Microsoft Australia mounts search for partner director after Phil Goldie's departure

Microsoft has kicked off its search for a new partner business director, the job that will be left vacant following the departure of Phil Goldie next month.

The role is considered one of the biggest in the Australian IT channel, looking after one of the largest partner networks in the country with about 10,000 partners and relationships with almost all of the major distributors.

Microsoft wrote in a job listing that the new director would be responsible for the partner business and all aspects of Microsoft's strategy for recruitment and marketing within the partner network.

Key responsibilities of the job include helping to build Microsoft's partner network and drive adoption of cloud services, develop new cloud services with partners, and lead the overall channel strategy for Australia.

"On a personal level you will be a growth-oriented and out-of-the-box thinker, combined with great cross team collaboration and teaming capability to make the partner business a core lever for growth in the Microsoft Australia business," Microsoft said on its website.

"You will be a strong people leader with the ability to balance short-term results with long-term strategy while building market impact."

Microsoft also placed an emphasis on the company's "cloud first, mobile first" mantra, saying that the role requires an understanding of the change partners need to make in order to succeed in the "cloud era", and to help partners drive change across the network.

"As the market transforms, the way in which we help our partners to understand our products and propositions, align their businesses with ours - and through the partner network accredit and activate them - is critical to our short and long-term success," Microsoft said.

Microsoft added that the new director would be the local spokesperson for the partner channel, both internally and externally.

Goldie held the director role since 2014 and led Microsoft Australia's channel business through a period of significant change. Goldie will take on a new role as the SMS&P business lead for Microsoft New Zealand beginning 1 March.

During Goldie's time running the Australian channel, Microsoft rolled out the cloud solution provider (CSP) program to introduce partners to Microsoft's suite of cloud products, including Office 365 and Azure. This presented a massive shift for Microsoft's channel as it progressively added new partners and most Australian distributors as indirect CSPs and moved away from a model where partners were forced to transact Office 365 through Telstra.

Microsoft also opened up its Surface hybrid channel device to local resellers, adding distributor Synnex, Ingram Micro and Dicker Data, following pushback from partners who were locked out from selling the devices.