Senior Strategy & Planning Lead, Microsoft Surface

Overview

The Surface Business Planning team plays a key role in defining the strategy, growth, and financial performance of Microsoft's Surface portfolio. This role is central to achieving revenue growth, profitability, and volume objectives for the Surface Entry Premium business. As a Senior Strategy & Planning Lead, Microsoft Surface you will lead end-to-end business planning and strategy for the Surface Entry Premium portfolio, owning the business plan from customer value proposition and product strategy through market and competitive strategy, portfolio architecture, pricing, packaging, SKU strategy, volume planning, revenue, profitability, and Marketing Plan of Record (POR) recommendations. The role serves as the single-threaded business owner for the Entry Premium portfolio, partnering closely with Product, Finance, Marketing, Sales, Supply Chain, and Engineering to drive data-backed business decisions that optimize growth, profitability, customer relevance, and execution. This is a high-impact role for a proven business planner with strong analytical depth, strategic thinking, business judgment, and executive communication skills who can translate customer, market, product, and financial insights into actionable business strategies and leadership recommendations.

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

• Lead end-to-end strategy and planning for the Surface Entry Premium portfolio across consumer and commercial channels, owning business outcomes including revenue, profitability, unit volume, and growth.

• Define customer segments, customer value propositions, and market opportunities, identifying how Surface can attract new customers, expand addressable markets,

• improve competitiveness, and accelerate portfolio growth.

• Own product and portfolio strategy, including lineup architecture, feature positioning, portfolio evolution, affordability strategy, SKU design, packaging, and lifecycle management.

• Own pricing strategy, packaging strategy, SKU strategy, volume plans, and financial recommendations, ensuring a coherent customer-backed and financially optimized portfolio.

• Own Marketing Plan of Record (POR) recommendations, aligning customer needs, product investments, commercial priorities, competitive positioning, and financial objectives into a unified business strategy.

• Drive portfolio and business planning decisions through forecasting, demand modeling, business case development, sensitivity analysis, and scenario planning, quantifying opportunities, risks, tradeoffs, and mitigation actions.

• Own market analytics, competitive intelligence, customer insights, and product analytics, translating findings into actionable recommendations that influence portfolio, product, and commercial decisions.

• Develop and maintain the long-range business plan for the Entry Premium portfolio, identifying growth opportunities, business risks, investment priorities, and performance improvement opportunities.

• Serve as the single-threaded business owner for Entry Premium, aligning Product, Finance, Marketing, Supply Chain, Engineering, and Sales stakeholders, enabling high-quality decision making and execution.

• Create leadership-ready narratives, business reviews, and recommendations that support executive discussions regarding portfolio strategy, pricing, investment decisions, growth opportunities, and overall business performance.

Qualifications

Required/minimum qualifications

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

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

• OR equivalent experience.

• 8+ years business planning, strategy consulting, finance, business development, corporate strategy, product strategy, analytics, or related experience

• Experience developing business strategy, portfolio strategy, pricing strategy, product strategy, or growth strategies within technology, devices, hardware, or consumer electronics businesses.

• Experience building forecasting models, financial models, scenario analyses, and business cases used to drive executive decision making.

• Executive communication skills with the ability to simplify complex analytical, customer, market, and financial topics into clear business recommendations.

• Demonstrated ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders and drive alignment across Product, Marketing, Finance, Sales, Engineering, and Operations organizations.

Business Planning IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $106,400 - $203,600 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 $137,600 - $222,600 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. (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html)