Director Sustainability Policy, European Government Affairs

Responsibilities

Strategy/Program Management

• Advocates for, and manages, policy issues (e.g., social, political, technical), and co-leads the company’s engagements and campaigns in collaboration with senior internal stakeholders related to government affairs on priority issues, strategies, and/or programs.
• Contributes to, and develops, Microsoft’s policy agenda and/or advocacy strategies for top priorities.
• Manages affairs in rapidly changing and ambiguous political, policy, and industry environments.
• Steering project-related government affairs work including stakeholder management, outreach strategy, narrative development and related political communications.
• Identifyinh and creating opportunities for Microsoft technology and cloud computing services to empower government leaders in addressing challenges and achieve their climate goals within the political landscape.

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.
• Develops and implements strategies for leveraging partnerships with external partners and key influencers to advance Microsoft’s public policy agenda.
• Develops and establishes an intelligence network, gathers and analyses external/internal data and relationship interactions, and shares internal and external intelligence findings in support of Microsoft’s and customers’ business objectives.
• 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.

Representing Microsoft

• Participates in internal/external events, and is active with driving social media engagement on key issues; supports executive engagement and participation in international events.
• Clearly communicating Microsoft’s sustainability commitments, whilst explaining related complex technical concepts and Microsoft services to policymakers, business decisionmakers, and decision influencers.
• Driving strategic partnership engagement in external events as well as relationship and alliance building with any other relevant stakeholders

External Relationships

• Engaging with and enhancing trusted relationships towards European Union institutions, European governments, regulatory agencies, and international organizations.
• Maintaining a broad network of relationships with decision-makers in the EU institutions and relevant departments in key European countries.
• Coordinating closely with Microsoft’s government affairs community and external consultants, in Brussels and key European countries.

Internal Collaboration

• Resolving 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.
• Advising senior executive leadership teams with respect to project-related political landscape and measures.
• Partnering with the Microsoft environmental sustainability team, engineering and sales teams to develop strategies that support their priority objectives through engagement with officials from the EU institutions.
  Support preparation of project-related executive visits in close collaboration with the entire CELA Team.

Other

• Embody our culture and values
• Strong internal and external communications skills.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Public Policy, environmental science, environmental law or related field experience in government affairs, corporate affairs, public policy, or government and environmental / climate policy at national of European level.

• Experience in developing and managing strategic relationships to advocate and influence public/technology policy priorities
• 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
• Track record of delivering results in developing and implementing advocacy programs in legislative bodies and executive agencies.
• Proven project management, organizational, and coalition-building skills, including demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects concurrently.
• Ability to manage various resources, including consultants, partners and allies, on legislative- and business-related initiatives.
• Self-starter, 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.

• Strong organizational and planning skills.
• Excellent 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.