Keeping an eye on the Microsoft Careers site can sometimes unearth gems, such as, a couple of weeks ago when Microsoft posted some listings for Surface Pro firmware engineers. In that prior listing, the newest Microsoft employees would be hired to help design and presumably fix Surface Pro firmware, something that would make Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book owners quite happy today.
More recently, a new job listing for a Senior Program Manager hints at one aspect of Microsoft’s smartphone focus going forward. It’s no surprise that the company intends to focus on the enterprise in its “cloud-first, mobile-first” productivity strategy, and pushing Windows 10 Mobile‘s enterprise strengths would be a smart thing to do. The same applies to pushing Windows 10 Mobile devices via the strong third-party Windows OEM partnerships.
Clearly, the new employee will focus on helping to flesh out Microsoft’s smartphone strategy going forward:
Productivity & enterprise-grade Security are key differentiators of Windows Mobile OS. Are you passionate about leveraging these strengths and working with ecosystem Partners to build and ship millions of Windows Mobile OS devices with differentiating experiences to enterprises? Do you delight in being the voice of the partner internally? Do you enjoy owning and driving a variety of technical issues and championing the same across feature teams that are building our next generation Windows OS?
Team
Our team engages with 3rd Party Partner ecosystem to enable “frictionless” adoption of Windows Mobile OS across their designs from entry-level Phones to larger-screen Phablets. We develop a deep understanding of engineering needs of our partners and help build effective solutions for their challenges.
With a number of companies pushing Windows 10 Mobile devices already, and with OEMs like HP possibly joining in soon with their Elite x3, this new Microsoft position provides at least, a hint of a viable effort to push the Windows 10 Mobile market forward. At the same time, Microsoft clearly understands that OEMs are an important aspect of their enterprise focus while also recognizing that OEMs themselves are interested in selling to the largest business segments. Potentially, it’s a win-win situation for both Microsoft and their OEMs.
If you have the requisite background for such a role, which includes a strong mix of technical and business experience, then you’ll want to check out the position. The rest of us will just keep our eyes on Microsoft’s smartphone strategy for more such elusive evidence to help us predict just what the company might do in mobile.
