Finance Director, Advertising and AI

The Microsoft AI (MAI) business is a rapidly growing space, encompassing a diverse portfolio of businesses spanning advertising, subscription, and consumption. The Owned & Operated (O&O) Finance team plays a critical role in overseeing Browser, Search, and News, as well as AI Ads Monetization. This team is responsible for FP&A, long-range planning, growth frameworks, transformational projects, competitive analytics, and external partnerships—all essential to driving business growth and strategic investment decisions. 

As Finance Director, you will lead this highly visible function, partnering closely with Consumer business executives to shape financial strategy, optimize investments, and influence key decision-making. This impactful role requires strong management capabilities, cross-functional collaboration, thought leadership, and the ability to distill complex concepts into actionable frameworks. 

Responsibilities

• Strategic Financial Leadership: Partner with engineering and business leaders to drive financial objectives, optimize investments, and identify efficiency opportunities across Browser, Search, and News products. 
• Investment Optimization: Lead financial planning and analysis for AI-driven workloads, including search quality enhancements and platform transformation. 
• Profitability & Cost Management: Develop and execute strategies to improve gross margin, vertical P&Ls, and cost-to-serve metrics, ensuring sustainable financial growth. 
• Data-Driven Decision Making: Utilize advanced financial modeling, external benchmarks, and unit economic frameworks to define north-star unit costs and maximize return on invested capital. 
• Executive Communication: Craft compelling narratives using storytelling techniques to communicate complex financial insights in a clear and impactful manner to senior leadership. 
• Team Leadership & Development: Lead a team of highly capable individuals with exceptional, inclusive people management capabilities. Foster a culture of “Model, Coach, and Care.” Recruit, develop, and retain a high-performing team. 
• Portfolio Investment Strategy: Own the development and execution of frameworks to guide growth and investment across Microsoft’s consumer portfolio of businesses, driving alignment of direction with executives, including SLT members. 
• Strategic Investment & ROI Assessment: Partner to develop investment strategies and ROI assessments of program dollars, making tradeoffs across the O&O portfolio of products to optimize investments. 
• Competitive Analytics & Insights: Build compete analytics and insights across Advertising & AI businesses, leveraging insights to shape planning discussions and influence roadmap decisions. 
• Financial Rhythms & Accuracy: Lead core financial rhythms for the O&O businesses (Budget, Forecast, LRP, Close, etc.), driving insights through analytics and maintaining high forecast accuracy. 

Qualifications

Required/minimum qualifications:

• Masters Degree in Business Administration, Accounting, Finance, Economics, Data Science or related field AND 8+ years experience in financial analysis, accounting, controllership or finance, or related field OR Bachelors Degree in Business Administration, Accounting, Finance, Economics, Data Science or related field AND 10+ years experience in financial analysis, accounting, controllership or finance, or related field OR equivalent experience.
• 1+ year(s) experience managing direct reports.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Proven ability to influence cross-functional teams and drive financial excellence in a fast-paced environment. 
• Exceptional analytical skills with expertise in financial modeling, forecasting, and performance measurement. 
• Exceptional communication skills with the ability to simplify complex financial concepts for executive audiences 

Financial Analysis M6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $130,900 - $277,200 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 - $303,600 per year.