Overview
We are in search of a Consulting Project Manager who will engage with customer stakeholders to develop partnerships, leveraging broad technical expertise, drives customer satisfaction by engaging with customers stakeholders in a positive manner, reviewing and analyzing customer feedback, and leveraging trusted relationships with key internal resources to act as the voice of the customer and adheres to project compliance standards and requirements of the contract and accommodates customer compliance standards. The person in this role drives project initiation for projects of medium complexity by delivering a workstream within a larger project/program, facilitates contracting process for partner resources by briefing partners, coordinating partner candidate interviews, and identifying and acclimating partner resources to the team, and develops detailed project management plan to drive predictable delivery for projects of medium complexity or supports senior colleagues in projects of high complexity. Provides review of defined metrics, proactively monitors and tracks risks, ensures timely completion and quality of deliverables, and manages stakeholder communications. Drives timely project closure by ensuring completion of project sign off tasks. Applies advanced knowledge across project management principle areas, contributes at local team-wide level to share knowledge and support others, serves as a mentor to junior colleagues to grow identified skill gaps, and participates in cross-border mentoring and peer alignment to share lessons learned on challenging projects.
Microsoft is on a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Our culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day. Growth mindset encourages each of us to lean in and learn what matters most to our customers, to create the foundational knowledge that enables us to make customer-first decisions in everything we do. In doing so, we create life-changing innovations that impact billions of lives around the world. You can help us achieve our mission.
Responsibilities
Account Delivery Management
Contributes to consumption activities, through others (e.g., Customer Success resources), for customers by identifying blockers to consumption goals and enabling customers, through internal teams, to get the full value of their purchases. Holds accountability for project delivery forecast.
Supports relationships with key stakeholders in the customer portfolio to ensure service delivery is on track and issues are being anticipated, identified, and managed. Communicates current view of delivery to customer stakeholders, as appropriate.
Collaborates with Sales to support contract setup, signature, compliance, and execution from deal approvals to invoicing and closure. Manages areas of fiscal responsibility within project portfolio, staying within budget while driving engagement profitability and risk management.
Drives and maintains obligations to customer across the delivery lifecycle including envisioning, solution development, delivery planning, cloud consumption and usage, delivery management. Leads or participates in steering committee meetings with strategic customers to discuss progress toward delivery success.
Business Growth
Demonstrates accountability for the financial health of a project or program (e.g., revenue attainment, accurate forecasting, cost management, and utilization, skills, and capacity planning). Identifies opportunities to accelerate and drive consumption and delivery. Owns and drives backlog risk management. Drives incremental business on top of existing projects and programs through next step proposals, conducts customer discussions related to next stage proposal (NSP) and other opportunities. Engages in the pursuit cycle to ensure deals are structured appropriately. Supports and contributes to rhythm of business (ROB) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) forecasting.
Looks for or creates opportunities to maximize timely cloud consumption through current deliveries. Identifies new opportunities with customers and facilitates follow up conversations with customers on Consumption both strategically and operational, and to accelerate delivery or prevent delivery delays.
Closure
Applies advanced knowledge across project management principle areas to execution and delivery, contributes at local team-wide level to share knowledge and support others, serves as a mentor to less experienced colleagues to grow identified skill gaps, and participates in cross-border mentoring and peer alignment to share lessons learned on challenging projects.
Drives timely project closure by ensuring completion of project sign off tasks (e.g., system closeout updates, deletion of customer data, Deliverable Acceptance Form). Drives incremental process improvement by reflecting on and sharing lessons learned across teams, creating and suggesting improvements to intellectual property (IP), providing feedback to managers on team member performance, and conducting closeout interviews with team members.
Contracting
Facilitates contracting process for customer and partner resources (e.g., contractors, vendors) by briefing partners, coordinating partner candidate interviews, and identifying and acclimating partner resources to the team. Supports negotiation and structuring of fixed-fee subcontractor contracts with oversight from senior colleagues. Monitors and initiates Amendments, Delivery Acceptance, Proof of Delivery, and Invoicing processes.
Initiation
Drives project initiation for projects of medium complexity (e.g., multiple offerings, and/or supports projects of high complexity (e.g., tailored offerings, high visibility, high impact, market making) by delivering a workstream within a larger project/program, by driving commitment of delivery resources, assigning resources, assisting in sourcing and qualifying partner resources, and creating work breakdown structures (WBSs) with delivery team.
Balances needs across projects in challenging situations (e.g., scarce technical resources), with support from senior colleagues as needed, and collaborates with other groups (e.g., resource managers, Global Delivery Center) on integrated planning and organization of onshore/offshore projects.
Intellectual Property (IP)
Researches and proactively shares intellectual property (IP) and provides recommendations for improvement including submitting new IP. Holds others accountable for reusing appropriate IP and collective knowledge by enforcing use of processes and artifacts with team members.
