Microsoft Partner Manager

**Position Summary**:
The strategic partnerships team is responsible for the global Microsoft partnership at Difenda. This includes maintaining relationships, building plans with Microsoft to grow our partnership, managing certifications internally, managing company goals with Microsoft, general engagement with the Microsoft teams and our organization, and driving sales through the Microsoft partnership. Partnering with teams across the organization the Microsoft Partner Manager will be responsible for maintaining certification status and goals, partner status and goals for Difenda, regularly meeting with the Microsoft PDMs in our regions of business for updates and to align on campaign status and offer details, connect our internal teams to their counterparts at Microsoft in their region, drive offer development and updates, and driving the overall Microsoft growth plan at Difenda. Success is measured by the sales growth of our Microsoft business, the execution of our Microsoft plan, and the engagement level we have with Microsoft globally.

As a Partner Manager, you will be responsible for providing a superior Microsoft experience alongside the Difenda related teams (sales, marketing, technical). You will maintain a strong understanding of Difenda’s relationship with Microsoft, our strategy with respect to the partnership, and our goals from the related teams. You will support the business through our engagement with Microsoft in technical components, marketing activities, sales support, and in driving the business relationship so that it aligns with the company growth strategy. You will also support channel partners and their strategy alignment through their Microsoft PDMs as our businesses grow together. Key support areas for the business include managing technical certifications and goals, maintaining our partnership status with Microsoft, driving campaign plans for our offers, developing new offer content and uploading to marketplace, arranging sales enablement activities, and providing feedback on current processes as we continue to evolve the department. You possess Microsoft expertise and understand the technology industry, supporting by strong business acumen you will ensure our internal customers, and our partners externally, will have the tools they need to be successful and will be able to tell the Difenda MSFT story, which drives our continued success.

**What You’ll Do**:

- Work with Strategic Partners leadership to develop a strategy around MSFT programs
- Responsible for owning the execution, optimization and assessment MSFT programs
- Own the company certification file and a central location for tracking and sharing with key departments
- Own the company partnership level with MSFT, including keeping payments and certifications and sales goals completed
- Create and manage certifications with technical leadership
- Manage the plan around future certifications and advanced specializations for our MSFT partnership
- Responsible for attending and representing the company at monthly MSFT office hour meetings for MISA and for associated geographies and sharing the findings internally
- Responsible for owning and managing actions from bi-weekly meetings with PDMs and technical contacts we have in MSFT
- Manage quarterly updates and optimization of our offers on marketplace
- Manage monthly reports around MSFT business (sales and partnership reports)
- Work with technical team and marketing on continuous case study development
- Prepare slides as needed for regular MSFT meetings (internal and external)
- Manage MCI and ECIF (and special POCs as necessary) submissions and reporting as well as all program requirements
- Regular reviews for PAL reporting and identification of any errors or discrepancies
- Management of Difenda MPN system - keeping everything updated and accurate, communicating key dates to leadership, owning billing dates
- Manage development and execution plans for all offer promotions/campaigns with various parties in MSFT and Difenda
- Manage regular requests for basic information from MSFT on our company or our offers
- Engaging with Difenda sales reps to ensure opportunities are entered into the MSFT system and providing them support on relationships with MSFT reps
- Support marketing activities for MSFT partnership
- Drive sales and pipeline through Difenda and MSFT sales reps (and support channel partner needs)
- Manage internal reporting on MSFT partnership based on metrics to help keep key stakeholders updated
- Communicate enablement strategy and KPIs to stakeholders
- Gather and relay feedback to continuously iterate on the enablement strategy

**What We’re Looking For**:

- Bachelor’s degree
- 2+ years experience in a high-performance sales organization in sales, partnership, or marketing
- A strong understanding of the MSFT environment, including sales content, tools and training
- Highly organized
- Strong background in customer service and communications requ