Director, Payment Strategy & Partnerships

Microsoft•Redmond, WA

21h•$130,900 - $303,600

About The Position

Microsoft Treasury is seeking a Director, Payment Strategy & Partnerships to lead the global payments vision across our commercial and consumer ecosystems. This leader will define and execute a multi-year payments strategy that enables revenue growth, optimizes authorization and conversion performance, reduces fraud and chargebacks, and builds durable partnerships across the global payments landscape. This role works closely with product, engineering, commerce risk, and external financial services partners. The ideal candidate combines payments expertise with strategic foresight, operational rigor, and the ability to influence executive and technical audiences.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, or Business AND 10+ years experience with background in treasury, finance, banking, or accounting OR equivalent experience.

Nice To Haves

15+ years of experience in payments, fintech, commerce platforms, or financial services.
7+ years leading global teams and influencing executive stakeholders.
Understanding of global card ecosystems, acquirer models, authorization flows, fraud controls, and cross-border payments.
Proven experience building strategic partnerships with financial institutions.
Demonstrated ability to define and execute multi-year strategies in complex, matrixed environments.
Experience operating on a global scale within a technology platform or marketplace.
Understanding of evolving payment technologies and regulatory landscapes.
Track record of delivering measurable revenue uplift and cost optimization through payment optimization initiatives.
Experience working across diverse global markets, including Asia-Pacific and Europe.
MBA or advanced degree preferred.

Responsibilities

Define and lead the multi-year (Horizon 1, 2, and 3) payments strategy aligned to Microsoft’s commerce and product priorities.
Partner with product teams across Microsoft to understand monetization models, geographic expansion goals, and customer needs.
Develop and prioritize a global roadmap of payment methods, instruments, routing strategies, and optimization initiatives to drive measurable revenue uplift.
Evaluate emerging technologies and industry shifts, integrating forward-looking capabilities into a scalable payments architecture.
Establish clear OKRs tied to authorization rates, conversion, acceptance, cost optimization, and customer experience.
Lead strategic relationships with global payment processors, acquirers, gateways, and regional payment providers.
Drive executive engagement with major card networks.
Partner with issuing banks globally to improve authorization performance and reduce decline rates.
Negotiate commercial agreements that optimize cost, reliability, scale, and global coverage.
Represent Microsoft in industry forums and standards bodies as appropriate.
Partner with Engineering to translate payment strategy into scalable, resilient technical implementation.
Collaborate with Commerce Risk teams to reduce fraud, optimize chargeback ratios, and strengthen compliance posture across markets.
Work closely with Treasury and Operations to ensure settlement efficiency, liquidity optimization, and financial control alignment.
Influence senior leaders across product, finance, and engineering to drive execution.
Create clear, actionable performance insights through robust data and analytics.
Establish standardized reporting on authorization rates, cost of acceptance, fraud rates, chargeback performance, and partner SLAs.
Leverage data to drive experimentation, routing optimization, and A/B testing across markets.
Translate complex payment performance insights into executive-level narratives and decision frameworks.
Lead and develop a globally distributed team of professionals across multiple regions.
Build a high-performance culture grounded in accountability, clarity of ownership, moving at pace and measurable impact.
Develop succession plans and scale organizational capability to support future growth.