Accessibility Engagement Strategy PM

Accessibility is a key part of Microsoft’s mission to empower people and organizations to achieve more, and our team partners across the company and throughout the global accessibility community to make that vision a reality for the more than one billion people with disabilities. As part of this focus, we are looking for an experienced program manager with a passion for technology evangelism, and background working with customers and partners building accessible technology experiences end-to-end. This includes managing a portfolio of grantee relationships within the Microsoft AI for Accessibility program and internal projects as part of our Accessibility Innovation team. Candidates must have a proven track record in relationship management, excellent communication skills and attention to detail, as well as demonstrated skills in partnering with a wide variety of stakeholder groups, internal and external, on technology innovation projects on a global scale.
External engagements will be sourced from the Microsoft AI for Accessibility program. The Engagement Strategy PM will own and manage relationships with all awarded grant projects, including tracking their progress towards deliverables, unblocking technology issues for grantees when they arise, and amplifying the impact of grant projects through marketing and PR channels.
Internal innovation engagements will be sourced from a variety of pipelines, such as hackathons and product teams looking for acceleration on short-term deliverables. To ensure quality of work in fields as vast as AI and accessibility, the Engagement Strategy PM will need to amplify their individual skills and experience by leveraging partner teams across the company, such as Philanthropies, Microsoft Research, marketing & PR, data scientists, cloud architects, etc., and will build long-term, trusted relationships with those partner teams.
Do you want to play a key role in building the future of technology with people with disabilities? We need someone motivated to raise the bar of accessible technology and experienced in collaborating with multiple partners both in and outside the company.
Responsibilities

Manage growing portfolio of grantees, including leading regular check-ins, measuring their progress towards committed deliverables, and facilitating their graduation from our grant program towards the end of their award cycle.
Engage in effective conversations with stakeholders of all levels both inside and outside the company to ensure people with disabilities are authentically represented in all our projects and new projects are building off the learning from previous/similar efforts.
Build long-term, trusted relationships with partner teams within Microsoft to evangelize goals of our accessibility innovation efforts and leverage unique skills from colleagues, when needed.
Guide marketing and PR teams in how to demonstrate the impact of all projects within the team’s scope, including the maintenance of our program websites and project collateral.
Evangelize the capabilities of Azure and accessible app development internally and externally

Qualifications
Required Qualifications

3+ years of experience as a program manager.
3+ years managing business relationships across domains and skillsets.
2+ years working independently with high impact results, and comfortable working with a large portfolio of relationships.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with grant programs, public speaking, and blogging.
2+ years Accessibility experience on both consumer/enterprise products and assistive technologies, such as screen readers, switches, and other accessible technologies.
Ability to communicate effectively to a variety of audiences, from project coordinators to developers, data scientists, and senior executives.
Previous experience launching initiatives from general directional goals to successful operations delivering and exceeding expectations.
Knowledge of accessibility guidelines (such as Section 508 and WCAG 2.0) and technologies (such as ARIA).


Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

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