Business Planner

Overview

Microsoft’s Monetization Strategy and Licensing (MSL) organization defines the monetization, channel, and licensing strategies for our commercial product portfolio. Few organizations have as direct an impact on how Microsoft goes to market or as much influence on commercial practices across the industry. Within MSL, the Go-to-Market team drives growth and strengthens the customer and partner experience by defining how and where customers buy.

As a Business Planner, you'll join the Enterprise Go-to-Market Strategy team, where you will help shape and advance strategic initiatives that evolve how enterprise customers buy from Microsoft. You will focus on identifying, defining, and prioritizing new capabilities for the MCA-E, supporting their progression from business need through launch. This is an opportunity to help shape one of Microsoft’s most significant enterprise commerce transformations, improving how customers buy from Microsoft while enabling new commercial capabilities and offers that support future growth.

You will partner closely with stakeholders across engineering, operations, change management, and sales to solve complex business problems at the intersection of customer needs and Microsoft’s commercial strategy.

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, innovate to 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

As a Business Planner focused on advancing the MCA-E to meet the needs of our largest enterprise customers, you will own defined capability workstreams and contribute to the broader strategy and roadmap. You will combine customer, seller, and business insights to develop recommendations, build alignment, and help bring approved capabilities to market.

How you will make an impact

Identify business needs that may require new or enhanced MCA-E capabilities, and develop well-structured recommendations to address them.

Build business cases for specific capabilities by synthesizing data, customer and field insights, operational considerations, and expected business impact.

Support MCA-E roadmap prioritization by assessing the business impact, dependencies, trade-offs, and change implications of proposed capabilities.

Translate business needs into clear business requirements, partnering with engineering, operations, finance, legal, and other stakeholders to advance capability design.

Drive cross-functional alignment and execution for assigned capability workstreams, escalating decisions and barriers when broader strategic or executive alignment is required.

Partner with change management and field teams to develop launch plans, narratives, and content that enable awareness, understanding, and adoption of new MCA-E capabilities.

Establish success measures and monitor early signals after launch to identify opportunities to refine the capability, improve the experience, and inform future roadmap decisions.

You will join a collaborative team working on high-visibility commercial strategy opportunities with direct relevance to Microsoft’s enterprise customers. You will have meaningful ownership of defined workstreams while learning from experienced business planners and building expertise in monetization, licensing, commerce, and cross-functional strategy. As you grow, you will have opportunities to take on increasingly complex and broader responsibilities, with support for your professional development and encouragement to bring your authentic self to work.

Required/minimum qualifications

Bachelor's Degree in Engineering/Computer Science, Economics, Business, or related field AND 4+ years product management, strategy consulting, finance, business/corporate development, or related experience

OR equivalent experience.

Additional or preferred qualifications

Bachelor's Degree in Engineering/Computer Science, Economics, Business, or related field AND 8+ years product management, strategy consulting, finance, business/corporate development, or related experience

OR Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA), or related field AND 6+ years product management, strategy consulting, finance, business/corporate development, or related experience

OR equivalent experience.

3+ years of experience in business planning, corporate strategy, product management, finance, consulting, operations, or a related field.

Experience contributing to complex, cross-functional initiatives and translating business needs into structured recommendations or requirements.

Ability to navigate ambiguity, frame business problems, evaluate options and trade-offs, and use data and insights to inform recommendations.

Analytical and communication skills, with the ability to synthesize complex information into clear recommendations and build alignment across diverse stakeholders.

Ability to manage defined workstreams, coordinate dependencies, and drive progress without direct authority.

Experience in cloud, enterprise technology, commerce, or another technology business.

Experience with enterprise sales, channel, licensing, contracting, or commercial operations.

Experience developing business cases, product or capability requirements, launch plans, or change management content.

Business Planning IC3 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $86,100 - $169,800 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 $113,300 - $187,400 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: Business

Common previous titles: Digital Specialist, Business Planner, Business Planning Manager, Strategy & Operations Manager, Business Strategy Manager, Commercial Strategy Manager, Corporate Strategy Manager, Product Strategy Manager, Program Manager, Product Manager