Principal, Partner Success Manager

Job description

**Overview** At Small Medium Enterprises and Channel (SME&C), we are leading a fast-growing, 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. Within SME&C, our Customer Success organization empowers Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners to build durable, AI-first support practices through our Unified for Partners (UFP) Practice Builders. As more customers are served through the partner channel, our partners play an increasingly central role in resolving cases independently and driving customer outcomes. The Principal Partner Success Manager (PSM) is the delivery-oriented specialist who helps partners mature their support capabilities and become self-sufficient—reducing escalations to Microsoft and delivering the best experience and fastest resolution for customers. As a Principal Partner Success Manager, you will work with a portfolio of top partners to benchmark their support maturity across organizational, operational, and technical dimensions using the Support Capability Benchmark. You will co-author a joint execution plan with Customer Success Account Managers (CSAMs) and Service Managers, and deliver the technical briefings, success programs, and operational intellectual property (IP) that build partner support self-sufficiency. This is a hands-on delivery role for someone energized by improving how partners operate. Your core measure of success is helping partners reduce their escalation rate to Microsoft while lifting case deflection and self-resolution. 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. **Responsibilities** Support Capability Benchmarking - Benchmark Customer Success Capability. Lead structured Support Capability Benchmark assessments with assigned partners to baseline support maturity across organizational posture, operational capability, and technical capability; surface strengths and priority gaps. - Prioritize. Prioritize the highest-impact focus areas with the partner and map each to the right Microsoft proactive services, learning paths, and certifications. Joint Execution Planning - Co-author the plan. Co-author a joint, partner-endorsed execution plan with Customer Success Account Managers (CSAMs) and Service Managers, securing partner sign-off on goals, owners, and milestones. - Align to priorities. Align the plan to the partner’s business priorities and to Microsoft’s support self-sufficiency outcomes. Support Self-Sufficiency & Deflection - Drive self-sufficiency. Drive partner support self-sufficiency by analyzing top call drivers and the partner’s support operations, and by scaling support best practices that increase case deflection and self-resolution. - Reduce escalations. Own reduction of the partner’s escalation rate to Microsoft as your core accountability, helping partners resolve more cases independently. Capability Delivery - Deliver enablement. Deliver Support Technical Briefings, Support Success Programs, and operational IP that mature the partner’s organizational, operational, and technical support posture across Azure, Microsoft 365, and identity and security. - Position services. Position proactive services and case-enablement assets (for example, incident readiness, reliability and observability, and Well-Architected reviews) to create measurable deflection. Rhythm of Business - Review progress. Track progress against the execution plan and contribute to Partner Success Delivery Reviews (PSDRs) with sponsoring partner leaders, adjusting focus as the partner matures. - Orchestrate the team. Orchestrate delivery across the account team (CSAM, Cloud Solution Architect, Service Manager, and Partner Development Manager) and engage Microsoft technical resources when specialized help is needed. Trusted Advisor - Advise partners. Serve as a trusted support-delivery advisor to partner support and services leaders, building durable relationships grounded in outcomes rather than transactions. Other - Embody our Culture and Values. **Qualifications** Required/Minimum Qualifications - Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related field AND 8+ years of experience in customer success, support delivery, technical account or service management, partner management, consulting, or related field - - OR equivalent experience. - Native-level Japanese and business-level English fluency　（**English resume required**） Additional or Preferred Qualifications - Bachelor’s Degree AND 10+ years relevant experience, OR Master’s Degree AND 8+ years relevant experience, OR equivalent experience. - Experience working with or within Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners, systems integrators, or managed service providers. - Working knowledge of support operations concepts such as incident and escalation management, monitoring and observability, root cause analysis, case deflection, and mean-time-to-resolution (MTTR). - Experience conducting maturity assessments or capability benchmarks and translating findings into actionable improvement plans. - Experience delivering technical briefings, workshops, or proactive services to technical and business audiences. - Relevant certifications (e.g., Azure AZ-104 / AZ-305, Microsoft 365 MS-102, Security SC-300, or ITIL). - Technical breadth across one or more Microsoft cloud areas (Azure, Microsoft 365, and/or identity and security). 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.**](https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html)