South Africa Finance Lead at Microsoft

South Africa Finance Lead 

The South Africa Finance Lead is part of the Global Sales Marketing and Operations (GSMO) Finance, carries the local accountability for the financials as well as statutory and compliance matters across all Microsoft commercial segments and products. Land the company vision around the transformation of our business and customer orientation in the subsidiaries and externally.
Drive strategic resource allocation and investments through local insights, ensuring optimal returns aligned with our worldwide strategy. Key focus is on New Business and consumption with an industry and workload perspective.mBuild trust to lay the foundation of long-term growth from a customer and shareholder point of view in a compliant way. Empower and inspire our people to lead and be part of high performing impactful teams while providing diverse career opportunities.

Responsibilities

The successful candidate will directly lead team of finance professionals to drive compliance (including statutory) and business impact across the South Africa Subsidiary . Key enabler of success will be cooperation with other orgs within Finance and Microsoft in general, enabling cross-group collaboration and bringing diverse expertise.
Country Finance Lead is member of the subsidiary leadership team and accountable for executing all finance deliverables to enable sustainable long-term growth. As part of MEA FLT, the Finance Lead has a direct impact on shaping community priorities and enabling success of individuals and whole group.

• People - Prioritize management excellence. Build lasting org capability that delivers success by attracting diverse talents locally and retain & develop globally. Develop capabilities to bring deeper internal and external awareness of customers, competitors, and industries. Embody inclusion & trust within teams and foster a Microsoft Company Owner mindset. Maximise the potential of our finance organization by working effectively beyond reporting lines and geographies.
• Prioritization - Drive longer term planning, set strategies and align to resource allocation for maximum return & long term growth in the local market aligned to propensity models and targeted share gains. Continually monitor resource allocation and ROI and make adjustments as requred to maximise returns. Review Partner investments with focus to maximise the partner ecosystem to drive ACR at scale. Ensure FRA, AMR and controllable costs are met on a quartlerly basis and deliver performance goals across the 4 solution areas. Simplify & reduce time spent on internal ROB.
• Partnership - Leverage deep actionable insights to drive topline revenue, customer adds, and consumption growth. Engage externally directly with BDMs and Partners around Digital Transformation, and connect MS solutions to customer priorities within different industries to help land customer wins. Drive programatic collaboration with BD with the target to optimize deal economics across discounting, ECIF, Financing, credit concessions and ensure high quality DWR submissions. Focus on customer aquisition, retention, and lifetime value.
• Protect - Compliance leadership & tone, monitor and support management’s responsibility to mitigate risk with special focus on preventing corruption, unethical sales, spend management, privacy and concession & discounts. Leverage One Finance, Centers of Excellence, HRDD, and external advisors to anticipate and mitigate emerging statutory, tax and fiduciary risks. Deliver timely and accurate financial and tax filings. Seek to proactively reduce complexity including number of legal entities where appropriate. Represent Microsoft in the local market when required

Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience in finance / finance leadership positions
• Experience in Multinationals with multi-product/multi-segment finance roles is recommended
• BA/BS or MBA degree in Finance, Economics, CPA/CA preferred
• Strong analytical skills and business acumen
• Proven collaboration and teaming spirits, including virtual engagement
• Advanced communication, negotiation, and influencing skills
• IT/Tech industry experience is desired but not specially required
• Strong Leadership on values & integrity with ability to scale and influence for impact

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.