Area Business Partner

Overview

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.
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.

With over 18,000 employees worldwide, the Microsoft Customer Experience & Success (CE&S) organization is responsible for the strategy, design, and implementation of Microsoft's end-to-end customer experience. Come join CE&S and help us build a future where customers come to us not only because we provide industry-leading products and services, but also because we provide differentiated customer experience.

Advocacy & Customer Trust (ACT) delivers connected support experiences for our Unified customers to gain, maintain and sometime rebuild their trust. The Area Engagement Team leads education of our field teams, addresses reactive support challenges for Areas and individual customers and partners closely with our Customer Success teams, underpinned by a robust governance process to improve customer experience across each area.

The Area Business Partner (ABP) drives a security-first, customer-obsessed support experience by strengthening field readiness, leading critical customer engagements, and partnering across Customer Service & Support (CSS), the Customer Success Unit (CSU) and Engineering to protect and grow revenue. This role owns execution of key programs, including Renewal Assist, translates support strategy into Area/OU operating plans, and improves customer health and resiliency for our customers.

This position is specifically aligned with our Small, Medium, Enterprise and Channel (SME&C) customers and partners and will support this segment in one of three regions (Americas, EMEA or APAC). This role will work in close partnership with a similarly aligned Area Support Lead (ASL), a role that is focused on Crisis Prevention and Management.

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.

Responsibilities

• Own field engagement and readiness: Educate CSU and field teams on how to proactively and reactively engage CSS, including escalation paths educate field teams on strategic initiatives, AI adoption and relevant business results run an always-on training cadence publish and maintain Area plans to address top support concerns and improve readiness over time.
• Lead Renewal Assist program execution: Ensure timely triage and renewal-win planning, engage the right resources, partner with account teams through renewal dates and assist in deal shaping, ensuing that customers have the right offerings to ensure their success.
• Lead customer engagements and escalation management: Lead confidence calls and executive-level engagements coordinate CSS, engineering and CE&S resources to ensure escalated issues are resolved act as the voice of the field on support offering effectiveness and contract right-sizing.
• Improve customer health and resiliency: Partner with CSU leadership to build and execute plans that improve customer health signals, including reactivity, major incident response plans, proactivity and resiliency drive measurable improvements and share best practices.
• Get Healthy Plans: Own and orchestrate segment/customer/partner plans, partnering with CSS stakeholders to ensure correct actions are identified and implemented know the systemic issues within the Area and plan appropriate repair items in line with CSS ongoing or planned initiatives.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Operations, Finance or related field AND 8+ years work experience in program management, process management, process improvement OR equivalent experience
• 7+ years of experience in customer success and/or customer support, business operations, change management and project management.
• Executive maturity, organizational agility and strong impact and influence competencies, with experience working on global teams.
• Ability to work effectively across groups (business and functions) in a fast-paced work environment, influencing without authority and driving work through others.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications:

• Masters Degree in Business, Operations, Finance or related field AND 8+ years work experience in program management, process management, process improvement OR equivalent experience
• Experience working with Microsoft Partners, specifically in support, offerings or other strategic roles.

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 with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.