Job Category: Marketing Location: United States, WA, Bellevue Job ID: 712635 12388 Division: Marketing
The Director of APS Product Planning will provide central leadership to the product planning discipline in APS. He or she will shape and drive across the business the translation of strategy, market and competitive insights, and customer knowledge into a clearly defined set of market requirements, facilitated via a close partnership with APS Strategy, Marketing, Program Management and other functions. He or she will design and orchestrate the overall planning rhythm for APS and in the process partner closely with Engineering to drive toward timely agreement on MRDs and feature sets. In this context, the Director will put in place and ensure adoption of robust frameworks and methodologies enabling the key stakeholders in the planning process to prioritize market requirements and make the right business and engineering trade-offs. The Director will also be expected to play a leadership role in product roadmap decision making in particular with respect to required trade-offs and resourcing priorities across the business in alignment with the overarching business strategy.
The scope of the role will include planning responsibilities covering search and display advertising, including emerging areas such as TV, Mobile and In-game. The Director of Product Planning will be part of a group with strategy, planning, and business development responsibilities for APS. This structure will help enable positive synergies between functional teams and facilitate rich professional development and career opportunities within the planning discipline and in adjacent areas.
Key responsibilities
APS product planning cycle: The Director of Product Planning will be responsible for defining and orchestrating the product planning cycle, tools, and processes for APS in a dynamic online services environment. He or she will be a central interface to Engineering and Business leaders, drive the creation of top-level planning documents, and lead the overall Planning process of defining and prioritizing product and feature investments.
APS product roadmap: The Director of Product Planning will be a key influencer of the APS product roadmap. He or she will put in place robust planning prioritization frameworks and methodologies and provide strategic leadership to facilitate product prioritization and trade-off decisions across the business in alignment with the overarching business strategy.
Planning team leadership: APS is a matrixed organization with decentralized product planning activities in various APS business areas. The Director will be a virtual team lead and engage with other planners and the business leadership e.g. to set and manage BG planning commitments, ensure appropriate resourcing across the business, and guide the all-up market, competitive, and customer insight activities. He or she will also help shape the longer-term evolution of the planning discipline in APS.
Alignment and orchestration with engineering: The Director of Planning will engage closely with Program Management and Engineering and maintain a regular meeting and communication rhythm for APS to drive alignment on key prioritization decisions and coordinate on planning logistics.
Market and customer insights: The Director of Planning will help ensure product planning activities and decisions align with the overarching business strategy and are informed by robust insights on customer needs, competitive landscape, and market and technology trends. This will be facilitated via close partnership e.g. with APS Strategy, the APS Business leadership, and the Microsoft field.
Qualifications:
Candidates for the role should have a solid understanding of how Product Planning functions as a shared Marketing/Engineering discipline.
Successful candidates will exhibit the following characteristics:
Excellent program management, project management, organizational agility, and cross-group collaboration capabilities.
Demonstrated ability to build and lead virtual teams that drive results across functional groups and senior stakeholders -- through high-levels of change and matrixed organizations.
Senior-level leadership capabilities with the ability to effectively work with and influence senior engineering and business stakeholders and executives.
Rigorous analytical and strategic thinkers who approach the development cycle with a view towards both long-term capabilities and short-term impact, and who effectively prioritize market requirements, identify the right trade-offs for the business, and recommend and get swift buy-in for solutions.
Fast learners, with high energy levels, who can roll up their sleeves and are comfortable in fast-paced start-up-like environments as well as large complex organizational settings.
Candidates should have at least 12-15 years of post-college experience in areas relevant to the responsibilities described above. An MBA from a top business school, a minimum of 3 years experience in business process management or strategy consulting, prior functional experience in product management or program management, and industry domain expertise in on-line advertising is desirable. Hands-on experience with driving planning cycles for major software and preferably also web-based releases is preferred. An existing understanding of the planning discipline at Microsoft would be helpful.
