Overview

We are seeking a highly strategic, business minded Director of Strategic Growth Initiatives & Business Management to serve as a functional leader for strategic planning, business management, and cross functional alignment across Surface Marketing growth initiatives. This role sits at the intersection of strategy, operations, and storytelling. It is designed for a leader who excels at framing complex business problems, orchestrating planning across diverse stakeholders, and enabling confident executive decision making, without direct people management.

As a trusted partner to Surface Marketing leadership, the Surface Business Team, Product teams, Integrated Marketing, Outbound/Inbound and Go To Market stakeholders, this Director will help translate growth ambitions into structured plans, clear priorities, and compelling narratives that align strategy with execution. The role operates as a chief of staff–like extension for strategic growth initiatives, ensuring rigor, clarity, and momentum across planning cycles.

Responsibilities Strategic Planning & Growth Initiative Leadership

• Lead and orchestrate strategic planning for Surface growth initiatives, partnering with Surface Business, Product, and GTM teams to align priorities, sequencing, and trade‑offs.
• Lead execution of growth initiatives grounded in customer insight, competitive intelligence, and business priorities, with end-to-end accountability for measurable business impact.
• Develop Go To Market strategies, narratives, and enablement frameworks that support consistent execution for strategic growth initiatives, including clear differentiation and proof points to win in competitive deals.
• Structure ambiguous problem spaces into clear decision frameworks, options, and recommendations that accelerate alignment and execution.
• Drive cross‑functional planning for complex, multi‑stakeholder initiatives without directly owning Product Marketing Management or Go To Market execution.
• Ensuring growth initiatives are grounded in customer insight, market context, and business priorities while remaining executable at scale.

Business Management & Strategic Operations

• Act as a chief‑of‑staff–like partner for strategic planning and growth initiatives, supporting leadership with planning discipline, clarity of outcomes, and operational rigor.
• Support executive‑level business management activities, including planning inputs, synthesis of insights, and leadership readouts
• Create and maintain frameworks, scorecards, and planning artifacts that enable leaders to track progress, risks, and dependencies across initiatives.
• Identify gaps, friction points, and decision bottlenecks, and proactively drive resolution through structured analysis and stakeholder engagement.

Executive Storytelling & Decision Framing

• Develop high‑impact executive narratives, presentations, and written communications that frame growth opportunities, decisions, and tradeoffs with clarity and credibility.
• Translate complex cross‑functional inputs into concise, compelling stories tailored for senior leadership audiences.
• Enable faster, higher‑quality decision‑making by simplifying complexity and surfacing the insights that matter most.

Cross‑Functional Leadership & Influence

• Serve as a functional leader across Surface Marketing for business management and strategic planning.
• Partner closely with Product Marketing, Product Management, Finance, Sales, and Operations teams to ensure alignment between strategy and execution.
• Lead through influence rather than authority—building trust, alignment, and momentum across diverse stakeholder groups.

Qualifications Required/minimum qualifications

• Master's Degree in Marketing, Computer Science, Business or related field AND 4+ years experience in business OR Bachelor's Degree in Marketing, Computer Science, Business or related field AND 6+ years experience in business OR equivalent experience.

Additional or preferred qualifications

• Master's Degree in Marketing, Computer Science, Business or related field AND 8+ years marketing or sales experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Marketing, Computer Science, Business or related field AND 12+ years experience in business OR equivalent experience.

Product Marketing IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $130,900 - $251,900 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $165,600 - $272,300 per year.

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

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.