Economic Policy Manager, European Government Affairs

Responsibilities

Strategy/Program Management

• Advocates for, and manages, policy issues (e.g., social, political, technical), and leads the company’s engagement and campaigns in collaboration with senior internal stakeholders related to government affairs on priority issues, strategies, and/or programs.
• Manages affairs in rapidly changing and ambiguous political, policy, and industry environments.
• Develops strategies for multiple regulatory and/or legislative initiatives by serving as a subject matter expert on regulatory and/or legislative issues to assess their impact on Microsoft goals and objectives; delivers materials (e.g., strategy, policy briefings, other documentation) to internal stakeholders.
• Steering project-related government affairs work including stakeholder management, outreach strategy, narrative development and related political communications.
• Support preparation of project-related executive visits in close collaboration with the entire CELA Team.

Subject Matter Expertise and Influence

• Political astuteness and strong analytical skills. Deep and proven knowledge of the European/EU political landscape and dynamics across different institutions, political actors, groups/parties etc.
• Provides counselling on public policy and/or geo-political or cultural topics to business units related to specific product development or business plans.
• Identifying and creating opportunities for Microsoft technology and cloud computing services to empower government leaders in addressing societal, economic, and political challenges.
• Clearly communicating Microsoft’s commitments and explaining related complex technical concepts and Microsoft services to policymakers, business decisionmakers, and decision influencers.
• Advise senior executive leadership teams with respect to project-related political landscape and measures.
• Developing and maintaining an understanding of Microsoft cloud services (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and their suitability for various government functions at EU and member state level, as well as an understanding of providers that compete with Microsoft and their competitive advantages and disadvantages relative to Microsoft’s offerings.
• Keeping abreast of technology policy and energy trends and developments and understanding how they intersect with Microsoft generally and Microsoft’s cloud especially.
• Promoting best practices and standards procurement specifications that are helpful in creating procurement opportunities for Microsoft Azure commercial customers.

Representing Microsoft

• Maintaining a broad network of relationships with decision-makers in the EU institutions and relevant departments in key European countries.
• Directs political strategies, provides strategic vision, and develops communication framework and/or messaging in partnership with Communications team for Microsoft by implementing strategies across diverse stakeholders.
• Participates in internal/external events, and is active with driving social media engagement on key issues; supports executive engagement and participation in international events

External Relationships

• Engaging with and enhancing trusted relationships towards European Union institutions, European governments, regulatory agencies, and international organizations.
• Serves as a strategic partner to the Public Sector and other key business leads by supporting sales and market opportunities, building Microsoft’s reputation as a globally trusted provider of technology, and assisting in navigating, minimizing, or removing roadblocks in order to drive business results.
• Driving strategic partnership engagement in external events as well as relationship and alliance building with any other relevant stakeholders.
• Coordinating closely with Microsoft’s government affairs community and external consultants, in Brussels and key European countries.

Internal Collaboration

• Partnering with colleagues engaged on engineering and sales teams to develop strategies that support their priority objectives through engagement with officials from the EU institutions.
• Resolves complex, cross-group priority conflicts and gains alignment across teams to enable the achievement of shared business objectives; facilitates and coordinates internal business operations within region to raise awareness and facilitate communication and coordination of effort
• 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
• Strong internal and external communications skills.

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• 
  Bachelor’s Degree in Public Policy, political science, law, European studies, communications, or related field experience in government affairs, corporate affairs, public policy, or government.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• Work experience and proven expertise on European digital public policy, specifically regulation impacting Microsoft’s cloud customers, European SMEs, and data-driven industries.
• High affinity for IT and business topics; ability to understand and explain complex technical and/or legal issues to policymaker stakeholders.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Fluency in English and at least one additional official European language.
• Demonstratable examples of delivering results in developing and implementing advocacy programs in legislative bodies and executive agencies.
• Proven experience of project management, organizational, and coalition-building skills, including demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects concurrently.
• Experience managing various resources, including consultants, partners and allies, on legislative- and business-related initiatives.
• Self-starter, and collaborative team player with an ability to lead, motivate and contribute to others’ work, embrace big challenges, learn new topics, and collaborate and coordinate effectively across organizations.
• Strategic, creative, inclusive, adaptive, flexible and with a growth mindset.

Desired skills

• Business judgment, strategic thinking skills, superior work ethic, attention to detail and quality, able to manage numerous projects simultaneously.
• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain strong relationships and consensus with a variety of constituencies both inside and outside an organization.
• Motivate and lead others, including on matters where you are not in a position of direct authority.
• Demonstrated ability to think creatively to devise strategies that advance customers’ and corporate interests, prioritize among competing responsibilities, and devise long-term strategies.
• Ability to communicate complicated legal and policy context clearly and succinctly to a variety of different audiences (internal and external) from a diverse set of disciplines (lawyers, project managers, engineers, business executives, government officials, policymakers, academics, reporters) and cultures.
• Willingness to experiment and try new things and learn quickly from failure and/or mistakes.
• Comfortable operating in fast-paced, high-pressure environment and working on cutting-edge legal and policy matters where ambiguity is the rule rather than the exception.
• Ability and willingness to adapt quickly as the legal, policy and factual landscape continues to evolve.