Director Business Development (Non-Sales / Partnerships)

Job Description

Overview

Join Microsoft’s International Business Development team to shape company-level strategy, drive high-impact partnerships, and lead strategic investments across EMEA. Your work will help accelerate Microsoft’s mission and long-term growth in one of the most dynamic regions globally.

In this role, you will work closely with senior leaders across Engineering, Sales, Finance, Legal, and Business Planning to independently identify, shape, and drive high-impact business opportunities across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). A core focus will be developing and managing complex sovereign cloud partnerships with governments and enterprises in highly regulated sectors.

As a Business Development Director, you’ll be part of a dynamic and fast-paced environment where your contributions will directly influence the trajectory of our growth. We're looking for a self-driven, customer- and partner-focused professional who thrives in building strategic alliances, leading negotiations, and executing complex deals. If you're excited to play a pivotal role in a time of innovation and rapid expansion, we’d love to hear from you.

Responsibilities

Partner & Deal Strategy

• Articulates the value of Microsoft solutions through a deep understanding of customer business priorities, industry trends, and growth opportunities to shape customer decisions
• Identifies high-priority whitespace opportunities across technologies, products, business domains, and geographies, and drives collaboration across diverse stakeholder groups to shape sourcing and execution strategies.
• Drives Microsoft’s competitive edge by shaping the product roadmap through collaboration with product, engineering, and industry stakeholders, ensuring solutions are aligned with customer needs and primed for long-term engagement.
• Leverages quantitative financial data to guide internal strategy and support data-driven decision-making.
• Builds and nurtures a broad strategic network of senior internal and external stakeholders, including business and technical decision makers.
• Advises and influences internal and external senior executives (e.g., GMs, CVPs, Presidents, board members) within target lines of business by communicating strategic insights, opportunities, and risks clearly and credibly.
  
  

Negotiation

• Leads complex deals from opportunity framing to final execution, ensuring alignment at each stage.
• Represents Microsoft in executive-level partner and customer negotiation
• Recommends deal structures and articulates deal terms
• Identifies negotiation scenarios and manages executive escalations.
• Manages stakeholders to gain consensus and ensure internal alignment.

Deal Management/Governance

• Collaborates with customers, partners, and across Microsoft to develop post-deal governance to ensure deal execution and implementation.
• Resolves road blocks and mitigates at risk scenarios.
• Develops Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to demonstrate achieved business value.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration, Sciences or related field
• Extensive relevant work experience (e.g., Fortune 500 business development, top-tier management consulting, investment banking, corporate strategy, venture capital or related domains).

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s/ Advanced Degree in Business Administration, Economics, STEM Sciences or related field
• Extensive relevant work experience (e.g., Fortune 500 business development, top-tier management consulting, investment banking, corporate strategy, venture capital or related domains).
• Structured problem-solving and analytical skills, to identify root causes, evaluate strategic options, and support data-driven decision-making.
• Relevant financial acumen, with the ability to interpret complex financial data to develop business cases and economic models.
• Capability to manage highly complex projects, showing resilience and sound judgment, particularly in leading initiatives that require alignment and decision-making across cross-functional teams and senior stakeholders.
• Comfortable operating in environments characterized by ambiguity and uncertainty, maintaining focus and effectiveness without clear precedents.
• Skilled at building alliances and navigating challenging interpersonal dynamics, particularly when working with demanding or high-stakes stakeholders.
• Deep interest in technology and emerging trends; fast learner with intellectual curiosity.
• Multilingual capabilities preferred — especially fluency in French, German or Arabic.

This role can be based in UK, Netherlands or Spain.

#BD&V

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.