Monitoring and Controlling
Orchestrates and oversees a broad range of project metrics on midsize to large projects with high visibility (e.g., Vice President-level). Proactively ensures adherence to key performance indicators (KPIs) and provides strategic direction to drive success throughout project lifecycle.
Discusses and confirms Microsoft change control processes at kickoff with customer. Anticipates changes and proactively addresses by probing to ensure change can happen smoothly early in the process. Tests process before initiating formal change.
Ensures timely completion and quality of deliverables (e.g., documents) and tracking of agreed upon metrics for projects of standard complexity by applying quality management techniques (e.g., benchmarking, interviews) for collecting data. Uses analyses to identify solutions to systemic issues.
Proactively manages risks and issues within projects of standard complexity, leveraging technical knowledge and previous experience to evaluate risks, perform qualitative analyses (e.g., probability, impact, urgency), create risk management plans, establish processes, and work with cross-functional groups and leaders to mitigate identified risks. Contributes to recovery efforts and ensures tools are updated. Manages issue closure as a high priority.
Manages stakeholder communications on project health, issues, and financial performance for mid-size to large deals throughout entire project lifecycle, tailoring communications to the audience. Tracks and maintains customer deliverables.
Manages finances for projects with mid-size to large scopes and budgets by balancing funding and resources across workstreams, performing analyses, and leveraging cost management experience and expertise. Aims to reduce cost and improve delivery margin without impact to quality or customer experience and understands impact of decisions on the broader business (e.g., profits and losses [P&L], accrual-based accounting).
Planning
Develops detailed project management plan to drive predictable delivery for projects of medium complexity or supports senior colleagues in projects of high complexity, leveraging existing materials and experience to drive scope, resources, and Microsoft project schedule in alignment and collaboration with customer plan. Ensures use of baselining, resource load balancing, and application of work effort, dependency management, contingency planning, and utilization of software (e.g., Timeline).
Establishes clear expectations and accountabilities (e.g., reconfirm scope, Responsible-Accountable-Consulted-Informed matrix) with all project team members (e.g., consultants) and stakeholders for teams of medium complexity by leading internal and external kick-off meetings (e.g., sales to delivery handoff, formal kick-off meetings). Proactively engages broad set of internal and external stakeholders, including those who are impacted by project scope/outcome, but not directly involved (e.g., Enterprise Operating Unit, India Global Delivery, customer stakeholders) and engages subject matter experts in holistic planning activities, including team validation.
Presales
Contributes to pre-sales for medium-impact projects by articulating the business value proposition associated with the project/change and considering associated complexities and risks to ensure feasibility of commercial offer. Participates in review of proposed scope and assists in developing Statement of Work (SOW), Work Breakdown Structures (WBSs), estimates, preliminary risk assessments, etc.
Relationship Development
Adheres to project compliance standards (e.g., confidentiality, privacy) and requirements of the contract and accommodates customer compliance standards, including managing compliance-related complexities (e.g., high sensitivity to confidentiality). Champions compliance by contributing to knowledge sharing across teams to build compliance capability of others.
Engages with customer stakeholders to develop partnerships, leveraging broad technical expertise. Manages escalations or ensures resolution of escalations with customer stakeholders through tailored corrective action (e.g., education) and overcomes ambiguous situations as needed. Learns to leverage project sponsors and internal network to influence stakeholders and resolve situations.
Drives customer satisfaction by engaging with customers stakeholders in a positive manner, reviewing and analyzing customer feedback, and leveraging trusted relationships with key internal resources to act as the voice of the customer. Manages expectations with political sensitivity by leading Success Expectation discussions with customer, and documenting, executing, and monitoring through customer and partner experience (CPE).
Qualifications
Required/minimum qualifications
Bachelor's Degree in related field AND 3+ years experience in project management OR equivalent experience.
**Other Requirements **
**Security Clearance Requirements: **Candidates must be able to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include, but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings:
- The successful candidate must have a minimum of an** **active U.S. Government **Top Secret with SCI and FS Polygraph **Security Clearance . Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. Failure to maintain or obtain the appropriate clearance and/or customer screening requirements may result in employment action up to and including termination.
- Clearance Verification: This position requires successful verification of the stated security clearance to meet federal government customer requirements. You will be asked to provide clearance verification information prior to an offer of employment.
- Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.
- Citizenship & Citizenship Verification: This position requires verification of U.S. citizenship due to citizenship-based legal restrictions. Specifically, this position supports United States federal, state, and/or local United States government agency customer and is subject to certain citizenship-based restrictions where required or permitted by applicable law. To meet this legal requirement, citizenship will be verified via a valid passport, or other approved documents, or verified US government Clearance
Additional/Preferred qualifications
Bachelor's Degree in related field AND 8+ years experience in project management OR equivalent experience.
Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.
4+ years financial management experience.
Agile certification, Scrum Master, Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), or Professional Scrum Master One (PSM1) certification.
Consulting Project Management IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $100,000 - $193,800 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $126,100 - $204,000 per year.
Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay
This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.
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.**