Surface Partner Development Manager (Commercial Surface Partner Sales)
Microsoft
Sales & Business Development
Posted on Oct 14, 2025
Surface Partner Development Manager (Commercial Surface Partner Sales)
Tokyo, Tokyo-to, Japan
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Date posted
Oct 14, 2025
Job number
1893901
Work site
3 days / week in-office
Travel
0-25 %
Role type
Individual Contributor
Profession
Sales
Discipline
Partner Development Management
Employment type
Full-Time
Overview
Leads the creation of a strategic vision rooted to the partners impact and potential across segments, and will generally serve partners that are smaller or startups. Sells account vision to stakeholders and partners by aligning overall Microsoft value proposition and value propositions of products, channels, or solutions to the partner's business goals. Maintains a deep understanding of the industry and gains insights as partners' businesses change over time. Engages and builds trusting relationships with partners to grow business. Contributes to Business Design briefings advising partner leadership on building a high-impact Microsoft Services practice. Supports campaigns with various functional areas and the partners marketing teams. Leads and implements assessments of the partners' journey of building world-class teams and helps to oversee the sharing of assessment results with other Partner Development Managers and the partners. Leverages internal resources to develop Go-to-Market (GTM) and co-selling strategies that define activities and expectations to meet Microsoft and partner sales goals. Supports partner readiness by assisting partners in the development and execution of marketing plans with guidance to generate customer sales. Escalates challenges and roadblocks to internal teams.
Qualifications
Required/minimum qualifications
Bachelor's Degree in Marketing, Business Operations, Computer Science or a related field AND 1+ year(s) experience in partner management, sales, business development, or partner channel development in the technology industry or related experience OR equivalent experience.
Additional or preferred qualifications
Master's Degree in Business Administration, Business Science, or an advanced degree in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) or a related field AND 5+ years experience in partner management, sales, business development, or partner channel development in the technology industry or related experience OR equivalent experience.
Responsibilities
Microsoft Business Leader
Supports the integration of skills, capability, and capacity plans for the partner business. Helps to influence partner to create a learning culture. Learns the various sales and tech trainings and bootcamps on offer. Helps support growth and transformation. Helps support the building of local strategies to align capacity and capability of the partner to compete, gain, and win share for Microsoft solutions to expand platform and sockets for services. Helps support the building and scaling of partner digital selling capabilities. Helps monitor market landscape and partner's impact and uses this knowledge to influence the local strategy in business planning decisions.
Leads the creation of a strategic vision rooted to the Partners impact and potential across segments, and will generally serve partners that are smaller or startups. Demonstrates an expert understanding of the Partners business and conveys the value of partnering with Microsoft based on the business opportunity and possible competition. Sells account vision and shares market opportunities to stakeholders and partners by aligning overall Microsoft value proposition and value propositions of products, channels, or solutions to the partner's business goals. Begins to influence the partners strategy and builds stakeholder maps to expand network and gains insights as partners' businesses change over time. Develops and maintains working knowledge of products, channels, end customers, and industry and market trends to share with partner(s).? Upholds Microsoft policies, procedures, and/or legal compliance standards. Delivers and influences short-term partnership horizons. Understands foundational facets of partnerships.
Assesses managed partner portfolio to identify clear patterns, opportunities, and gaps in partner accounts that can be addressed with investment into current products and services. Supports team in building and maintaining Quarterly Execution Plans focused on Core & New to build a healthy portfolio of solutions offerings
Contributes to Business Design briefings advising partner leadership on building a high-impact Microsoft partner practice. Develops and executes forward-thinking partner business plans directly aligned with field goals and objectives that develop partner business and support cloud consumption and digital transformation. Considers short- and long-term goals and performance expectations based on partner capabilities. Shares working knowledge with partners, to create strategies with line of business executives that challenge the partners to consider new or different ways to grow businesses. Promotes Microsoft as a valued partner by applying working knowledge to align vision for tech and services with future opportunities to transform how we compete and takes share as appropriate. Leans on a broad set of stakeholders to enrich designs and plans.
