Director of Business Planning & Commercial Intelligence
About The Position
The Director of Business Planning & Commercial Intelligence will shape and scale Microsoft’s internal intelligence platform for navigating complex commercial policy and licensing decisions. The role owns the Commercial Intelligence vision, strategy, roadmap, and end-to-end experience, starting with Licensing Navigator and expanding into broader commercial knowledge domains. In partnership with Engineering, the director will help develop AI-powered experiences using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), grounding and retrieval, and agent-based capabilities to turn complex commercial knowledge into accurate, trustworthy, actionable intelligence. The director will translate user and business needs into prioritized product requirements and align stakeholders across Business Planning, Engineering, Marketing, Finance, Legal, Commercial Operations, and Sales. The role leads work from discovery and prioritization through delivery, launch, adoption, and continuous improvement, while setting quality, evaluation, privacy, security, data-access, governance, and responsible AI requirements. Success calls for strategic business thinking, product leadership, technical judgment, executive influence, and independent execution in an ambiguous, rapidly evolving AI environment. The role is based in Redmond, WA; Mountain View, CA; or New York City, NY, and permits working from home up to 40% of the time.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering/Computer Science, Economics, Business, or a related field and 6+ years of product management, strategy consulting, finance, business/corporate development, or related experience, or equivalent experience.
- Experience in business planning or product management translating complex business needs into delivered technology solutions.
- Demonstrated independent ownership of strategic roadmaps, investment choices, and outcomes across complex, multi-year initiatives.
- Ability to partner deeply with Engineering, assess technical tradeoffs, and turn strategy into actionable requirements and delivery plans.
- AI literacy, including the ability to evaluate emerging capabilities, limitations, quality, and responsible use in intelligence solutions.
- Ability to understand user needs, prioritize opportunities, and balance experience quality, feasibility, and business value.
- Analytical skills, including business cases, financial modeling, experimentation, and meaningful measures of adoption and impact.
- Ability to lead through influence, resolve ambiguity, and align partners without direct authority.
- Excellent executive communication skills, including the ability to frame strategic choices, technical considerations, and investment tradeoffs clearly.
- Model Microsoft’s culture and values in collaboration, leadership, and execution.
Nice To Haves
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering/Computer Science, Economics, Business, or a related field and 12+ years of relevant experience, or an MBA or related master’s degree and 8+ years of relevant experience, or equivalent experience.
- Experience building intelligence or analytics solutions within Microsoft or similarly complex enterprise product ecosystems.
- Understanding of commercial licensing, business models, and the information needs of field, partner, and business teams.
- Record of synthesizing technical, financial, legal, and user considerations into clear product strategy while mentoring others.
Responsibilities
- Own the Commercial Intelligence vision, strategy, and long-term roadmap, starting with Licensing Navigator and expanding into solutions for high-value commercial decisions.
- Shape AI-powered experiences with Engineering using RAG, grounding and retrieval, and agent-based capabilities; evaluate technical approaches against business needs, intelligence quality, user experience, and responsible AI standards.
- Lead business planning from discovery and prioritization through delivery, launch, adoption, and continuous improvement, setting scope, priorities, tradeoffs, and success criteria.
- Translate commercial policies, business requirements, user workflows, and knowledge sources into clear product requirements and scalable intelligence experiences.
- Partner with Engineering on requirements for knowledge repositories, retrieval and grounding strategies, RAG quality and evaluation, AI-generated outputs, and agent-based integrations.
- Establish measures of adoption, intelligence quality, accuracy, decision usefulness, and operational impact; use evidence and user feedback to improve experiences and guide investment.
- Define quality, evaluation, privacy, security, data-access, governance, and responsible AI requirements with Engineering, Legal, and policy partners.
- Build partnerships across Business Planning, Engineering, Product Marketing, Finance, Legal, Commercial Operations, and Sales/Partner organizations to align milestones, dependencies, launches, and adoption.
- Align executives and senior stakeholders on the vision, roadmap, investment priorities, progress, and tradeoffs.
- Develop business cases and investment recommendations connecting roadmap decisions to commercial value, user impact, operational efficiency, and sustainable growth.
- Lead through influence in a matrixed environment, create clarity from ambiguity, and independently drive complex initiatives with minimal direction.
- Mentor and coach individual contributors through product reviews, strategic guidance, and knowledge sharing.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
