Sr. Director, Cross-Company AI Data Strategy and Operations

Location: Mountain View, CA or Redmond, WA, United States; in-office 4 days per week

Salary: USD $155,800–$277,200 per year across the U.S.; USD $202,400–$303,600 per year in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City metropolitan area

Company

Microsoft AI develops advanced AI systems and works with commercial partners to provide specialized data services responsibly and at scale.

What you will do

• Manage a high-performing team responsible for data acquisition across key AI Lab verticals.
• Translate technical and business needs into sourcing strategies, requirements, and commercial opportunities.
• Source, evaluate, and engage global data vendors and strategic partners, including licensed-content, specialized-data, and human-generated-data providers.
• Lead commercial diligence, deal structuring, contract negotiation, and ongoing vendor management while balancing value, quality, rights, risk, cost, and speed.
• Build scalable procurement and vendor-management processes covering pipelines, spend, contractual milestones, renewals, and delivery commitments.
• Coordinate Business Development, Procurement, Legal, Privacy, Compliance, Finance, Engineering, and technical stakeholders from outreach through agreement execution and delivery.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree and 8+ years of experience in business strategy, business development, procurement, commercial partnerships, vendor management, program management, finance, or equivalent experience.
• 2+ years of management experience leading vendor data acquisition, complex commercial partnerships, procurement programs, or comparable vendor-facing functions.
• Experience building and leading a team.
• Proven experience sourcing vendors, leading diligence, negotiating complex agreements, and building scalable systems for pipelines, spend, milestones, and vendor performance.
• Experience operating in a fast-moving technical or research environment with shifting priorities and underspecified requirements.

Nice to have

• Bachelor’s degree and 10+ years of relevant experience.
• 3+ years of management experience leading large-scale vendor data acquisition or strategic data partnerships for an AI, technology, content, research, or data-services organization.
• Fluency with data rights, licensing, privacy, and commercial terms, with experience working with legal and compliance partners on novel questions.

Culture & Benefits

• Work within the Microsoft AI Lab organization and report to lab senior leadership.
• Advance AI responsibly while operating in a fast-moving technical and research environment.
• Potential eligibility for benefits and additional compensation.