The Senior Director of Business Strategy is a high-trust, senior operating role that works directly with the Leader to translate strategic priorities into disciplined execution. This person acts as a force multiplier for the leader and leadership team by creating clarity, strengthening decision-making, managing the operating rhythm, and ensuring the most important work moves at pace across a complex, matrixed organization.

The role requires strong business judgment, exceptional discretion, crisp communication, and the ability to influence senior stakeholders without relying on formal authority. The successful candidate will be equally comfortable shaping executive strategy, unblocking operational issues, preparing leadership materials, and driving follow-through on the highest-priority commitments.

The Senior Director of Business Strategy will protect executive time, increase leadership team effectiveness, and ensure that strategy, operations, communications, and organizational priorities are connected into one coherent operating system. The role will help convert ambition into measurable outcomes by aligning people, priorities, governance, and execution across the business.

1. Strategic Planning and Execution

• Partner with the leader and the leadership team to define annual and quarterly priorities, translate them into actionable plans, and maintain focus on the highest-impact work.
• Drive the operating model for strategic initiatives, including ownership, milestones, dependencies, risks, and executive decision points.
• Synthesize business, financial, operational, and organizational inputs into clear executive recommendations.
• Anticipate issues before they escalate and create practical paths to resolution.

2. Rhythm of Business and Operating Discipline

• Design and manage all business focused meetings to ensure strategies are clear, decisions are well thought out, priorities are clear and teams have clarity on direction and urgency
• Ensure each forum has a clear purpose, agenda, pre-read, decision asks, owners, and follow-up actions – and everything is tracked and closed out promptly, focused always on urgency
• Track commitments and outcomes to ensure accountability, transparency, and sustained momentum.

3. Executive Communications and Stakeholder Alignment

• Prepare concise executive briefings, leadership updates, talking points, decision memos, and board or senior leadership materials as required.
• Act as a strategic connector across internal and external stakeholders, ensuring messages are clear, consistent, and aligned to priorities.
• Serve as a trusted proxy for the senior leader in selected meetings or workstreams, representing priorities accurately and escalating decisions when needed.
• Help shape narratives that explain business priorities, trade-offs, progress, risks, and asks.

4. Special Projects and Executive Priorities

• Ability to pivot and focus on urgent and critical projects to provide executive coverage on behalf of the leadership team – and provide frequent updates to the leader to enable fast thinking
• Lead or support high-impact, cross-functional projects that require senior alignment, rapid problem-solving, and executive-level coordination.
• Develop governance, workplans, stakeholder maps, and communication approaches for ambiguous or high-priority initiatives.
• Drive closure on priority actions, ensuring that decisions are converted into execution and measurable business outcomes.
• Use data, judgment, and stakeholder input to recommend trade-offs and course corrections.

Minimum/Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in relevant field (e.g., Liberal Arts, Business Administration, Management, Computer Science) AND 8+ years experience in financial management, business planning, operations management, strategy, project management, human resources, or business-related roles OR equivalent experience.

Background Check Requirements:

Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include, but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings:

• Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Preferred/Additional Qualifications:

• Experience acting as an operator with experience in business management, strategy, finance, program leadership and executive presence
• Proven ability to operate with executives, synthesize complex information, and communicate with precision and confidence.
• Demonstrated capacity to influence across a matrixed organization, build trust quickly, and drive accountability without direct authority.
• Demonstrated commercial acumen, business judgment, analytical capability, and comfort with ambiguity.
• High discretion and professional maturity when handling confidential, sensitive, or incomplete information.
• Clear bias for action, accountability and ownership, and the ability to simplify complexity into decisions, actions, and outcomes.
• 10+ years of experience in strategy, program management, finance, consulting, communications or related leadership roles.
• Experience supporting or partnering directly with executives in a fast-paced, global, or highly matrixed environment.
• Track record of leading cross-functional workstreams with measurable outcomes.
• Experience building operating rhythms, leadership team materials, business reviews, planning processes, or governance systems.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities while maintaining clarity, judgment, and composure under pressure.

What This Role Is Not

• Not an administrative assistant role, though it requires excellent coordination and executive support discipline.
• Not a substitute for functional leaders, but a connector who improves alignment and follow-through across functions.
• Not a passive reporting role; the expectation is to shape, influence, challenge, and drive outcomes.
• Not a gatekeeper for its own sake; the role should increase access to clarity, decisions, and accountability.

#COICareers | #EPCCareers | #DCDCareers

Business Management IC6 - 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.

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.