Senior Business Planning Manager, Studio Operations, Minecraft

Microsoft•Redmond, WA

4d•$116,900 - $222,600

About The Position

Mojang Studios, the creators of Minecraft, is seeking a Senior Business Planning Manager to lead resource planning, allocation, and tracking across the studio. This role is central to the studio's operations, responsible for the planning cadence and providing visibility into headcount and investment deployment. In collaboration with Product, Engineering, and Finance, the position ensures that resource and workforce planning aligns with long-term growth objectives and facilitates quicker, more informed decision-making throughout the studio. Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and organization to achieve more, fostering a culture of growth, innovation, and collaboration with values of respect, integrity, and accountability.

Requirements

Bachelor's Degree in relevant field (e.g., Liberal Arts, Business Administration, Management, Computer Science) AND 6+ years experience in financial management, business planning, operations management, strategy, project management, human resources, or business-related roles OR equivalent experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience in business planning, financial planning & analysis, or operations.
Proven understanding of workforce planning, headcount management, and resource allocation.
Experience owning budgeting, forecasting, and Rhythm of Business processes.
Proficiency in Excel and data/business intelligence tools (e.g., Power BI).
Track record of building systems or tooling to improve planning workflows.
Experience with cross-functional communication and stakeholder management.
Experience in gaming, entertainment, or technology industries preferred.

Responsibilities

Own the unified view of headcount and capacity across teams, fulltime employees and vendors.
Partner with leaders to align resource deployment to priorities, ensuring investment in the highest-impact work and making clear, informed trade-offs.
Identify trends, risks, and inefficiencies across the portfolio.
Drive recommendations that improve planning accuracy, resource efficiency, and delivery outcomes.
Lead the studio’s planning cadence across monthly close, quarterly forecasts, annual budget, and long-range planning.
Ensure accurate inputs, clear assumptions, and consistent visibility into headcount and investment.
Build and evolve reporting, dashboards, and planning tools to track capacity and allocation.
Improve workflows through automation and introduce AI-enabled insights to increase speed, transparency, and quality of decision-making.
Partner with Finance, Product, Engineering, and Operations to align planning with execution.
Translate operational signals into clear business impact and ensure consistency across planning processes.