Partner Success Manager - Azure

At Small Medium Enterprises and Channel (SME&C), we are leading a high-growth, AI-powered global sales team—one that is deeply connected to our partners and driven by customer success. By uniting our Small Medium Business, Corporate, Strategy, and Partner teams, we are unlocking the largest customer opportunity, backed by the industry’s most significant investments. Leveraging the power of AI and our extensive partner ecosystem, we are redefining how businesses of all sizes adopt technology to drive growth and innovation. SME&C is more than a sales organization—it’s a culture of innovation, opportunity, and inclusivity. Here, you’ll be part of a diverse, high-performing, and customer-obsessed team where collaboration, connection, and continuous learning fuel everything we do. If you thrive in a fast-paced, digital-first environment and are eager to make a meaningful impact, explore how SME&C can be the next step in your career. Together, we are shaping the future of business.    

Do you thrive on empowering partners to drive successful customer outcomes and long-term value? Would you love to help our partners further develop their expertise around customer success? 

As a Partner Success Manager, you will be a part of Microsoft’s Channel Technical Team, focused on Azure within SME&C and accountable for driving Azure consumption growth through a portfolio of key partners aligned to a geographic region. You will be continuously innovating, technically fluent, and be the evolution of joint partner sales and success strategies—while remaining deeply centered on delivering customer outcomes at scale. You will play a critical role in assessing and advancing partner Customer Success Unit (CSU) maturity, building scalable practices that enable partners to drive sustained adoption and consumption. 

To be successful, you will bring a strong understanding of partner business models, customer success practices, and cross-sell/upsell motions across cloud services and routes to market, along with a solid foundation in Azure (minimum 200-level knowledge) and IaaS. You will work with  a cross-functional v-team spanning partner, sales, technical, and operations stakeholders to accelerate Azure consumption. By developing and scaling partner-led customer success practices—including CSU maturity—you will empower partners to better invest in customer needs, unlock new growth opportunities, and drive digital transformation outcomes. This role is flexible in that you can work up to 50% home.  

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.  

• You will build and maintain deep knowledge of partner capabilities, industry trends, and competitive landscapes, applying these insights to shape partner strategies, enhance growth, and deliver differentiated customer outcomes.
• You will align partner capabilities to specific business opportunities, activating the right partners and Microsoft sales plays to drive measurable customer outcomes across solutions and workloads.
• You will act as a trusted bridge between Microsoft sellers, partners, and customers—building confidence in partner capabilities, guiding engagement approaches, and ensuring alignment between partner offerings and customer needs.
• You will guide sellers/customers in selecting the right partners and solutions, leveraging customer insights and targeting tools to identify whitespace opportunities and match them to partner strengths.
• You will collaborate closely with partners and internal stakeholders to validate opportunities, assess feasibility, and ensure partners are positioned with the right customer references and capabilities to win and scale.
• You will engage key stakeholders across partner portfolios to identify and activate opportunities that drive Azure sales, new customer acquisition, and usage growth. You will guide partners to build and execute consumption plans, align the right customer targets and co‑sell solutions, and orchestrate internal resources to maximize efficiency and impact. You will also support partners in operationalizing opportunities, including activation strategy and system/tool entry as deals progress. 
• You will collaborate with partners and internal teams to define goals across solution areas, industries, and prioritized customer segments. You will assess partner capabilities, align them to business needs, and co-develop consumption plans that accelerate outcomes. You will optimize partner marketing investments and ensure the right partners are prioritized to deliver strong return on investment (ROI) and scalable growth.
• You will select, develop, and manage partner performance through Partner Development Dimensions (PDDs), providing actionable feedback and closing performance gaps in partnership with development managers. You will drive co-selling execution, coach partners on consumption/usage planning and demand generation, and build and oversee partner sales plans to ensure consistent delivery against revenue and growth targets.
• You will identify and communicate high-impact sales and solution opportunities to partners, leveraging segment expertise to align the right partner capabilities to customer needs and ensure partners are enabled with the skills and resources required to execute and scale successfully.

Required/minimum qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Business, or related field AND 6+ years experience in sales, industry channel sales, and industry sales OR equivalent experience.
• 3+ years experience presenting or recommending cloud platforms such as Azure and AWS to customers or internal stakeholders
• Native-level Japanese and business-level English proficiency

Additional or preferred qualifications

• Master's Degree in Engineering, Business, or related field AND 9+ years experience in industry channel sales, and industry sales OR Bachelor's Degree in Engineering or related field AND 11+ years experience in industry channel sales, and industry sales OR equivalent experience.
• 5+ years of partner engagement experience.

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.