If you’re interested in shaping the future by working with emerging tech, collaborating with key partners in the industry, and strategizing on how to create new business opportunities, a role on Verizon’s Strategy, New Business, Partner Development and Verizon Ventures Team may be for you.
Hear from three leaders who give the inside scoop on the exciting projects they work on, and how you can be a part of this innovative team.
Provide thought leadership for new business development.
Sofia Buschmann, Senior Director of New Business Development, leads the team that’s responsible for forming new commercial structures with key strategic partners. This team works on everything from commercial models, strategic partnership engagement and negotiation to final deal execution. This team works to commercialize new tech, including Network as a Service Everywhere (NaaS), multi-access 5G edge computing (MEC) and other innovations.
Since joining Verizon, Sofia has been able to partner with her team on exciting projects, like delivering a Private MEC offering across three key Cloud partners, making Verizon the only US network to have a fully-diversified portfolio.
Verizon’s business development team is hands-on and execution-oriented, working closely with external partners and internal business groups company-wide. Forming recommendations and translating complex information into business outcomes is a big part of this role, so communication is key. Business development team members excel at absorbing large amounts of information and synthesizing it into something that is more easily understood.
“We’re looking for people who can bring different perspectives and backgrounds. You could be from retail, software, or another industry completely,” she said. “All of those experiences together have really blended to create a high-caliber team with diverse skills, and we’re looking to continue strengthening that.”
Build out innovative inorganic strategies.
As the VP of Business Development and Head of Verizon Ventures, Madison Rezaei leads the team that works on innovative partnerships and strategic investments. This team is all about long-term strategy.
One of the keys to succeeding in this role is being open-minded and creative. “Our team is tasked with new business strategy. We are trying to come up with different innovative things to drive Verizon's future growth. You have to constantly be thinking about things that haven’t been created yet,” she said.
Creativity is also key as the team works on emerging tech, including satellite connectivity and new 5G use cases. Madison's team works primarily with new and fast-evolving industries. In this role, it is critical to constantly think about Verizon's value from its contribution to ecosystem development.
Collaborate with key partners.
Jeremy Giese, VP of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships, began his Verizon career journey after finishing graduate school. His first role on the V Team was in supply chain. From there, he moved into leadership roles in the Global Products and Solutions organization, and eventually into Partner Management and Strategy.
After working in operational roles for most of his career, Jeremy was looking for a change and decided to move into the strategy side of things. He wanted to have more visibility into the moving parts that make up Verizon’s core business to become more involved in strategic decision-making — and his new role helped him do just that.
“My team’s job is to have an understanding of all those moving pieces and put together a cohesive and strategically thought-through point-of-view on key priorities. We then work with our business stakeholders on how to engage with partners while driving the best possible outcomes across all business units,” Jeremy said.
Join Verizon’s Strategy, New Business, Partner Development and Verizon Ventures Team.
Looking to start your career? Here are a few tips from Sofia, Jeremy and Madison to help you get started.
There’s much to learn in this space.
Regardless of where you begin your journey, being able to work alongside people who have done this is the best way you’re going to gain experience. Really having some of those tactical skills in the back of your mind are critical.
Do your homework.
As you prepare for your interview, it’s important to understand where Verizon is today in order to help figure out where it should be tomorrow. It’s important to show up prepared with insights into the industry, as well as creative ideas.
Be curious and open-minded.
You need to be curious and want to always be learning, Jeremy shares. “The hardest thing about what my team does is the breadth of topics we need to be engaged with on any given day — all functional parts of the business,” he said. “This is the most interesting part of the job, but also the most challenging.”
