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Our purpose as the WW Consumer Channel Sales group is to earn fans and drive growth by building emotional connections to delight and empower everyone. We engage with consumers globally throughout their shopping journeys, navigating both physical storefronts and digital visits across Partner Channels in Windows, M365 and Surface. Together with retail partners, we drive profitable growth in Windows, Surface, and M365 and inspire customers to use Copilot as their preferred AI companion to achieve more.

As a member of our team, you’ll be part of growing a multi-billion-dollar business, charting new areas of innovation, and impacting billions of lives around the world. You also will be a part of a culture centred on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day. If that appeals to you, it’s an exciting time to be here and a part of the WW Consumer Channels Sales group (WWCCS).

The Seasonal Category Planning Manager - Retail is responsible for ensuring regional Windows teams are equipped with the right content, insights, and tools to drive execution excellence with retail partners around the world. You will align to key consumer moments, retailer milestones and PC cycles through regional forums like seasonal marketing meetings, retailer readiness, and CES. This role is essential in driving clarity on the top priorities for each season and what it is we are trying to accomplish in growing the Windows Consumer Business. Ensuring our partners globally are going to market with a tightly aligned strategy across our Windows ecosystem is vital and this role spearheads that work.

This role offers a unique opportunity to drive our Windows Consumer strategy and priorities at retail and have immense impact on the business.

Responsibilities

+ Drive seasonal planning by ensuring clarity on business priorities, with strong collaboration across Go-To-Market and Product Marketing Management teams to develop content and support plans for Worldwide Go-To-Market planning.

+ Ensure field teams are equipped with the tools and information they need to support Go-To-Market activities and product launches by developing and executing a comprehensive planning framework.

+ Own Windows Customer and Partner Solutions Integrated Planning deliverables for the Consumer Channel Sales team, including the Seasonal Marketing Moments process. Lead the process to ensure a 360-degree perspective from regional teams and key stakeholders on strategy.

+ Partner across organizations to drive timelines for seasonal priority setting and Go-To-Market preparation to support global partner execution.

What our team offers

+ At our core, we are a customer-focused team that encourages a diverse & inclusive culture. We are respectful, collaborative, honest, accountable, and caring. The right candidate can expect to have opportunities to grow their own experience and career, influence groups and partners across the company and help develop key go to market strategies and tactics that will enable long term growth for Microsoft.

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications

+ 4+ years category management, product management, marketing strategy, business planning, product planning, or related work experience AND Bachelor's Degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, Economics, Public Relations, Engineering, or related field OR equivalent experience.

+ 4+ years of experience in category management, product planning, or go-to-market strategy, with a focus on consumer devices or services in global retail or digital channels, including cross-functional coordination with marketing, product, and field teams to drive execution across regions

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

+ 6+ years category management, product management, marketing strategy, business planning, product planning, or related work experience AND Bachelor's Degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, Economics, Public Relations, Engineering, or related field OR equivalent experience.

+ 4+ years experience managing and expanding a category and attaining sales and profitability targets within a complex (e.g., multinational or matrixed) organization OR equivalent experience.

+ 6+ years of experience in consumer category or product marketing, with a focus on seasonal planning, campaign execution, or go-to-market strategy across global markets

Category Management IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $106,400 - $203,600 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 $137,600 - $222,600 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: US corporate pay information | Microsoft Careers (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/us-corporate-pay.html)

Microsoft will accept applications for the role until July 31, 2025.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, 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 and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html) .