Learning & Development People Manager

About the role

Microsoft Advertising (MSA) is seeking a Learning & Development People Manager to lead a global team of Learning Consultants responsible for driving employee, partner, and client development across Microsoft Advertising. This leader will partner closely with Sales, Product Marketing, Marketing, Operations, and business stakeholders to identify capability gaps, define learning priorities, design comprehensive learning strategies that scale across audiences, and lead the team to deliver learning solutions that drive measurable business outcomes.

This role, reporting to the Director of Learning & Development (L&D), will lead key skilling programs and project initiatives to enable sales teams to be consultative sellers and deliver solid business value, while educating partners and clients on the value of our products to maximize our partnership. Additionally, this manager will own the external learning strategy inclusive of client certifications, webinars, and 1:1 engagements; the partner learning ecosystem; and support the internal sales team learning experience.

Responsibilities

• People Leadership
  • Deliver results through empowerment, accountability, and clear team objectives.
  • Model company culture, values, and leadership principles in day-to-day management.
  • Coach team members to adapt, learn, collaborate across boundaries, and deliver against outcomes.
  • Attract, retain, and develop talent by understanding individual capabilities, aspirations, and growth needs.
  • Invest in team development through coaching, feedback, and opportunities that build long-term capability.
  • Set clear direction and priorities, hold the team accountable to outcomes, give candid and timely feedback, and create an inclusive environment where people do their best work and grow their careers.
• Learning Expertise
  • Provide vision and leadership for learning and skilling programs, initiatives, and strategies by identifying organizational needs, managing resources, and communicating with executive stakeholders.
  • Coach on design and development of engaging learning content by applying proven instructional design principles, ensuring materials are learner-centric, interactive, and aligned to business objectives.
  • Establish global strategy for core learning and skilling programs, including agentic and AI-first execution.
  • Serve as a thought leader in learning and development solutions, industry best practices, and internal and external client enablement.
  • Set the strategic direction for enterprise-wide learning needs analysis.
  • Advise on stakeholder and partner relationship management across relevant audiences, business units, verticals, and industries, and lead prioritization and tradeoff discussions.
• Learning Technology
  • Establish AI-first content approach, including when to leverage assistants vs. curate or create content manually.
  • Optimize content libraries and systems so AI agents can retrieve structured, relevant, and accurate information.
  • Lead the transition from legacy tools to advanced content systems that improve accessibility, retrieval, and organizational effectiveness.
  • Evolve the strategy for badging, certifications, and course management via Learning Management Systems.
  • Provide expert guidance on data analytics to evaluate trends, tell the data story, identify capability gaps, improve benchmarking, and drive learner-centric priorities.
  • Prioritize stakeholder and learner feedback that improves business, productivity, and time-to-competency outcomes.

Requirements

• Required/Minimum Qualifications
  • Master's Degree or equivalent AND 5+ years experience in learning and development, human resources (HR), or corporate education
  • OR Bachelor's degree or equivalent AND 7+ years experience in learning and development, human resources (HR), or corporate education
  • OR equivalent experience.
  • 6+ years people management experience or equivalent experience.
• Additional or Preferred Qualifications
  • Master's Degree or equivalent AND 12+ years experience in learning and development, human resources (HR), or corporate education
  • OR Bachelor's degree or equivalent AND 15+ years experience in learning and development, human resources (HR), or corporate education
  • OR equivalent experience.
  • Microsoft Fundamentals Certification
  • Coaching (e.g., International Coaching Federation), Project and/or Program Management Professional, archival, or related certifications.
  • 8+ years experience in corporate Learning and Development with content design and development experience.
  • 3+ years people management experience.
  • Experience with LMS platforms, certification design, learning modalities, and learning technology.
  • Experience scaling learning efforts across different audiences including external clients, modalities, and global regions.
  • Experience modernizing content creation, evolving content libraries, and using modern technology/AI to improve speed, quality, and internal processes.
  • 5+ years managing projects, including planning, managing timelines, and tracking progress, and/or change management experience.
  • Proven experience leading complex, cross-functional programs that span multiple teams, stakeholders, or feature areas, with demonstrated ability to define strategy, evaluate customer and market signals, and prioritize initiatives across a portfolio of work.
  • Demonstrated ability to identify unmet or emerging customer needs through both quantitative (e.g., usage data, telemetry, operational metrics) and qualitative (e.g., customer interviews, listening systems, market trends) insights and translate those needs into scalable solutions or program improvements.
  • Ability to operate effectively in highly ambiguous environments, independently scoping problems, defining success criteria, and driving execution across organizational boundaries.

Schedule

Starting January 26, 2026, employees who live within a 50-mile commute of a designated Microsoft office in the U.S. or 25-mile commute of a non-U.S., country-specific location are expected to work from the office at least four days per week. This expectation is subject to local law and may vary by jurisdiction.

Pay

The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $130,900 - $277,200 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 $165,600 - $303,600 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation.