Microsoft

Performance Strategy & Innovation Lead

Microsoft$165K — $272K *
Consumer Technology
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Master's Degree in Marketing, Computer Science, Business or related field AND 4+ years experience; OR Bachelor's Degree in same fields AND 6+ years experience; OR equivalent experience.
  • Experience leading full-funnel marketing strategy across B2B or performance marketing environments.
  • Deep understanding of account-based marketing and audience strategy.
  • Analytical background with skills in marketing measurement and predictive modeling.
  • Demonstrated ability to balance short-term results with long-term strategic innovation.

Responsibilities

  • Develop and enhance MSCE's full-funnel marketing strategy for better customer acquisition and engagement.
  • Drive optimization across various channels to boost marketing efficiency and performance.
  • Monitor marketing campaign performance, making adjustments to support both short-term and long-term goals.
  • Serve as the primary strategy liaison for stakeholder leadership teams, aligning marketing with business priorities.
  • Manage centralized strategy for MCAPS to ensure consistent marketing execution.
  • Identify and implement account-based marketing strategies to improve audience targeting and engagement.
  • Design and execute strategic pilots, measuring success and integrating findings into ongoing operations.

Benefits

  • Comprehensive health and wellness programs.
  • Opportunities for professional development and training.
  • Flexible work hours and work-from-home options.
  • Employee stock purchase program.
  • Generous retirement savings plan with company match.
Full Job Description
Overview

TheMSCE (Marketing Signals Center of Excellence) within the Global Marketing Engines & Experiences organization supports marketing transformation for Microsoft's commercial businesses. MSCE acquires millions of new contacts annually and transforms those contacts into actionable marketing signals, leads, and sales recommendations that support connected digital marketing and modern selling journeys. Through acquisition and lifecycle marketing programs spanning 50+ markets and 30 languages, the team drives customer engagement, pipeline creation, revenue growth, and market share expansion across Microsoft's commercial portfolio.

As Microsoft continues to modernize its approach to demand generation, audience engagement, and seller activation, MSCE is evolving its marketing ecosystem through advanced analytics, marketing automation, AI-driven insights, and cross-channel orchestration.

The Performance Strategy & Innovation Lead is a senior marketing leader responsible for helping shape Microsoft's commercial marketing and seller engagement ecosystem. This role sits at the intersection of marketing strategy, analytics, innovation, and business transformation, driving initiatives that improve marketing performance, enhance signal generation, and help MCAPS (Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions) advance pipeline outcomes.

The successful candidate brings a combination of full-funnel marketing experience, account-based marketing (ABM) experience, data-informed decision-making skills, and strategic leadership. They will leverage performance insights, audience intelligence, and experimentation frameworks to identify opportunities, develop business cases, and scale approaches that support commercial outcomes.

This individual will serve as a key liaison across SMEC (Small, Medium, and Corporate Customers) and SMB(Small and Medium Business) stakeholder leadership teams, owning centralized performance strategy across MCAPS (Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions) business lines to help align business priorities, marketing investments, signal delivery, and execution plans. The role requires the ability to influence senior leaders across Marketing, Sales, Data Science, Engineering, Product, and Operations organizations.

