Overview
We are seeking a Senior Director to lead campaigns and advocacy in support of Microsoft’s infrastructure investments, with datacenters, energy, workforce development, and community investment as the primary mandate of this role.
As AI scales rapidly, so does the infrastructure required to support it. The public conversation around that infrastructure is growing in complexity, playing out across communities, statehouses, and federal policy environments at once. Regulatory approvals, rezoning and entitlement processes, legislative outcomes, and community trust are all interconnected, and they are shaped by how well we communicate, organize, and show up.
This role is global in scope, with the United States as the primary and most immediate focus, expanding over time to encompass markets around the world where Microsoft's infrastructure investments are growing. It means building campaigns that reach the right audiences through the right channels, generate visible support in our highest-investment communities, and equip partners, elected officials, and internal teams to engage effectively. It requires fluency across the full campaign toolkit: paid, earned, owned, digital, coalition, surrogate voices, and on-the-ground engagement, knowing how each contributes to advancing projects in the near term and building enduring community trust over time.
The right candidate is a seasoned political and corporate public affairs professional who knows how to design campaigns that win, lead teams through complex and fast-moving environments, and guide cross-functional teams through high-stakes moments with clarity and strategic discipline.
What Success Looks Like
- Microsoft advances its investments in datacenters, energy, workforce development, and community programs, supported by coordinated public affairs campaigns that build visible support across the communities and government environments that matter most, in the US and globally.
- Partners, elected officials, and internal teams are well equipped with clear, compelling materials and engage with confidence. Microsoft’s voice is consistent and credible across every level and every market.
- Cross-functional teams move through high-stakes moments with clarity and coordination, guided by strong operational leadership and clear strategy.
Responsibilities
Campaign Strategy and Prioritization
- Own the strategic framework for how campaign resources, attention, and investment are allocated across an expanding global portfolio. Assess the political, regulatory, and community landscape in each market and design campaigns that build and sustain durable support from the ground up.
- Translate priorities into campaign architecture: defining objectives by audience, sequencing activity around critical decision points, and selecting the channel mix and partner strategy that will have the greatest impact in each market.
- Maintain a dynamic view of the full portfolio, surfacing emerging opportunities and pressure points to leadership before they require reactive response.
Multi-Level Campaign Design and Integration
- Design the campaign framework that works across community, state, and federal environments simultaneously, ensuring that teams engaged at each level are operating from a coherent strategic approach rather than in isolation.
- Partner closely with Government Affairs to sequence public-facing campaign activity alongside direct policy and legislative engagement, so that community mobilization, coalition activation, and public communications land at the moments that matter most.
- Track regulatory, entitlement, and legislative calendars across priority markets, building activity that anticipates key decision points rather than reacting to them.
Public Engagement and Visible Support
- Own the strategy for reaching and moving the broader public, with particular focus on communities where Microsoft’s investments are most significant and where public sentiment most directly shapes outcomes.
- Design campaigns that build genuine, visible public understanding and support, deploying the right combination of paid media, earned coverage, owned content, digital engagement, coalition activation, and on-the-ground presence. The goal is not just awareness but demonstrated, organized support that decision-makers can see and feel.
- Develop audience strategies that speak distinctly to elected officials, regulators, community and civic leaders, local influencers, and the general public. Each requires a different message, messenger, and channel.
- Build and sustain a coalition of third-party validators and community partners that reflects genuine shared interest and amplifies Microsoft’s credibility at the local level.
Materials Development and Partner Enablement
- Lead the development and dissemination of campaign toolkits, messaging guides, and briefing materials that equip partners, elected officials, community allies, and internal teams to communicate effectively and consistently.
- Build and maintain a library of market-specific materials that can be adapted quickly as conditions change and new markets come online, including international markets as the role’s scope expands.
Leading Through High-Stakes Moments
- Serve as a steady, decisive leader who guides cross-functional teams through critical moments including regulatory proceedings, entitlement decisions, legislative activity, and periods of heightened public attention.
- Establish clear protocols for how teams escalate, coordinate, and communicate during fast-moving situations. Translate complexity into clear direction, keeping teams focused and aligned when the environment is ambiguous or moving quickly.
Campaign Execution and Operations
- Direct real-time execution across paid, earned, owned, and social channels, managing priorities, resources, and agency partners across multiple simultaneous timelines.
- Own the campaign calendar and operational rhythm, sequencing activity around the moments that matter most. Manage agency partners, consultants, and field leads against clear objectives, budgets, and timelines.
- Build reporting infrastructure that gives leadership real-time visibility into campaign status across the portfolio.
Cross-Functional Alignment
- Serve as operational deputy to the General Manager, Campaigns & Advocacy, maintaining coherence across field teams and partners including Government Affairs, Community Affairs, TechSpark, Elevate, and CO+I.
- Develop clear decision-making frameworks and escalation protocols that allow distributed teams to move quickly without losing alignment.
Qualifications
Required/minimum qualifications
- Bachelor's Degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, Finance, or related field AND 8+ years communications, marketing operations, field operations, program management, project management, or related experience OR equivalent experience.
- 3+ years people management experience.
Preferred Qualifications:
- 10 to 15 or more years in political campaigns, public affairs, or communications, with direct experience owning strategy and execution across complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
- Demonstrated experience designing and running campaigns across community, state, and federal environments, with a command of how public opinion and political dynamics interact.
- Fluency across the full campaign toolkit including paid, earned, owned, digital, coalition, and field channels, with the judgment to know which combinations drive visible support in a given environment.
- Experience developing campaign materials and toolkits that equip partners, officials, and teams to engage effectively.
- Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams through high-stakes, fast-moving situations with clarity and strategic discipline.
- Familiarity with regulatory, permitting, and entitlement processes and the public affairs campaigns that support them.
- Operational discipline and ability to manage complex, multi-market programs with accountability for outcomes.
- Willingness to travel, with significant domestic travel and increasing international travel as the role’s global remit expands.
- Experience with U.S. infrastructure projects including energy, broadband, datacenters, or similar, with engagement across community, regulatory, and legislative environments.
- Background in audience segmentation and direct-to-public communications in a digital-first environment including paid social, programmatic, and influencer and coalition engagement.
- Experience managing stakeholder intelligence and field insight programs that inform real-time campaign decision-making.
- Experience working across international markets, with an understanding of how political, regulatory, and community dynamics vary by country and region.
- History of building and leading distributed or matrixed teams in fast-moving, politically complex environments.
Communications M6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $155,800 - $277,200 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 $202,400 - $303,600 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.**