Director, AI Data Acquisition and Operations - Pretraining

Microsoft AI•Mountain View, CA

1d•$130,900 - $272,300

About The Position

At Microsoft AI, the role supports the mission to train capable AI frontier models and build leading models across text, reasoning, and multimodal capabilities. The Director, AI Data Acquisition and Operations – Pretraining will lead AI data strategy and acquisition, working directly with researchers to identify data that can unlock new model capabilities and develop creative ways to access it. The role partners closely with AI scientists to understand emerging research needs, evaluate high-value data sources, and develop acquisition strategies involving publishers, platforms, enterprises, institutions, data providers, and novel sources. Much of the data may not have previously been packaged or licensed for AI training, requiring creative sourcing, commercial judgment, and partnership with Legal and Privacy on complex questions related to data rights and responsible use. The ideal candidate is deeply curious about AI, comfortable working directly with researchers in ambiguous environments, and able to navigate technical requirements, external data markets, commercial negotiations, and legal and policy considerations.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree and 8+ years of experience in strategy, business development, data acquisition, technology, research partnerships, content licensing, or related fields, or equivalent experience.
Experience working closely with technical or research teams to translate ambiguous requirements into actionable strategies or partnerships.
Demonstrated ability to research complex markets, identify unconventional opportunities, and develop strategies where established playbooks do not exist.
Experience negotiating complex commercial agreements or partnerships.
Experience operating in fast-moving environments where priorities shift quickly and requirements are underspecified.
Strong judgment and ability to operate across technical, commercial, legal, and strategic considerations.
Experience building and leading a team.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree and 10+ years of experience in data strategy, business development, content/data licensing, technology strategy, research partnerships, or related fields, or equivalent experience.
Experience working with leading AI research organizations, technology companies, data providers, publishers, platforms, or other major content owners.
Strong understanding of the emerging AI data ecosystem, including pre-training, post-training, multimodal, and specialized data.
Fluency with data rights, copyright, licensing, provenance, and privacy considerations, with experience partnering with legal and privacy teams on novel or precedent-setting questions.

Responsibilities

Partner with AI researchers to understand model capabilities, research priorities, and data characteristics most likely to improve model performance.
Research global data markets and identify new, differentiated, and hard-to-access sources of training data, including content not historically commercially available for AI.
Develop strategies to access data through licensing, partnerships, acquisitions, data creation, and other commercial structures.
Evaluate datasets and partners based on research value, uniqueness, scale, quality, rights, provenance, and usability for AI training.
Lead commercial negotiations with data owners and partners, translating research needs into practical partnership and licensing structures.
Work with Legal, Privacy, Compliance, and policy partners on copyright, licensing, privacy, data rights, and responsible AI use.
Build relationships across the research community and external data ecosystem to anticipate emerging data needs and opportunities.
Coordinate cross-functional initiatives across Research, Business Development, Procurement, Legal, Privacy, Finance, and Engineering.
Advance the AI frontier responsibly and embody Microsoft’s culture and values.
Build and lead a team.