New Job at Microsoft, I will be a Senior Program Manager in Windows

This Monday I accepted a new role at Microsoft. I will be a Senior Program Manager in Windows in the Developer ecosystem and platform (DEP) engineering team.

The operating systems group is looking for an experienced technical program manager to drive developer engagement and help make our phone, pc and tablet app ecosystem vibrant! As part of the developer ecosystem and platform (DEP) engineering team, developer engagement PM’s work closely with our top strategic app developers and partners to learn from them, unblock them, co-engineer with them, and ultimately change and improve the Windows platform to make it a no brainer choice for any solution or app on any form factor. DEP program managers are part of a dynamic team with a key role to play in enabling all Windows devices to be first class citizens in the cloud-first mobile-first world.
A big focus of the OS vNext is enabling Enterprise customers to more easily deploy and manage Windows devices and the apps that run on them. This includes mission critical apps developed commercially or as part of line of business solutions. In this role, your challenge is to deeply understand and deliver on the needs of Enterprise developers, and to enable commercial ISVs to adopt platform innovations that make Windows apps work even better for business. If you are passionate about helping us succeed in this space, love solving technical problems for real customers, thrive on making change happen, and want to work for a super-fun team, please read on.
The successful candidate will be expected to work with teams across the OS group, and Business Development and Marketing and the broader Microsoft focused on a set of commercial partners and scenarios. You will be expected to engage with technical leaders in other companies and develop expertise in platform technologies that will enable you to recommend solutions and identify gaps. Strong collaboration, communication and project management skills are a must for succeeding with internal and external relationships and making change happen. Successfully influencing engineering plans both inside and outside of Microsoft is a key deliverable.
The ideal candidate possesses a combination of program management and partner engagement experience with an extensive technical background, and ideally has participated in the technical community as an author, blogger, speaker, evangelist, or content contributor. You will need to have passion and enthusiasm for helping customers and partners; and the ability to stay current and relevant as technologies morph and evolve. Experience managing a large program or multiple feature areas or partners simultaneously preferred.
Job Qualifications:
A minimum of 5 years of program management, product development, technical evangelism, or technical product management.
A BA/BS degree in Computer Science or equivalent industry experience.
Familiarity with Visual Studio or equivalent app development environment.
Availability for business travel and business calls with partners in other time zones.
Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, national origin, marital status, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other protected status.

In other words, I will be working with partners, ISV’s and internal groups to make sure Windows covers all the scenarios from an enterprise developer perspective and they are tested and validated with partners and customers. In other words, make sure Windows is ready for enterprises. The difference between this job and the current one how I see it is; In the new job I need to make sure developer CAN build their software on Windows. The current job is about making sure developers WILL build their software on Windows.

I will still be working with the marketing group I was part of. I loved working in this team and with my marketing colleagues. I wasn’t even looking for something else to do, this happen to come along as an opportunity and I grabbed it. I love working in the enterprise space, I think it’s important and now I will be part of the group building the product (OSG, Operating System Group).