Director of Strategy

Overview

The Field & Partner Platform & Strategy team sits at the center of how we turn Microsoft's AI business priorities into durable, executable go-to-market systems. We connect product, engineering, commerce, sales, partner, finance, and marketing teams to build the operating models, launch systems, data signals, executive rhythms, and field-ready strategies that help Microsoft land major business transitions with clarity and scale.

In this leadership role as the Director of Strategy, you will have the opportunity to shape how Field & Partner Marketing moves from reactive launch execution to a durable, repeatable, and insight-driven GTM engine. You will lead a portfolio of strategic initiatives across launch excellence, trial strategy, usage-based billing, consumption insights, and executive business rhythm, bringing together work across teams into a clear operating model that can scale across current and future AI business motions.

The immediate priority for this role will be building the strategic and operational foundation for Microsoft's shift to AI consumption and usage-based billing. This includes creating the launch and readiness infrastructure, trial and offer strategy, consumption signals, customer cohorting, and executive decision systems required to help the organization land major business-model changes with greater precision, speed, and accountability. The role will partner deeply across business planning, PMM, engineering, commerce, finance, field, and partner teams to ensure complex initiatives move from strategy to market implementation in a way that is clear, measurable, and executable.

Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

Responsibilities

• Build and grow a high-impact team. Lead, coach, and develop a team spanning launch operations, trials, ROB, and UBB insights, creating clarity of ownership while empowering people to bring forward ideas, solve ambiguous problems, and grow their impact.
• Build the launch excellence engine for Field & Partner. Establish a repeatable launch operating model that brings together governance, readiness, product and commerce dependencies, signals, telemetry, briefings, escalations, and documentation into one landable construct for major launches.
• Shape the trial and offer strategy for AI business growth. Lead the strategy and operating model for trials, "make it right" constructs, white-glove motions, incentives, escalation offers, and other dealmaking mechanisms that help customers and partners move from evaluation to adoption and usage.
• Create the GTM infrastructure for usage-based billing and consumption. Build the frameworks, signals, insights, customer cohorts, priority-customer definitions, and measurement systems needed to support the shift to consumption across segments.
• Operate the executive rhythm of business with precision. Support the central executive ROB across standard monthly reviews, and related leadership forums, giving leaders an integrated view of business performance, decisions, risks, and opportunities.
• Turn distributed work into a single strategic narrative. Connect fragmented workstreams across teams into a coherent strategy, operating model, and GTM plan that leaders, field teams, and partner organizations can understand and execute.
• Use data and field signals to improve business outcomes. Build feedback loops that connect telemetry, field insight, customer behavior, launch health, and consumption performance into actionable decisions that improve readiness, adoption, and growth.
• Lead through influence across the company. Partner with senior stakeholders across marketing, sales, partner, product, engineering, finance, and commerce to align direction, clarify ownership, resolve blockers, and accelerate execution.

Qualifications

Required/minimum qualifications

• Masters Degree in Marketing, Computer Science, Business or related field AND 4+ years experience in business OR Bachelors Degree in Marketing, Computer Science, Business or related field AND 6+ years experience in business

• OR equivalent experience.

• 4+ years people management experience or indirect people management experience (or virtual teams)

Additional or preferred qualifications

• Masters Degree in Marketing, Computer Science, Business or related field AND 8+ years experience in business OR Bachelors Degree in Marketing, Computer Science, Business or related field AND 12+ years experience in business

• OR equivalent experience.

• 6+ years people management experience.

• 8+ years of experience in strategy, business planning, go-to-market, product marketing, business operations, consulting, or related fields.

• Track record leading cross-functional, enterprise-wide initiatives in a large, matrixed organization.

• Experience building go-to-market operating models, launch systems, executive rhythms, or business-management mechanisms that scale across teams.

• Understanding of cloud, SaaS, AI, consumption, usage-based billing, trials, commerce, or monetization models.

• Ability to structure ambiguous problems, synthesize distributed workstreams, and turn them into clear strategies, operating models, and executive-ready narratives.

• Analytical skills, with the ability to translate telemetry, customer signals, business performance, and field feedback into actionable strategy.

• Exceptional executive communication and storytelling skills, including the ability to create crisp narratives, business cases, and leadership-ready materials.

• Ability to influence senior stakeholders without direct authority and drive alignment across sales, marketing, partner, product, engineering, finance, and commerce organizations.

• People leadership experience, with a demonstrated ability to coach, empower, and grow high-performing teams.

• Collaborative leadership style grounded in trust, inclusion, accountability, and valuing diverse perspectives.

Product Marketing M5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $130,900 - $251,900 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $165,600 - $272,300 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:

https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.