Director of Events

Overview

The Microsoft Event Strategy & Planning Team is responsible for designing and evolving Microsoft's most important commercial events as strategic growth levers for the business. The team works across marketing, field, content, production, and activation partners to define event purpose, audience focus, experience design, and success measures; ensuring events are intentional, scalable, and aligned to business priorities. Within this team, the Digital & Targeted local events team designs delivers events - digital and in-person - that engage business leaders, technical audiences, developers, and end users with prioritized content across all Conversations. Partnering with Product and Audience Marketing, the team accelerates product adoption, re-engages existing customers, and supports regional priorities through scalable execution.

We are looking for a Director of Events to lead Microsofts Digital and Targeted Local event portfolio. In this role, you will be accountable for the overall success, operational excellence, and business impact of a broad portfolio of digital and in-person engagements that support Microsofts commercial priorities. You will lead a team of event professionals and work across Event Architects, Product Marketing, Sales, Demand Generation, Communications, and Field teams to ensure portfolio strategies are translated into scalable, measurable programs. This team delivers thousands of events each year to customers in multiple time zone, geographies, with different languages and business objectives. Success in this role requires thorough business acumen, exceptional cross-functional leadership, and the ability to balance strategic priorities, operational rigor, and organizational change across a complex event ecosystem. This is a people leadership role. You will develop your teams capabilities, establish clear priorities and accountability, drive employee growth, and foster a culture of trust, inclusion, innovation, and continuous improvement.

Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.

Responsibilities

Portfolio Leadership & Business Impact

• Lead Microsofts Digital and Targeted Local event portfolio, ensuring programs support commercial priorities, customer needs, and sales objectives.
• Translate portfolio direction into annual plans, priorities, operating rhythms, and investment decisions that maximize business impact and customer engagement.

Cross-Functional Leadership & Portfolio Governance

• Provide leadership across Event Architects, program leads, field stakeholders, and execution partners to align priorities, manage dependencies, and drive successful outcomes.
• Establish governance, decision-making processes, and operating models that enable consistency and scale across the portfolio.

Event Delivery & Operational Excellence

• Oversee end-to-end execution across the portfolio, ensuring programs are delivered with quality, consistency, and operational rigor.
• Drive excellence across planning, resourcing, budgets, localization, readiness, stakeholder management, risk mitigation, and field activation while continuously improving processes and ways of working.

Innovation & Experience Advancement

• Champion the evolution of digital and targeted local event experiences by identifying opportunities to showcase AI innovation, modern engagement models, and emerging technologies.
• Partner with architects, platform teams, and execution teams to bring new capabilities and experiences to market.

Performance Management & Continuous Improvement

• Partner with architects, analytics teams, and stakeholders to evaluate portfolio performance and drive continuous improvement.
• Use insights, customer feedback, and business outcomes to optimize execution models, improve operational effectiveness, and identify opportunities to increase impact across the portfolio.

Organizational Leadership & Talent Development

• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team of event professionals.
• Build organizational capability, establish clear accountability, manage performance, and create an inclusive culture that supports growth, collaboration, and execution excellence.

Other

• Embody our Culture and Values

Qualifications

Required/minimum qualifications

• 5+ years business to business, business to consumer, digital, or experiential/event marketing experience
• OR equivalent experience.
• 2+ years people management experience.

Additional or preferred qualifications

• Bachelors Degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, Public Relations, Liberal Arts, Performing Arts, or related field AND 10+ years business to business, business to consumer, enterprise technology, digital, or experiential/event marketing experience in the technology industry
• OR equivalent experience.
• 8+ years marketing experience in a large multinational organization or creative/media agency.
• 5+ years people management experience.
• Experience leading and executing events at scale, both digital and in-person, including event production, demand generation, and delivery.
• Experience setting key performance indicators (KPIs) and the ability to generate, analyze, and interpret data to drive decisions.
• Experience working successfully in large, complex, matrixed organizations, coordinating across multiple stakeholders and managing multiple deadline-driven programs.

Events M5 - 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.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.