Director of Accessibility

Are you enthusiastic about accessibility in gaming? Do you have a passion to work for a company that is focused on strengthening community in a diverse, equitable and inclusive way? Do you want to make a measurable impact to Gaming products and services that exceed our customer’s needs? Come join Microsoft and the Gaming organization and help champion inclusive growth, leading by example in products, services and our team.



The Xbox Product Services (XPS) organization is looking for an experienced Director of Accessibility Program Manager to deepen our product impact across engineering teams and delivering inclusive growth.



XPS works across the entire Gaming business at Microsoft to demonstrate empathy and make customers happy. We strive to deliver extraordinary, inclusive experiences while enabling customers of all abilities to play our games and be active participants in our gaming communities. We build trust with our customers through transparency and choice. As a horizontal team, we establish and facilitate virtual teams of subject matter experts from across gaming to drive efficient, coordinated adoption of policies, standards and best practices, that ensure development of improved products and services for our customers. The Gaming Accessibility Program v-team is an example; the person in this role will work with representatives from Gaming for Everyone, Xbox Research & Design, Xbox Game Studios, our Gaming legal team, and others.



The role of the Director of Gaming Accessibility Program Manager will focus on developing and maintaining a unified plan and communications framework for all accessibility activities in gaming, while managing a core set of accessibility subject matter expert resources to help drive accessibility compliance, consultations and guidance to our engineering partners. Desirable candidates should have a natural aptitude for communicating with senior leadership, assessing engineering impact, and addressing implementation challenges that arise from policy decisions. This person will welcome change, focus on enabling our gaming engineering partners to create world class accessible products and services and thrive on teams that constantly adapt and evolve to meet the everchanging regulatory landscape of our complex business. If this sounds like you, this may be a great fit!

Responsibilities
Develop and execute on strategic plans to build world-class accessible products across Gaming.
Drive strategic horizontal accessibility initiatives that advance the ability of the Gaming organization to deliver compliant, world class games, hardware, platforms, and services to everyone.
Understand the business priorities and strategies when it comes to the training and education of accessibility policies and standards to enable accessibility compliance.
Manage a team of accessibility subject matter experts who enable our engineering partners to deliver world class accessible products and services via consultations, training, education, and guidance.
Partner with teams across Microsoft to ensure success in the development and implementation of accessible games, hardware, platforms and services for Gaming and beyond.
Identify, leverage, and evangelize opportunities to improve accessibility inclusive design practices and awareness across gaming.
Convey complex legal concepts and requirements to engineering partners in ways that resonate.
Work closely with Microsoft legal teams and partners to serve as the voice of the customer to the business on matters related to accessibility.

Qualifications
Customer obsession, and a real passion for accessibility
Knowledge and or experience in gaming industry
Demonstrated people management capabilities
Ability to develop quality measures and metrics and use those metrics to drive product feature decisions
Ability to deal well with – and potentially thrive – in ambiguity and successfully execute across a complex, highly-matrixed environment
Exceptional communication skills with an ability to adapt and tailor communications for different audiences
Strategic thinker who can identify inclusive business opportunities across multiple business groups, independently drive alignment and execute action plans that bring focus and synergy
Accessibility Trusted Tester certification highly desired
5+ years’ experience in one or more of the following areas or combination thereof: Accessibility, Diversity and Inclusion, Inclusive Design
Either 10+ years’ of proven engineering Program Management or Product Development, driving efforts across multiple disciplines and teams.
Or 10+ years’ experience in Software Development, Software Development Management, or equivalent.
BA/BS or equivalent


Preferred Qualifications:

Deep passion for consumer products, gaming or the entertainment business
Experience with change management and/or driving cultural change a plus!


On the Gaming Accessibility team, one of our core philosophies is that real innovation comes from a diverse and inclusive culture based on mutual respect, collaboration, and fun. Perhaps you can help us?



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.



Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.