Overview
Empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more. That’s what inspires
us, drives our work and pushes us to challenge the status quo every day. Through our Cloud-
first strategy, we strive to deliver solutions that are optimized for the world and enable
customers to drive their business more successfully. The Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure
finance team is an exciting and fast-evolving finance team at the forefront of Microsoft’s
Cloud-first strategy. We are looking for a talented and motivated individual to help shape the
future of our cloud products.
We are hiring a Group Finance Manager to lead margin strategy and efficiency for the AI
Foundry Platform, partnering deeply with engineering and product teams to drive model and
infrastructure efficiency at scale. This role owns identification and execution of efficiency
levers across model architecture, inference optimization, and compute utilization to reduce
unit cost of AI workloads. The work directly enables competitive pricing, supports growth, and
drives sustained GM% expansion.
You will operate end-to-end across the value chain—partnering with model engineering,
infra/GPU platform, datacenter operations, hardware roadmap, and demand and capacity
planning—to optimize total cost of ownership and align investment decisions with long-term
margin targets.
This is a high-impact role shaping forward-looking AI platform economics, influencing
roadmap and operating points, and building cross-functional alignment to deliver
measurable financial outcomes.
Responsibilities
Own margin strategy for AI Foundry Platform: Lead GM% planning, target setting, performance tracking across model and infrastructure layers; drive accountability for margin outcomes.
Drive model and infrastructure efficiency at scale: Identify and execute levers across model architecture, inference optimization (e.g., token efficiency, caching, throughput), and GPU utilization to reduce unit cost of AI workloads.
Translate engineering decisions into financial impact: Build frameworks that connect model parameters, operating points, and infra choices to cost, pricing, and long-term margin trajectories.
Partner deeply with engineering and product leaders: Influence roadmap decisions by embedding cost and efficiency into model design, deployment strategy, and platform architecture.
Optimize end-to-end cost of ownership: Work across model engineering, AI infra/GPU platform, datacenter operations, and hardware roadmap to drive structurally lower cost per unit of compute.
Lead demand, capacity, and investment planning: Align demand forecasts, capacity allocation, and efficiency assumptions to ensure capital is deployed effectively and supports growth with margin discipline.
Drive executive insights and decision support: Deliver clear, data-driven narratives (e.g., GM% bridges, efficiency tracking, ROI of initiatives) to senior leadership to inform investment and prioritization decisions.
Establish operating rhythms and governance: Build mechanisms to track efficiency commitments, monitor delivery vs. plan, and ensure cross-functional accountability.
Qualifications
Required/minimum qualifications
Master's Degree in Business Administration, Accounting, Finance, Economics, Data Science or related field AND 4+ years experience in financial analysis, accounting, controllership or finance, or related field
- OR Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration, Accounting, Finance, Economics, Data Science or related field AND 6+ years experience in financial analysis, accounting, controllership or finance, or related field
- OR equivalent experience.
Additional or preferred qualifications
- Master's Degree in Business Administration, Accounting, Finance, Economics, Data Science or related field AND 8+ years of post-graduate financial analysis, accounting, controllership, or finance work experience OR Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Accounting, Finance, Economics, Data Science or related field AND 12+ years of post-graduate financial analysis, accounting, controllership, or finance work experience OR equivalent experience.
- 8+ years of progressive experience in finance, pricing, analytics, or related roles within a complex, global organization; experience in cloud, AI/ML, or infrastructure economics strongly preferred.
- Proficient executive presence and business partnership skills; ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive alignment across engineering, product, and finance.
- Deep understanding of AI/infra cost drivers, including compute (GPU/CPU), storage, networking, and datacenter cost structures; familiarity with unit economics (e.g., cost per token, cost per inference, utilization)
- Experience partnering with engineering on efficiency levers, such as model optimization, throughput improvements, hardware utilization, or capacity efficiency.
- Analytical and technical skillset, with experience working on large-scale datasets and using tools such as SQL, Python, or similar to derive insights and build scalable analyses.
- Experience in demand, capacity, or TCO modeling, with the ability to connect technical assumptions (e.g., model architecture, operating points) to financial outcomes.
- Familiarity with pricing and monetization strategies in consumption-based or cloud businesses, including trade-offs between growth, utilization, and margin.
- Strategic and results-oriented, with the ability to operate in ambiguity, balance long-term vision with execution, and drive measurable impact in a fast-paced environment.
Financial Analysis IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $116,900 - $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 $148,400 - $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.**