapping across seniority levels.
Leverages Microsoft sales strategies (e.g., Challenger Sale mindset) to articulate Microsoft’s and partners’ point of view and creates deep connections with decision makers through multiple levels of the customers’ organization to drive purchase decisions and increase interaction and participation, leveraging relevant tools and resources (e.g., LinkedIn). Creates and leverages relationships in ecosystem to address highly complex political blockers and drive execution for the customer.
Proactively develops a strong, comprehensive understanding of customer’s business needs, priorities, and strategies and industry insights, competition, market competitive trends, and the customer’s customers. Guides internal colleagues on ways to develop deeper customer knowledge. Anticipates customers needs to deliver new insights on customers business strategies. Articulates need to address customer’s business needs (both internally and to the customer). Identifies and pursues opportunities to optimize offerings and delivers solutions into overall long-term business strategy. Regularly seeks out new information via annual reports, 10-Ks, reads LinkedIn articles, and engages in ongoing customer/partner conversations to learn more about customer issues. Anticipates new potential market opportunities for the customer, leveraging deep industry expertise.

Sales Excellence

Leverages deep relationships with key customer contacts and participates in customer feedback mechanisms (both formal and informal) regarding ways to acquire, retain, and grow more of their business for their customers. Identifies and understands the drivers of satisfaction and/or dissatisfaction, leveraging in-depth industry knowledge and anticipating perspectives of the final customer.
Leads the creation of long-term strategies aimed at building a level of loyalty that would be hard for competitors to overcome. Anticipates issues/risks on customer satisfaction, determines the root cause of problems, removes blockers, and establishes recovery action plan to improve customer’s overall experience. Implements customer-focused and mutual success criteria, such as executive steering committees, quarterly business reviews, and scorecards. Builds trust and loyalty with the customer by providing up-to-date insights, challenging the customer when necessary, and introducing innovative ideas relevant to the customer’s business strategy. Enables customers to provide feedback directly to executives to help transform account space by establishing open communication channels for feedback, providing executive sponsorship, and providing direction to others to ensure customer feedback is addressed through the One Microsoft approach.
Owns the development of the business transformation and co-innovation strategy for the assigned account that is based on customer’s expected outcomes and Microsoft’s added innovative value, and opens doors to new opportunities grounded in deep understanding of industry trends, customer needs, competitor differentiators, and final consumer perspectives. Anticipates market changes to drive new industry-relevant cloud solutions to customers. Brings greater customer/partner ecosystem together with the customer to discuss how to enrich customer’s value to their customers, and creates mutually agreed upon roadmaps on how to capture innovation/transformation within strategic accounts.
Leverages understanding of customer business and ability to translate customers’ business priorities to Microsoft solutions, and engages Microsoft decision makers to drive customer’s strategy, goals, and optimization. Engages and influences decision makers of the account (e.g., C-level, high-impact customers) on Microsoft’s vision, strategy, and value, and positions Microsoft to increase customer’s budget allocated to Microsoft, tailor solutions that satisfy customers’ key performance indicators (KPIs). Translates features into business outcomes that accelerate the customer’s digital presence. Creates quantifiable business metrics that address business outcomes for the customer and holds others accountable to those metrics.
Uses business cases to develop and present compelling value proposition presentations and specialized business plans for customers that showcase Microsoft’s products and solutions to connect decision makers in the account to the broader Microsoft solutions, provides thought leadership to guide others on tailoring presentations, and generate new opportunities. Advocates internally to promote the relevance of Microsoft’s expertise for the customer.
Earns and maintains status as a thought leader and trusted advisor to the assigned account’s executive-level business decision makers by bringing innovative ideas and narratives, leveraging deep industry expertise, establishing ongoing cadences, and bringing together the customer’s customers. Navigates the stakeholder landscape and mobilizes and mentors the account management team and relevant stakeholders with deep industry expertise (e.g., industry solutions executives) to expand the partnership with decision makers of the assigned account. Leverages best-in-class sales and communication strategies and tools to anticipate business needs and identify new opportunities. Challenges and holds customers accountable by creating an environment of joint accountability and speaks up when customer is pursuing an inefficient path.
Creates and qualifies new opportunities by identifying highly strategic opportunities (e.g., very large, long-term, high-impact) within accounts and guiding the customer on how to best identify new opportunities, leveraging deep customer and industry relationships. Proactively directs team to create "Points of View" for customers, and reads emerging patterns across the industry to anticipate customer needs and concerns. Drives new business opportunities across the team by creating a partner ecosystem, and empowers team members to find new opportunities by acting as a role model and by setting a clear vision and energy for the team to drive towards.

Competitive Knowledge

Partners with internal industry experts (e.g., with industry solutions executives) to strengthen knowledge of the industry (e.g., emerging trends, forecasting long-term developments, influencers), competitors (e.g., Amazon Web Services [AWS], Salesforce, GCP) customer business priorities (e.g., challenges, competitive landscape) and leverages in-depth knowledge of Microsoft’s offerings (e.g., product landscape, solutions, strategy to address customer`s needs) to provide thought leadership and mentor the account management team on ways to gain deeper industry knowledge that ultimately addresses customer needs. Proactively explores and uncovers technologies and confirms customer interest, and has an understanding of where Microsoft may not be able to compete, and how key customer competitors compete within their respective space.

Other

Embody our culture and values

Required/Minimum Qualifications

10+ years of experience in working in the industry, with deep knowledge of Manufacturing, driving digital transformation
Strong sales and business background centred on software technologies combined with deep understanding of key industry solutions and competitive technologies
5+ years people management experience, and leading sales teams to achieve sustainable growth year-over year
Strong business planning and coaching/instilling business discipline skills woven with ability to encourage sales/tech sales team to develop and implement targeted plans.
Highly experienced in making recommendations to and/or collaborating with C-Level and mid-to-senior level executives
Ability to identify, nurture, and drive digital transformation deals with all customers
Must have a passion for sales and solution selling, leadership and team-building presence, and be customer satisfaction obsessed
Strong partner and go-to-market experiences including market activation, global coordination and execution
Bachelor degree with exposure to Information Technology (or equivalent) is required; Master’s Degree is preferred
Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances.

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