Senior Commercial Executive

Overview

We are seeking a Senior Commercial Executive (Individual Contributor) to lead commercial strategy and execution for highly complex, strategic Defense Industrial Base customers. This role is designed for a senior commercial leader who independently owns some of the most sophisticated deals, negotiations, and risk profiles within the DIB portfolio.

As a Senior Commercial Executive, you will have the opportunity to operate with significant autonomy, shape deal strategy across multi-year, multiaffiliate agreements, and influence outcomes across sales, finance, legal, and policy teams. You will be accountable not only for deal execution, but also for commercial judgment, risk management, and long term customer value creation in a regulated, mission critical environment.

Year, multiaffiliate agreements, and influence outcomes across sales, finance, legal, and policy teams. You will be accountable not only for deal execution, but also for term customer value creation critical environment.‑year, multi‑affiliate agreements, and influence outcomes across sales, finance, legal, and policy teams. You will be accountable not only for deal execution, but also for ‑term customer value creation‑critical environment.

This is a non‑people‑manager (IC) role with enterprise‑level scope and impact.

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

Responsibilities

Senior Commercial Leadership & Strategy

• Own and lead the commercial strategy for highly complex and high‑impact DIB accounts, often involving large deal sizes, long sales cycles, and elevated risk.
• Shape multi‑year, multi‑affiliate, and non‑standard deal constructs, balancing growth, margin, compliance, and customer outcomes.
• Serve as the senior commercial authority on assigned accounts guiding strategy well before formal negotiations begin.

Advanced Negotiation & Risk Ownership

• Lead executive‑level negotiations with customer procurement, legal, and business leaders.
• Independently assess and manage financial, contractual, and compliance risk, escalating only when appropriate and with well‑formed recommendations.
• Exercise strong commercial judgment on pricing, investments, concessions, and non‑standard terms to protect Microsoft’s long‑term interests.

Defense Industrial Base Expertise

• Apply deep understanding of DIB customer environments, including regulatory sensitivity, government adjacency, and security‑driven workload considerations.
• Advise account teams on appropriate commercial approaches across commercial and government cloud environments, aligned to customer mission needs.
• Navigate complex customer structures (subsidiaries, global entities, joint ventures) common in the defense ecosystem.

Cross‑Functional Influence & Leadership

• Influence senior stakeholders across Sales, Finance, Legal, Deal Desk, and Policy without formal authority.
• Act as a commercial thought leader and mentor to peers and account teams, raising the overall commercial bar within the DIB OU.
• Resolve ambiguity and unblock deals by driving alignment across competing priorities.

Operational Excellence & Predictability

• Maintain rigorous forecast accuracy, pipeline discipline, and deal hygiene for high‑stakes opportunities.
• Ensure all agreements are audit‑ready, compliant, and executed with precision.
• Capture and apply insights from complex deals to improve future commercial strategy and execution.

Scope & Expectations

• Operates with minimal guidance and high trust
• Owns highly complex, sensitive, and high risk deals in the portfolio‑risk deals
• Influences strategy beyond individual deals, shaping commercial best practices for the DIB OU
• Recognized as a senior commercial expert by peers and stakeholders

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Business Management, Information Technology, Law, Marketing, Finance, Communication, Education (or equivalent) or related field AND 8+ years sales and negotiation experience or related work or internship experience
• OR 12+ years sales and negotiation experience
• OR equivalent experience.

Other Requirements

Citizenship & Citizenship Verification: This position requires verification of U.S citizenship due to citizenship-based legal restrictions. Specifically, this position supports United States federal, state, and/or local United States government agency customers and is subject to certain citizenship-based restrictions where required or permitted by applicable law. To meet this legal requirement, citizenship will be verified via a valid passport.

Citizenship & Citizenship Verification: This role will require access to information that is controlled for export under U.S. export control regulations, potentially under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations or the Export Administration Regulations.  As a condition of employment, the successful candidate will be required to provide proof of citizenship, for assessment of eligibility to access the export-controlled information. To meet this legal requirement, citizenship will be verified via a valid passport.

Preferred Qualifications

Master's Degree in Business Management, Information Technology, Law, Marketing (or equivalent) AND 10+ years sales and negotiation experience or related work

OR Bachelor's Degree in Business Management, Information Technology, Law, Marketing, Finance, Communication, Education (or equivalent) or related field AND 12+ years sales and negotiation experience or related work or internship experience

OR 15+ years sales and negotiation experience

OR equivalent experience.

Familiarity with Microsoft cloud offerings, including Azure and Microsoft 365 (commercial and/or government), MACC experience highly preferred.

Background in enterprise sales, finance, legal, or commercial operations within regulated industries.

Experience structuring and closing large, multi‑year strategic agreements.

Effective collaborator who enjoys working with a wide range of personality styles and across various teams and functions.

Extensive experience leading complex enterprise deal making and negotiations.

Demonstrated success operating independently in high ambiguity and high-risk environments

Ability to obtain and maintain a US Government Security Clearance.

Commercial Sales IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $133,000 - $222,700 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 $170,300 - $239,800 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.

Insights from previous hires

Top skills: Account Management, Business Strategy, Business Operations, Business Development, Business, Analytics, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Administration, Servant Leadership, Mergers and Acquisitions

Common previous titles: General Manager Sales, Senior Specialist, Senior Business Development Manager, Senior Manager Sales, Sales Vice President, Senior Business Planner, Senior Manager Development, Business Program Manager