Website Microsoft

Communications Manager, Microsoft
Location: Redmond, Washington, United States
Ref: 726573

Microsoft’s Office of General Counsel (OGC) Legal Affairs group within Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs (CELA) is looking for an experienced Communications Manager who is passionate about creative storytelling and will focus on creating engaging, compelling, relevant, and accessible content to support the department’s work.

The OGC Communications Manager is responsible for driving the internal communication strategy for the General Counsel and leading the centralized communications work for the Legal Affairs organization in partnership with key stakeholders across a matrixed organization. The role will also be responsible for producing and delivering communications via our main internal communication channels across a diverse audience and partnering with the Public Relations team to align on external messaging on priorities and values.

Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities:

Communications strategy and development: Develop the General Counsel (GC)’s internal communications platform reflecting her vision and thought leadership, business strategy and organizational leadership. Develop and manage an editorial calendar for the GC’s internal communications engagement, including reviewing and evaluating communications requests and opportunities, gathering input from key stakeholders, and preparing talking points, briefs, and collateral as needed.

Creative storytelling: Develop engaging communications across numerous content mediums and forms, including speeches, emails, briefing documents, Q&As, and video scripts, and produce content for internal communications for the OGC, including bi-monthly Legal Affairs Newsletters, internal blogs, and Microsoft’s internal Yammer channel. Research and find the most impactful employee, partner and internal Legal Affairs stories, engage with other teams to synthesize key talking points and align messaging with the strategic vision and goals of the department.

Events engagement: Lead the GC’s engagement at key internal events (CELA Summit, Town Halls, All-Hands, etc.), including speech authorship, related creation of presentations, partnering with event and design teams when appropriate, and collaborating with other stakeholders on content creation. Create and facilitate executive-level presentations and other communication in partnership with the Director of Business Management and Chief of Staff. Partner with Public Relations teams to align external communications messaging, via LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.

OGC and cross team alignment: Build a strong community across the communications leads in the relevant business groups across CELA to align and advance the Legal Affairs communications priorities and focus areas and increase GC engagement across various channels.

Culture: Support work to maintain a strong company culture in Legal Affairs, including communications to deepen employees’ understanding of the company’s mission, values, priorities, and ways of working.

Qualifications

Qualifications, Education and Experience:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, Marketing, Communications, Business or relevant field, or equivalent work experience.
  • Experienced communications practitioner with 5+ years’ experience and a proven track record running impactful internal communications programs, preferably in large organizations and in the technology sector.
    Skills:
  • Passionate communicator and storyteller who is creative and enthusiastic with an eye for detail. A self-starter whose comfortable balancing complex strategic work with day-to-day execution and operations and will always be looking for new and interesting ways to engage our people.
  • A strong track record in managing internal communications campaigns and internal channels to deliver tangible results.
    Extensive knowledge and understanding of internal communications discipline, practices and techniques, including strong working knowledge of communications platforms, channels and creative content generation.
  • Strong understanding of the use of digital tools to deliver internal communications and to understand the internal employee environment and sentiment.
  • Proven experience in managing multi-discipline campaigns, manage competing issues, work with and through others, maintaining alignment with Microsoft strategic direction and goals.
    Excellent communications skills (across multiple venues and stakeholders) and ability to present complex information in a clear, concise, and approachable manner.
  • Strong proficiency in all Microsoft Office productivity applications, e.g., Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Share Point.
    High level of organization, planning, prioritization and strong attention to detail.
  • Ability to work and create structure in complex and ambiguous situations and respond flexibly in time sensitive situations.
    Bias for action and able to manage multiple work streams in a dynamic environment.
  • Strong team orientation: maintain partnerships, collaborate and influence across multiple stakeholders.
  • Strong drive for results, energy and positive “can do” attitude.
    Demonstrated commitment to the company’s core values, including a commitment to high ethical standards, unquestioned integrity, and a commitment to advancing the company’s diversity & inclusion values and priorities.

The above description is designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by an employee in this position. The actual duties, responsibilities and qualifications may vary.

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.