Tag Archives: job hunting

Heather Kilbourn is looking for work, December 2022 edition

Posted on December 2, 2022 | 2 comments

Like many others in the tech industry this year, I received news this morning that my contract is ending at the end of December. So, I’m back on the hunt for a Principal- or Director-level role in people and business management, product/program management, customer experience analysis and optimization, or communications.

A flyer with tear-offs on the bottom like someone is advertising something. The top headline says, "Hello?" Below that is a picture of Lionel Ritchie. Below his picture is a sub-heading that says, "Is it me you're looking for?" Each of the tear-offs is a line from his 1984 #1 hit single, "Hello".

I’ve been in tech for…well, a while, and offer a wealth of skills and experiences in the following:

  • People manager from executives to front line
  • Startup and Fortune 100 business operations experience
  • Product management for entertainment mobile apps/web with a 300M+ MAU
  • Website customer experience management and optimization for 75M+ page properties
  • Reactive and proactive communications (plus I’m a published author)
  • Datacenter operations, developer documentation support, project management, etc.

I get stuff done!

If any of y’all out there have any job leads for anything in the zone, I’d be most appreciative, thank you!

My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kilbo/

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Heather Kilbourn’s looking for work!

Posted on May 4, 2021 | Leave a comment

The tl;dr: I’m looking for a senior-level IC role in information architecture, user experience optimization, project management, communications, or writing/editing.

For the last year plus I’ve been at WordPress VIP, a part of Automattic, working with some of their largest, most complex customers as an Enterprise Technical Account Manager (TAM). I’ve loved working with the great people there and supporting my customers, but I’ve come to the realization I have been working 180º away from the type of work that brings me the most happiness and that I need to make a change.

See the source image

I’ve had a fortunate career with the successful exit by sale of my data center startup and working at companies who operate chunks of the web at scale. The through-line for me has been roles where I am building things or fixing things. I thrive working on green field or transformational projects and my TAM role has been more to the side supporting things. Thus, the change.

I also realized I missed things like analyzing customer data to optimize information architectures & help smooth user experiences and then seeing the results of that work; project managing high-stakes bets and bringing to bear all my strategic and tactical experience plus soft skills to get stuff done; and the opportunities to use my writing skills in the communications and documentation spaces. Most of all, I missed the sense of completion of a job well done and the excitement of the next thing over the horizon.

So, I’d appreciate any and all referrals, pointers, tips, and leads for roles in those areas! If you’ve worked with me and feel so moved, a LinkedIn recommendation would also be most appreciated. 🙂

Onward!

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My New Job

Posted on March 4, 2013 | Leave a comment

Color-BlockI left Microsoft last October to spend more time with my family, and when family life was about as sorted as it was going to be (and they were sick of me kicking around the house) in January, I started to look for a new job.

I’m incredibly fortunate and happy to announce that I report for new employee orientation March 11, 2013 at 8 AM, at…

Wait. I’m getting ahead of myself.

My roots are as a founder of a startup, and the desire to climb back on that roller coaster was very strong. As I talked to startups and later-stage companies around town, I realized something: I liked working at large Internet scale and startups by definition don’t have much of that.

The intersection of the top Internet companies and the Seattle area is a relatively small set, so this really focused my job search.

As has happened to me a few times in the past, a gig opened up at just the right time that offered what I was seeking. (Did I mention how fortunate I think I am?) And after interviewing last Monday, I was offered the job and happily accepted Microsoft’s offer. 🙂

I’m joining the Microsoft Office Division, where I will be leading the team of people who publish and maintain the Office TechCenter and Office Dev Center websites, and the related IT Pro and developer communities.

As to scale, Microsoft Office is used by over a billion people worldwide. The IT Pros and developers that visit those websites have hundreds of millions of people behind them that they support and write solutions for. Now that gets me out of bed in the morning. Even better, it won’t take me months to learn the corporate culture and I know many of the people I’ll be working with on a regular basis.

Finally, if you’re a customer that uses the Office Tech or Dev Center, please feel free to drop me a line – I’m listening and would love to have your input as we plan for the future.

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