Business Insights and Planning Lead

About This Role

Lead strategic direction and execution of business optimization efforts within Microsoft's Global Marketing Engines & Experiences Group, driving actionable insights from complex data to influence senior leadership decisions and accelerate pipeline growth.

Responsibilities

• Drive business optimization efforts across customer segments and product areas
• Set the vision for sales motions and support MCAPS definition of KPIs, developing actionable insights that shape strategic direction and fiscal year investments
• Establish best practices for long-term strategy, advocate business cases to senior leadership, and define KPIs to streamline business strategy
• Architect disciplined methodologies for MCAPS, SMEC, and DES strategic asks, ensuring requests are proactively scoped, tracked, and delivered
• Own centralized intake and triage for analytics and insights requests, guiding analysts and vendors on methodology adoption and process consistency
• Lead, develop, and execute business insights for MSCE’s broader rhythms
• Act as the triage lead for high-volume analytics requests, ensuring actionable insights reach Redmond-based leadership and stakeholders
• Synthesize insights from lead performance data and campaign analytics, providing real-time decision support to SMEC and DES leadership
• Shape targeting logic and campaign execution by connecting lead performance data to Precision Targeting flighting and broader orchestration
• Guide teams on targeting scenarios and campaign readiness
• Partner with strategy leads to align targeting with business priorities
• Proactively identify and address business concerns, evaluating data efficiency and ensuring alignment of logic and methodology across all reporting
• Lead the Business Intelligence (BI) Pod to deliver insights at the pace of the business, triaging needs and sharing learnings with sales leadership and product groups
• Build strong, trusted relationships and ensure alignment with SMEC and DES Leadership on strategic initiatives
• Own alignment and delivery of data and insights for business rhythms
• Facilitate cross-functional collaboration and represent Redmond HQ in global forums
• Influence across peers, stakeholders, and Sales & Marketing leadership

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Operations, Finance, or related field AND 8+ years experience in program management, process management, or process improvement; OR equivalent experience
• Ability to prioritize tasks, activities, and deliverables to ensure timely completion of objectives
• Effective strategic thinking and communication skills, with the ability to synthesize complex information into clear, actionable insights and program recommendations for leadership
• Sound and effective analytical skills to interpret data, evaluate alternatives, and make timely, high‑impact business decisions in dynamic, changing environments
• Established and comprehensive understanding of market dynamics and customer impact, with experience leading sales and marketing planning, execution, and operational excellence
• Demonstrated ability to build and manage trusted stakeholder relationships, align priorities, manage expectations, and drive support for key initiatives

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Operations, Finance, or related field
• 8+ years experience in program management, process management, or process improvement

Nice to Have

• Master's Degree in Business, Operations, Finance, or related field AND 12+ years experience in program management, process management, or process improvement; OR Bachelor's Degree in Business, Operations, Finance, or related field AND 15+ years experience in program management, process management, or process improvement; OR equivalent experience.

Benefits