Performance Strategy & Innovation Lead

Overview

The MSCE (Marketing Signals Center of Excellence) within the Global Marketing Engines & Experiences organization supports marketing transformation for Microsofts 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 Microsofts 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 Microsofts 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 MSCEs (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 Microsofts 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 Microsofts 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 Microsofts 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

• Masters Degree in Marketing, Computer Science, Business or related field AND 4+ years experience in business OR Bachelors Degree in Marketing, Computer Science, Business or related field AND 6+ years experience in business OR equivalent experience.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• Masters Degree in Marketing, Computer Science, Business or related field AND 8+ years marketing or sales experience OR Bachelors 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 Microsofts commercial marketing ecosystem. The role combines business leadership, marketing strategy, innovation, analytics, and operational influence to support growth across Microsofts 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.

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.