Engages and builds trusting relationships with partners to grow business. Understands partner priorities, strategies, and goals and how they align with Microsoft’s. Builds account plans. Learns how to become a trusted advisor with partner through a working understanding of their local strategy and business imperatives, with guidance from peers and/or managers. Owns a basic stakeholder map.
Partner Assessment and Qualification
Leverages and recruits new partners to grow business. Identifies opportunities to sell Microsoft products and services.
Partner Performance and Impact
Leads and implements assessments of the partners' journey of building world class teams and helps to oversee the sharing of assessment results with other Partner Development Managers and the partners. Helps others lead and implement with Intelligent Edge/Intelligent Cloud to create strategic alignment through strong storytelling with local partner executives to gain commitment to build their selling/technical skill sets and incentivizes for their customers.? Influences and plays an active role in Cloud sales transformation (e.g., readiness, compensation, territories)
Escalates challenges and roadblocks to internal teams (e.g., product groups). Ensures results on partner's behalf through resolution. Helps establish a rhythm of business (RoB) for regular partner reviews and quarterly business reviews (e.g., MBRs, QBRs) to track plan execution, identify gaps and agree on any correction of errors in alignment with appropriate stakeholders. Supports the orchestration of response to the partner to ensure timely action and resolution from internal teams. Helps to steer other groups in prioritizing partners' solutions and issues. Helps provide support to develop relationships with Channel Sales counterparts (PDM, PTS, PMA-MW) in support of Microsoft solutions through partner GTM.? Helps support advocating for partner(s) internally at the local level by connecting partner(s) to Microsoft executives to facilitate local reviews for opportunity pipelines and transformational projects.?
Partner Sales and Consumption
Leverages internal resources to develop go-to-market and co-selling strategies that define activities and expectations to meet Microsoft and partner sales goals. Prioritizes accounts for developing go-to-market strategies. Advises partner on meeting various programs, initiatives, sales, incentive, and tech requirements. Shadows other Partner Development Managers (PDMs) through orchestration and acceleration of removing roadblocks, including internal escalation(s) as needed. Helps partners understand what a consumption-led business is and how it operates, coaches partners around consumption economics (e.g., leverages reports, analyses, etc.). Demonstrates effective pipeline management and limited seller mobilization with leadership sponsorship. Identifies co-selling and customer transactions through Marketplace.
Orchestrates reviews of Partner’s pipeline, top deals, and consumption targets. Coaches the partner on top deals and ensure close alignment between the partners sales team, channel managers, and other relevant teams. Supports the partners sales leaders on how to overcome obstacles, compete, create deal proposals, etc. Helps build partnerships with Global Partner Solutions (GPS) to gain support for strategic transformational initiatives to drive incremental cloud growth. Helps establish collaboration across the Microsoft and partner sales teams to manage pipeline and drive large opportunities/deals. Helps ensure partners are guided through Digital transformation by building Digital capabilities with a Challenger mindset: sharing ideas, perspectives, and building a trusted advisory relationship.? Helps ensure partner integration of the common sales and delivery methodology for Microsoft for customer opportunities, helps ensure pipeline acceleration by removing blockers and driving key sales motions, programs, and incentives with their partner, documents in MSX. Demonstrates basic pipeline ownership, translating into increased deal control and forecasting.
Supports campaigns with various functional areas and the partners marketing teams. Helps to oversee planning, campaign tactics, offers, and incentives. Ensures core activities are agreed upon before executing and helps to coordinate resources. Helps ensure sales targets are clear and that actions and accountabilities are being routinely followed up. Helps ensure Launch Excellence with sales readiness, and GTM activities. Supports partner readiness by assisting partners in the development and execution of marketing plans with guidance to generate customer sales (e.g., campaigns, incentives, and promotions). Secures marketing resources (e.g., go to market offers) to assist partners with developing marketing plans. Provides support to partners on deals to gain commercial and consumer share. Helps ensure Launch Excellence by supporting Partner sales readiness and go-to-market activities.?? Demonstrates a basic understanding of GTM programs and runs generic campaigns. Builds and launches integrated industry specific offerings on Marketplace with partners.
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.