Expect Windows 8 to enjoy a level of hardware support similar to that of Windows 7. As a part of the Windows 8 Hardware Readiness Program, members of the Windows team will work with IHVs (independent hardware vendors) to help them build their devices and ensure that drivers work with Windows vNext.
Senior Program Manager-Windows Job at Microsoft
Are you interested in working closely with our key IHV partners to help the launch of future versions of Windows? Do you enjoy working closely with a motivated team solving tough technical and organizational problems? Do you have excellent time management, task prioritization and communication skills along with an ability to quickly understand technical issues? Do you enjoy working with product teams throughout Microsoft in an effort to drive our partners’ bugs to resolution? Are you a motivated self-starter interested in working in a fast-growing team to address the ever-changing hardware ecosystem landscape? If the answers are yes then we have a great position for you.
The IHV Readiness team is part of the Ecosystem Engineering team in the PC Ecosystem & Planning organization. We are looking for the right individuals to help us grow our program focusing on technical engagement with key IHV partners. These partners will need your deep engagement assistance to help resolve issues around developing devices for Windows. You’ll work closely with Windows core feature teams to understand their partnering needs while having a deep engagement with a set of IHV partners. You’ll be assisting partners throughout the Windows product cycle to support efficient development/test planning and motivate them to conduct focused testing and deliver on overall hardware readiness for Windows 8. Your efforts will focus on refining and leading a successful program, building relationships with your managed partners, facilitating the early identification and proactive resolution of issues, and acting as the main line of communication between IHV testing and our internal Microsoft teams.
You will be responsible for:
Working with a fun team to grow our IHV-focused “readiness” program
Ownership in developing a deep relationship with key IHV partners
Representing customer feedback to multiple Microsoft product teams
Providing guidance on maximizing testing efforts for our beta phase client and server products
Monitoring bug submissions, setting bug priorities with our partners, and tracking issues through to resolution
Providing early warnings for issues that might affect our ship readiness
Being the partner advocate, by providing a voice of technical reason in understanding and articulating the needs of our partners throughout Microsoft
Facilitating cross-group communication
Conveyance of technical feature-level material to our partners
Structuring offline technical discussions between partners and internal Microsoft teams
Providing status and technical understanding of partner issues to the overall IHV Readiness Team
The ideal candidate would be able to manage multiple levels of relationships from executive level to product testers, the technical depth to understand testing methodology, debugging, and system architectures, the flexibility to seamlessly move from client to server focus and back, the foresight to identify the priority issues from a vast pool of data, and the confidence and ability to ease the concerns of our partners in difficult situations.
Qualifications include:
Strong organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills
Two years of customer-facing experience
Two years of development or infrastructure experience
Ability to track and prioritize large numbers of issues
Deep understanding of client and/or hardware technologies
Deep understanding of Windows technologies and core components
Demonstrated ability to effectively handle difficult technical issues and critical partner communications
Ability to change direction and focus quickly; self-starter
Ability to dig into customer problems, determine root cause, identify creative solutions to seemingly unworkable issues, and maintain composure during difficult problem-solving discussions
A BA/BS degree in Computer Science or related technical equivalent strongly preferred
Experience dealing with senior management and development teams are a plus.
Tags: IHV, independent hardware vendors, win 8, Win8, Windows 8
