Group Finance Manager, Core AI

Microsoft • Redmond, WA

22h • $116,900 - $222,600

About The Position

Empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more. That’s what inspires us, drives our work and pushes us to challenge the status quo every day. Through our Cloud-first strategy, we strive to deliver solutions that are optimized for the world and enable customers to drive their business more successfully. The Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure finance team is an exciting and fast-evolving finance team at the forefront of Microsoft’s Cloud-first strategy. We are looking for a talented and motivated individual to help shape the future of our cloud products. We are hiring a Group Finance Manager to lead margin strategy and efficiency for the AI Foundry Platform, partnering deeply with engineering and product teams to drive model and infrastructure efficiency at scale. This role owns identification and execution of efficiency levers across model architecture, inference optimization, and compute utilization to reduce unit cost of AI workloads. The work directly enables competitive pricing, supports growth, and drives sustained GM% expansion. You will operate end-to-end across the value chain—partnering with model engineering, infra/GPU platform, datacenter operations, hardware roadmap, and demand and capacity planning—to optimize total cost of ownership and align investment decisions with long-term margin targets. This is a high-impact role shaping forward-looking AI platform economics, influencing roadmap and operating points, and building cross-functional alignment to deliver measurable financial outcomes.

Requirements

• Master's Degree in Business Administration, Accounting, Finance, Economics, Data Science or related field AND 4+ years experience in financial analysis, accounting, controllership or finance, or related field OR Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration, Accounting, Finance, Economics, Data Science or related field AND 6+ years experience in financial analysis, accounting, controllership or finance, or related field OR equivalent experience.
• Master's Degree in Business Administration, Accounting, Finance, Economics, Data Science or related field AND 8+ years of post-graduate financial analysis, accounting, controllership, or finance work experience OR Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Accounting, Finance, Economics, Data Science or related field AND 12+ years of post-graduate financial analysis, accounting, controllership, or finance work experience OR equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of progressive experience in finance, pricing, analytics, or related roles within a complex, global organization; experience in cloud, AI/ML, or infrastructure economics strongly preferred.
• Proficient executive presence and business partnership skills; ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive alignment across engineering, product, and finance.
• Deep understanding of AI/infra cost drivers, including compute (GPU/CPU), storage, networking, and datacenter cost structures; familiarity with unit economics (e.g., cost per token, cost per inference, utilization)
• Experience partnering with engineering on efficiency levers, such as model optimization, throughput improvements, hardware utilization, or capacity efficiency.
• Analytical and technical skillset, with experience working on large-scale datasets and using tools such as SQL, Python, or similar to derive insights and build scalable analyses.
• Experience in demand, capacity, or TCO modeling, with the ability to connect technical assumptions (e.g., model architecture, operating points) to financial outcomes.
• Familiarity with pricing and monetization strategies in consumption-based or cloud businesses, including trade-offs between growth, utilization, and margin.
• Strategic and results-oriented, with the ability to operate in ambiguity, balance long-term vision with execution, and drive measurable impact in a fast-paced environment.

Nice To Haves

• experience in cloud, AI/ML, or infrastructure economics strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Own margin strategy for AI Foundry Platform: Lead GM% planning, target setting, performance tracking across model and infrastructure layers; drive accountability for margin outcomes.
• Drive model and infrastructure efficiency at scale: Identify and execute levers across model architecture, inference optimization (e.g., token efficiency, caching, throughput), and GPU utilization to reduce unit cost of AI workloads.
• Translate engineering decisions into financial impact: Build frameworks that connect model parameters, operating points, and infra choices to cost, pricing, and long-term margin trajectories.
• Partner deeply with engineering and product leaders: Influence roadmap decisions by embedding cost and efficiency into model design, deployment strategy, and platform architecture.
• Optimize end-to-end cost of ownership: Work across model engineering, AI infra/GPU platform, datacenter operations, and hardware roadmap to drive structurally lower cost per unit of compute.
• Lead demand, capacity, and investment planning: Align demand forecasts, capacity allocation, and efficiency assumptions to ensure capital is deployed effectively and supports growth with margin discipline.
• Drive executive insights and decision support: Deliver clear, data-driven narratives (e.g., GM% bridges, efficiency tracking, ROI of initiatives) to senior leadership to inform investment and prioritization decisions.
• Establish operating rhythms and governance: Build mechanisms to track efficiency commitments, monitor delivery vs. plan, and ensure cross-functional accountability.

Benefits

• 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

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior