Overview

We have an open position open for the leader of the European Policy Team, based in Brussels. The role reports to Microsoft’s Vice President for European Government Affairs (EGA VP) and is part of the company’s Corporate External & Legal Affairs (CELA) team.

Responsibilities

People Management

• The right candidate has strong people management skills and delivers success through empowerment and accountability by modeling, 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. Create clarity and empower team members.
  • Care - attract and retain great people; know each individual’s capabilities and aspirations; invest in the growth of others. Has great empathy.
• Is a strong enabler of impactful and constructive collaboration across the 5 EGA pillars (Policy, Institutional Relations, Campaigns & Partnerships, Public Affairs and Operations). Focus should be on helping all teams across EGA succeed.

Strategy/Program Management

• In collaboration with the other EGA teams, the Sr. Director Policy co-leads the formation of Microsoft’s policy agenda and positions on a broad range of issues, including contributing to designing and executing strategic campaigns, and contributing to identifying strategic opportunities for Microsoft to advance its long-term goals
• Provides strategic vision and leadership for developing and executing top-priority frameworks for achieving policy and/or political goals on key policy issues such as digital sovereignty, data governance, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, competition, and sustainability
• Provides advice and counsel to executive management on unusually complex and critical issues or matters of concern to Microsoft and the industry.
• Anticipates and addresses novel issues and opportunities facing Microsoft and/or the industry in a rapidly changing and ambiguous environment and leads the development of associated strategies.
• Directs strategies to ensure regulations and legislation positively impact Microsoft's products, operations, associates, and customers by collaborating with coalitions and relevant interest groups to achieve desired regulatory or legislative outcomes; negotiates and aligns complex or conflicting policy with Microsoft's goals and strategy; monitors and responds to complex regulatory issues and new policies.
• Develops strategies for European regulatory and/or legislative initiatives in collaboration with the rest of the EGA team; assesses their impact on Microsoft goals and objectives; and delivers materials (e.g., strategy, policy briefings, other documentation) to internal stakeholders.
• Successfully engages with other subject matter expert teams, incl. at Microsoft Corp, DC, and Government Affairs teams in the local subsidiaries.

Subject Matter Expertise and Influence

• Builds an impactful team of subject matter experts who focus on advancing, through advocacy and through leadership, EU legislative and regulatory policies that advance Microsofts interests and values.
• Develops and implements strategies for leveraging partnerships with external partners and key influencers to significantly impact the advancement of Microsoft’s policy and/or political agenda.
• Maintains relationships with key influencers to gather and apply intelligence findings through a network of key senior executives and external stakeholders regarding highly strategic or sensitive issues affecting Microsoft’s long-term objectives or future issues.
• Advises and partners with senior executives and key/senior-level external stakeholders to gain buy-in on policy positions by providing expertise and strategic vision, and anticipating future issues; prepares senior and executive stakeholders for public testimony on complex issues.
• Provides thought leadership and/or champions cutting-edge initiatives and solutions that significantly impact the advancement of Microsoft’s long-term objectives and priorities.
• In collaboration with other stakeholders in EGA, helps develops and establishes an intelligence network, gathers and analyzes external/internal data and relationship interactions, and shares internal and external intelligence findings in support of Microsoft’s and customers' business objectives
• Works closely with the other EGA teams to help build a long-term geopolitical outlook for Microsoft in Europe and other regions.

External Relationships

• Closely collaborates with EGA’s Institutional Relations lead and EGA’s Campaign and Partnerships lead to create strategic partnerships and coalitions with highly complex governmental and non-governmental thought leaders (e.g., peer and industry organizations, think tanks, academics, businesses, community leaders) to align stakeholder interests to Microsoft and optimally position them as advocates for Microsoft policy, political, and business priorities; drives strategic long-term, meaningful relationships with key political leadership and/or trade/think tank organizations and looks for opportunities to partner on public policy issues.
• Provides thought leadership for identifying and unblocking potential regulatory issues that prevent access to market opportunities; strategically partners with the Public Sector and other key business/client leads.

Internal Collaboration

• Designs, leads, and collaborates on cross-group projects that are of strategic importance to Microsoft, or that involve senior executive participation, to develop scalable and sustainable solutions.
• Leads the resolution of competing policy approaches by collaborating with Microsoft senior executives within legal and non-legal organizations (e.g., how Legal and Engineering would deal with accessibility) to ensure a coordinated approach on issues with Microsoft-wide impact or high external visibility.
• Collaborates with, and influences, senior-level internal stakeholders and subject matter experts within and outside of Government Affairs to ensure a mutual understanding and alignment of objectives, priorities, and resources

Other

• Embody our culture and values.
• Has strong collaboration skills and an open, transparent and inclusive work style.
• Contributes to a positive work environment with a focus on teamwork and on levering the strengths of others.
• Proven strong management and leadership skills, with a record of building healthy collaborative teams.
• Has good communication skills and can communicate complicated messages in a simple way, tailored to the audience in question.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Extensive experience in government affairs, public policy or related fields, preferably with a focus on the EU institutions or digital policy issues.
• Demonstrable people management skills
• Proven track record of influencing policy outcomes at the EU level through effective advocacy and stakeholder engagement.
• In-depth knowledge of the EU decision-making process and good knowledge of key policy areas relevant to Microsoft’s business and mission.

Preferred Qualifications

• Excellent communication, negotiation and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, complex & matrixed environment

#CELA

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

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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.