Responsibilities
Full-Funnel Marketing Strategy & Performance Optimization
  • Develop and evolve MSCE's (Marketing Signals Center of Excellence) full-funnel marketing strategy, identifying opportunities to improve customer acquisition, engagement, conversion, and marketing signal generation.
  • Drive a continuous optimization framework across paid, owned, and seller-assisted channels to improve efficiency, marketing performance, and business outcomes.
  • Monitor campaign performance and market signals, making strategic adjustments to support short-term results while informing long-term marketing strategy and innovation priorities.
  • Identify opportunities to increase pipeline, conversion, and engagement outcomes across Microsoft's commercial marketing ecosystem.
Commercial Business Line Strategy & Stakeholder Leadership
  • Serve as the primary strategy liaison for SMEC (Marketing Signals Center of Excellence) and SMB leadership teams, translating business priorities into marketing, audience, and signal strategies.
  • Manage the centralized CSA (Customer Strategy & Analytics) strategy across MCAPS (Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions) business lines, ensuring consistency in execution while supporting the needs of individual segments and solution areas.
  • Partner with commercial stakeholders to identify opportunities, prioritize investments, and align marketing activities to business objectives.
  • Establish governance and operating rhythms that support alignment across Marketing, Sales, Analytics, and Operations teams.
Account-Based Marketing & Audience Strategy
  • Advance Microsoft's precision targeting and account-based marketing capabilities through audience segmentation, buying group identification, and customer prioritization approaches.
  • Evaluate and test datasets and targeting methodologies to identify customers and accounts with a propensity to engage, convert, and contribute to pipeline outcomes.
  • Develop strategies that improve audience quality, coverage, engagement, and seller actionability.
Marketing Signals & Demand Generation Innovation
  • Drive planning for marketing signals, propensity models, and audience intelligence capabilities that support seller effectiveness and demand generation outcomes.
  • Identify data sources, behavioral insights, and predictive methodologies to support signal accuracy and business outcomes.
  • Create demand-driven signals aligned to Microsoft's strategic solution areas and business priorities.
  • Leverage insights generated by the MSCE(Marketing Signals Center of Excellence) organization to identify opportunities to enhance existing marketing and seller activities.
  • Develop business cases and strategic recommendations for resource allocation and investment decisions.
Strategic Pilots & Experimentation
  • Design, scope, execute, and measure strategic pilots focused on audience strategy, signal innovation, channel optimization, content engagement, and seller activation.
  • Build testing frameworks that balance rapid learning with scalable execution.
  • Develop recommendations for integrating successful pilots into ongoing business operations.
  • Partner with Data Science, Engineering, Product, and Analytics teams to help shape technical roadmaps supporting marketing intelligence, signal delivery, and performance measurement.
  • Translate technical concepts and analytical findings into business recommendations for executive audiences.
Performance Measurement & Business Impact
  • Develop KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and success criteria for innovation programs, strategic pilots, and optimization initiatives.
  • Measure business outcomes through structured measurement approaches and experimentation methodologies.
  • Build business cases that support investment decisions, scaling opportunities, and long-term strategic prioritization.
Leadership Partnerships
  • Build relationships with leaders across Marketing, Sales, Operations, Analytics, Data Science, Product, and Engineering teams.
  • Represent the MSCE (Marketing Signals Center of Excellence) organization in strategic forums with leadership stakeholders.
  • Influence organizational priorities, investment decisions, and long-term growth strategies through data-informed recommendations.


Qualifications
Required/Minimum Qualifications
  • Master's Degree in Marketing, Computer Science, Business or related field AND 4+ years experience in business OR Bachelor's Degree in Marketing, Computer Science, Business or related field AND 6+ years experience in business OR equivalent experience.
Additional or Preferred Qualifications
  • Master's Degree in Marketing, Computer Science, Business or related field AND 8+ years marketing or sales experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Marketing, Computer Science, Business or related field AND 12+ years experience in business OR equivalent experience.
  • Experience leading full-funnel marketing strategy across B2B, enterprise, performance marketing, digital marketing, or direct-to-consumer environments.
  • Deep understanding of account-based marketing, audience strategy, demand generation, buying groups, and customer lifecycle marketing.
  • Experience driving cross-channel orchestration and performance optimization initiatives.
  • Analytical foundation with experience in marketing measurement, experimentation, predictive modeling, propensity scoring, and performance analytics.
  • Demonstrated ability to balance short-term performance optimization with long-term strategic innovation.
Success in this Role

Success in this role will be measured by the ability to drive improvements in marketing performance, signal quality, pipeline contribution, audience precision, and seller effectiveness while helping build the strategic roadmap that shapes the future of Microsoft's commercial marketing ecosystem. The role combines business leadership, marketing strategy, innovation, analytics, and operational influence to support growth across Microsoft's commercial segments.

Product Marketing IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $130,900 - $251,900 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $165,600 - $272,300 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:
https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

About Microsoft

Microsoft is an American multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services. Microsoft’s devices and consumer (D&C) licensing segment licenses the Windows operating system and related software, Microsoft Office for consumers, and the Windows Phone operating system. The company’s computing and gaming hardware segment provides Xbox gaming and entertainment consoles and accessories, second-party and third-party video games, and Xbox Live subscriptions; surface devices and accessories; and Microsoft PC accessories. Its phone hardware segment offers Lumia smartphones and other non-Lumia phones. Its D&C segment provides Windows Store, Xbox Live transactions, and Windows phone store; search advertising; display advertising; Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal; first-party video games; and other consumer products and services as well as operating retail stores. Microsoft’s commercial licensing segments license server products, including Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Visual Studio, System Center, and related Client Access Licenses (CALs); Windows Embedded; Windows operating system; Microsoft Office for business, including Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, and related CALs; Microsoft Dynamics business solutions; and Skype. Its commercial segment offers enterprise services, including premier support services and Microsoft consulting services; commercial cloud comprising Office 365 Commercial, other Microsoft Office online offerings, Dynamics CRM Online, and Microsoft Azure; and other commercial products and online services. The company markets and distributes its products through original equipment manufacturers, distributors, and resellers, as well as online.

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Learn more about Microsoft
Size
181,000 employees
Market Cap
$1,762.4 billion
Industry
Net Income
$51.3 billion
Founded
1975
5 Year Trend
+15.5%
Revenue
$153.2 billion
NASDAQ

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