We’re all eagerly awaiting Windows 8 at this stage, and now it seems that Microsoft are gearing up and recruiting for the launch of Windows 8. Over on their careers website they’ve posted two new job opportunities in the last week alone.

The two jobs are as as “Retail Windows & Office Category Marketing Manager” and “ Retail Windows and SDA Category Marketing Manager”. In the descriptions they both make reference to Windows 8.

You can read more about these jobs and what they mean over at Windows 8 News

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From what we know, we reckon that Microsoft will give us a better look at Windows 8 at its BUILD conference in September and some reckon that Microsoft will release their latest OS in April 2012. However for the moment these are only hints and rumors that we’re going on. But there’s more evidence to support that Microsoft are getting ready to gear up for the launch of Windows 8.

Withing the past week, two job listings have appeared up on the Microsoft Careers site which refer to Windows 8. The first job is for Belgium as “Retail Windows & Office Category Marketing Manager” while the second claims to be non-location specific and is for “ Retail Windows and SDA Category Marketing Manager”

There is a whole bunch of details and requirements to go along with the jobs which can be found at the links above, but I’ve just taken out a section from them that refers to Windows 8

Key Measures of Success
Key measures of success are tired directly to the Windows and SDA scorecard.
• Windows FPP/WAU revenue and unit performance
• Windows @ Retail scorecard metrics
• Strength of relationship across Windows @ retail internal and external ecosystem including OEM, BG, CCG
• Landing of Windows 8 launch in the channel including retail offers
• Successful design and implementation of Category Programs in the region
• Proactive communication on issues and opportunities to the Windows and SDA leadership in region and HQ
• Consumer retail experience
• Successful implementation of marketing assets in the region
• Business analysis and insight and reporting through ROB

Maybe some of our readers reckon that they’re suitable for the job? Unfortunately I don’t have the experienced or qualifications required at the moment so I won’t be submitting my application that’s for sure!

Anyway, this is yet another clear sign that Microsoft is gearing up to launch Windows 8 soon enough, more than likely within the next 12 month.

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We currently have two main sources for news about Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 operating system: Microsoft employees who mention features during interviews, speeches or on official Microsoft sites, and job postings at Microsoft Careers.

A recent job search revealed information about a new feature that Microsoft intends to implement in Windows 8. Microsoft Israel’s server and tools business division  is looking for a software development engineer for the anywhere access group for a team called NAP (which likely stands for Network Access Protection) . NAP “is currently developing an innovative network security feature for Windows 8 [..] that will [be] part of Windows 8 both on the client side and on the server side.”

About NAP:

Network Access Protection (NAP) is designed to help administrators maintain the health of the computers on the network, which in turns helps maintain the overall integrity of the network. It is not designed to secure a network from malicious users. For example, if a computer has all the software and configurations that the network access policy requires, the computer is considered healthy or compliant, and it will be granted the appropriate access to the network. NAP does not prevent an authorized user with a compliant computer from uploading a malicious program to the network or engaging in other inappropriate behavior.

To protect access to a network, a network infrastructure needs to provide the following areas of functionality:

• Health validation: Determines whether the computers are compliant with system health requirements.
• Network restriction: Restricts access to the network or communication for clients that do not comply with system health requirements.
• Remediation: Provides necessary updates to allow the computer to correct its noncompliant health state.
• Ongoing compliance: Permits access to the network as long as the user’s computer meets health policy requirements.

There you have it, extra network security coming to Windows 8.

Update: This may be unrelated even though Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Trustworthy Computing,Scott Charney speaks of Internet health, but still worth a read: The Need for Global Collective Defense on the Internet

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Several sites have been keeping a close eye on the job postings at Microsoft Careers, to see if there are any indicators on there as to what direction Windows 8 may go in.  In total in November they spotted seven job postings for Windows 8 and windows server 2008 R2.

One interesting job posting was for a software engineer to work on delivering critical updates through Windows Update for Windows 8:

The WinSE UX Test team is one of the most fun teams in Windows Sustaining Engineering to work with! We release hot-fixes, security patches and Service packs for all Windows platforms on a regular basis. We help keep our customer install base humming through a significant portion of the lifecycle of the product. If the experience of shipping deliverables to millions of people on a regular basis energizes you, if you enjoy working on issues that impact those millions of our customers all the time, if you enjoy being in the limelight, and if you enjoy the thrill of solving critical problems, you have come to the right place!!!

The WinSE UX test team needs an strong SDET to develop new test automation, write robust test plans, designing test cases, debug reported issues across Windows Shell and related UX, help establish sound test engineering processes, and influence and contribute to the serviceability of Win8. As an SDET on this team, you’ll design, implement, and execute various types of test automation, including functional, integration and release tests. You will also have several opportunities to write test tools, and work on security bugs, and will be interacting with PM and Dev counterparts in a dev/test/pm trio, and various partner teams. In this team, you will have an opportunity to ship important updates for Windows to solve critical reliability, performance and security issues via the Windows Update mechanism. This position requires strong communication and collaboration skills, and a drive for results. Overall, this position is best suited for a strong SDET looking for an opportunity to showcase your skills and innovate.

Another software engineer job posting asked for a Windows 8 tester:

The Windows International Test OOB (Out of Band) team is handling a variety of International test projects including Windows Small Business Server (SBS), Home Server, stand-alone out of band releases for Windows 7/Windows 8, and down-level support packages requested by different business divisions by utilizing a state-of-the art vendor outsourcing model.

As a team member in this position, you will write test plans for World-Readiness- (Globalization & Localizability) as well as Localization Testing, and develop and manage test tools and guidelines. You will also perform globalization code reviews as part of the OOB process using tools and globalization guidelines. In addition, you will have to engage with Program Managers, Developers, International Project Managers and partner SDETs to collaborate on specification reviews, scheduling as well as budgeting and planning. Test execution will be done by vendor test resources in Beijing, China, so management of remote vendor resource will also be required.

To see details on the other job postings, which give insights into Windows 8 security, click here.

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Not only is Microsoft taking some cues from Apple for its retail stores, but it’s also trying to poach store managers, with the promise of higher pay (according to The Loop). Microsoft is even offering to pay for the moving expenses if required, and the software giant also wants top sales agents, informing “moved” managers that they are also interested in those employees as well, and that they will have the same bonuses.

It’s not a bad move (just interesting) considering the success of the Apple Stores (let’s face it, we all know that Microsoft is just trying to imitate the Apple Store). Whether it will be a failure or a complete success remains to be seen, although the latter is probably the safer option considering that Microsoft is building off of an already successful base (who said that you can’t learn from your enemies?).

Besides, Microsoft acquired George Blankenship as an “independent consultant” not too long ago, the former head of Apple Store placement in order to help decide where to place the retail stores for Microsoft (right next to most Apple Stores). It would be nice if there were any Microsoft/Apple stores within three hours of me.

Hey, Microsoft Wants You!

So if you’re one of those lucky Apple Store employees and you’re interested in a job at Microsoft, sit tight and hope that those extra hours paid off. If not, you can always apply via the Microsoft Careers page (or you can do it anyways, even if you’re not an Apple Store employee).

What will be really interesting is to see how Apple and the fanboys respond to these developments. What do you think?

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