Sara Spalding

Site director

A Wellesley resident with two children, Spalding knew she did not want a full-time job when Ray Ozzie, a part-time Beverly resident and chief software architect at Microsoft, wrote her in 2007 to see if she’d help guide the company’s growth in Cambridge. But a Tuesday-Thursday schedule allowed “a nice balance between raising my family and continuing progressing in my career,’’ Spalding said. She supervised the design of a glassy, open office that features several round conference rooms and a long, communal lunch table dubbed “the surfboard.’’ She has also ensured that Microsoft’s meeting space is open to dozens of different tech groups, something Microsoft doesn’t readily do at its headquarters, where Spalding once worked. “You don’t get talented people applying for jobs if people don’t know you’re here,’’ she said.