Director, Strategic Partnerships & Workloads

What our team offers

The Cloud and AI Platforms Monetization (CAPM) organization is a big picture team at our core that encourages a diverse and inclusive culture. We are respectful, collaborative, honest, accountable, and caring. Employees on the team can expect to have opportunities to grow their own experiences and career while shaping the future of the major businesses with data-informed strategies.

We are growth strategists who enable the Microsoft mission by creating durable profit growth through high-impact monetization strategies, packaging, and pricing. Our charter is significant and spans key growth engines for the company including all Azure solution areas, Windows client and cloud offerings, and our Education and industry offerings and programs. We are seeking a Director of Strategic Partnerships & Workloads to join our team.

The Director of Strategic Partnerships & Platforms owns Microsoft Azure's most complex and economically material platform partnerships, spanning operating systems, enterprise software, and infrastructure. This role is accountable for partnership strategy, commercial models, and monetization, ensuring Azure remains the preferred destination for customers' most critical workloads.

The Director of Strategic Partnerships & Workloads will lead a senior team of business planners, operating at the intersection of product, engineering, finance, legal, and sales, translating strategy into durable, scalable business outcomes.

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.

Strategic Partnerships & Platform Strategy

• Own Azure's strategic infrastructure partnerships (e.g., VMware, Oracle, SAP, Windows Server, and select third party platforms), including longterm strategy, monetization models, and executive alignment.
• Define how each partnership fits into Azure's broader compute, infrastructure, and migration strategy, balancing customer choice with Azure-first economics.
• Serve as the primary business owner for platform positioning, value proposition, and differentiation versus on prem and competitive clouds.

Commercial Models & Monetization

• Design and evolve commercial frameworks (pricing and promotional constructs) that drive profitable growth and improved utilization.
• Apply a yield management mindset to constrained or high leverage platform areas, ensuring capital efficiency and durable economics.

Execution, Scale, and Governance

• Drive cross functional execution across Product, Engineering, Sales, Finance, Legal, and Marketing.
• Establish clear governance, metrics, and success criteria for partnerships, ensuring transparency and accountability.

People Leadership

• Lead and develop a team of senior business planners and partnership leaders.
• Build a culture of analytical rigor, ownership, and executive level storytelling.
• Coach talent to operate effectively with ambiguity, complexity, and senior stakeholders.

Other

• Embody ourcultureandvalues.

Required/minimum qualifications

• 7+ years product management, strategy consulting, finance, business/corporate development, or related experience
  • OR equivalent experience.

Additional or preferred qualifications

• 12+ years product management, strategy consulting, finance, business/corporate development, or related experience AND Bachelor's Degree in Engineering/Computer Science, Economics, Business, or related field
  • OR 8+ years product management, strategy consulting, finance, business/corporate development, or related experience AND Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA) or related field,
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 5+ years people management experience.
• Demonstrated ownership of complex, global strategies that require cross functional execution and operational scale.
• Developed and effective analytical and economic intuition, including experience using data to inform pricing, yield, or demand shaping decisions.
• Executive level communication and influence skills.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure, platform economics, or capacity constrained environments.

Business Planning 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.