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The Consumer Business Development team plays a pivotal role in shaping the strategic direction of AI and Microsoft’s Content Publisher Ecosystem. As a Senior Director of Business Development, you will lead the strategic planning and management of high-impact relationships with key content partners to support Microsoft’s content ecosystem across Copilot, MSN, Microsoft 365, and other Microsoft products and services. You will collaborate closely with both external partners and internal teams—within Microsoft AI and across the broader organization—to identify emerging business opportunities and evolve partnership strategies in a rapidly expanding space, focusing on enabling a sustainable ecosystem built on mutual value exchange.

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

Strategic Advisor

+ Serves as a trusted advisor by leveraging deep internal and external relationships, coaching the team in guiding complex, high-impact customers and partners. Recognized across key stakeholders for domain expertise by providing strategic counsel on partner needs, industry trends and company direction. Offers thought leadership both internally and externally, influencing key decision-makers and shaping partnership strategies.

+ Leads large, complex customer and partner business initiatives by driving strategic discussions and representing market input from partners. Anticipates shifts in business needs to influence product roadmaps and prioritization, while proactively guiding decision-making to maximize mutual value.

+ Influences product roadmaps and business priorities by anticipating shifts in partner needs and industry trends.

+ Represents the team in executive forums and external engagements, offering thought leadership that shapes Microsoft’s global partnership strategy.

Partnership Strategy

+ Leads the development of business models and value propositions tailored to diverse markets and partner ecosystems.

+ Guides build/buy/partner decisions across geographies, leveraging competitive insights and regional dynamics.

+ Articulates Microsoft’s value versus competitors to guide build/buy/partner decisions, leveraging deep knowledge of customer needs and industry trends. Collaborates across teams to shape future opportunities and drives action through competitive and market insights.

+ Identifies and validates cross-regional opportunities that address strategic gaps in technology, product, or market coverage.

+ Manages a pipeline of opportunities, ensuring alignment with business goals and resource optimization across markets.

+ Formulates partnership strategy for products and businesses with input from relevant stakeholders. Manages pipeline by identifying, promoting, prioritizing, guiding, and influencing processes that develop and deliver pipeline opportunities. Distills and communicates updates to key stakeholders and executives.

Negotiation

+ Provides coaching and mentorship to team members on negotiation best practices and stakeholder management.

+ Supports team on highly complex deal opportunities across deal stages (e.g., Strategic Approval (SA), Approval to Negotiate (A2N), Final Go-no-go (FGNG)). Establishes best practices and drives process improvements based on learnings across the team & broader BD.

+ Defines scalable deal structures for complex, multi-region engagements

+ Represents Microsoft in key executive customer and partner interactions and defines the deal structure for scalable solutions to complex business opportunities. Leverages deep understanding of risks, rewards, and negotiation skills to manage broad engagements across all business functions.

+ Collaborates across the company including at executive levels, to close strategic or high-impact opportunities (e.g., cross-company, cross-product deals).

Deal Management/Governance

+ Develops and implements cross-team plans for managing deals with workback schedules, key milestones, communications, and reporting.

+ Coaches the team on collaborating with customers, partners, and Microsoft colleagues to develop post-deal governance and oversee the creation and implementation of execution plans across a portfolio of deals within domains, industries, and/or geographies.

+ Manage escalations and course-correct to maximize deal value and minimize risk.

+ Capture and share learnings to continuously improve pipeline quality and strategic alignment.

+ Proactively identify risks & requirements; ensure scaled processes are in place for effective deal implementation and management.

Qualifications

Required/minimum qualifications

+ Bachelor's Degree in Business, Liberal Arts, Sciences, or related field AND 12+ years relevant work experience (e.g., investment banking, consulting, finance, marketing, corporate strategy, sales, venture capital, legal, business development, product management, project management, software development, or related field)

+ OR equivalent experience.

+ Experience in structuring and negotiating complex strategic alliances or acquisitions.

Additional or preferred qualifications

+ Bachelor's Degree in Business, Liberal Arts, Sciences, or related field AND 14+ years relevant work experience (e.g., investment banking, consulting, finance, marketing, corporate strategy, sales, venture capital, legal, business development, product management, project management, software development, or related field)

+ OR Master's/Advanced Degree in Business, Sciences, or related field AND 12+ years relevant work experience (e.g., investment banking, consulting, finance, marketing, corporate strategy, sales, venture capital, legal, business development, product management, project management, software development, or related field)

+ OR equivalent experience.

+ 10+ years experience in the technology industry or in a related industry OR in a technical role (e.g., IT, Engineering, cloud platforms, digital transformation, capabilities, solutions).

Business Development M6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $155,800 - $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 $202,400 - $303,600 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

Microsoft will accept applications for the role until September 14, 2025.

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Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, 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 and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html) .