Overview
About the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) Organization:
Come join Microsoft’s U.S. Public Sector Industries Defense Industrial Base team—where mission meets innovation. The DIB Operating Unit (OU) is a newly formed organization with a bold mandate: to consolidate, simplify, and accelerate Microsoft’s presence across the Defense Industrial Base landscape.
The DIB ecosystem includes more than 100,000 organizations spanning manufacturing, aviation, cybersecurity, and mission services that support U.S. Federal agencies. Our team partners with these commercial contractors throughout their digital transformation journey—from envisioning new possibilities to delivering secure, scalable Microsoft solutions that drive mission outcomes, elevate customer experiences, and fuel Microsoft’s growth.
Our DIB organization combines the energy and autonomy of a startup like environment with the scale, stability, and investment of Microsoft. This is a fast growing business where individuals have a meaningful opportunity to shape outcomes, influence strategy, and make real impact. Just as important, our leaders put culture first—we value inclusivity, respect, and trust, and we believe the strongest results come from teams that support one another and lead with integrity.
Within the DIB OU, the Commercial Executive team is a small, collaborative team that is responsible for leading the DIB commercial strategy and execution. This is a fast-paced team that values diversity of ideas and innovation. Come be a part of a team that delivers value to our customers and to our DIB stakeholders daily.
Role Overview:
We are seeking a Senior Commercial Executive (Individual Contributor) to lead commercial strategy and execution for highly complex, strategic Defense Industrial Base customers. This role is designed for a senior commercial leader who independently owns some of the most sophisticated deals, negotiations, and risk profiles within the DIB portfolio.
As a Senior Commercial Executive, you will have the opportunity to operate with significant autonomy, shape deal strategy across multi-year, multiaffiliate agreements, and influence outcomes across sales, finance, legal, and policy teams. You will be accountable not only for deal execution, but also for commercial judgment, risk management, and long term customer value creation in a regulated, mission critical environment. Year, multiaffiliate agreements, and influence outcomes across sales, finance, legal, and policy teams. You will be accountable not only for deal execution, but also for term customer value creation critical environment.‑year, multi‑affiliate agreements, and influence outcomes across sales, finance, legal, and policy teams. You will be accountable not only for deal execution, but also for ‑term customer value creation‑critical environment.
This is a non‑people‑manager (IC) role with enterprise‑level scope and impact.
Responsibilities
Key Responsibilities
Senior Commercial Leadership & Strategy
- Own and lead the commercial strategy for highly complex and high‑impact DIB accounts, often involving large deal sizes, long sales cycles, and elevated risk.
- Shape multi‑year, multi‑affiliate, and non‑standard deal constructs, balancing growth, margin, compliance, and customer outcomes.
- Serve as the senior commercial authority on assigned accounts guiding strategy well before formal negotiations begin.
Advanced Negotiation & Risk Ownership
- Lead executive‑level negotiations with customer procurement, legal, and business leaders.
- Independently assess and manage financial, contractual, and compliance risk, escalating only when appropriate and with well‑formed recommendations.
- Exercise strong commercial judgment on pricing, investments, concessions, and non‑standard terms to protect Microsoft’s long‑term interests.
Defense Industrial Base Expertise
- Apply deep understanding of DIB customer environments, including regulatory sensitivity, government adjacency, and security‑driven workload considerations.
- Advise account teams on appropriate commercial approaches across commercial and government cloud environments, aligned to customer mission needs.
- Navigate complex customer structures (subsidiaries, global entities, joint ventures) common in the defense ecosystem.
Cross‑Functional Influence & Leadership
- Influence senior stakeholders across Sales, Finance, Legal, Deal Desk, and Policy without formal authority.
- Act as a commercial thought leader and mentor to peers and account teams, raising the overall commercial bar within the DIB OU.
- Resolve ambiguity and unblock deals by driving alignment across competing priorities.
Operational Excellence & Predictability
- Maintain rigorous forecast accuracy, pipeline discipline, and deal hygiene for high‑stakes opportunities.
- Ensure all agreements are audit‑ready, compliant, and executed with precision.
- Capture and apply insights from complex deals to improve future commercial strategy and execution.
Scope & Expectations
- Operates with minimal guidance and high trust
- Owns highly complex, sensitive, and high risk deals in the portfolio‑risk deals
- Influences strategy beyond individual deals, shaping commercial best practices for the DIB OU
- Recognized as a senior commercial expert by peers and stakeholders
Qualifications
Required Qualifications
Bachelor's Degree in Business Management, Information Technology, Law, Marketing, Finance, Communication, Education (or equivalent) or related field AND 5+ years sales and negotiation experience or related work or internship experience OR 7+ years sales and negotiation experience OR equivalent experience.
Other Requirements
Citizenship & Citizenship Verification: This position requires verification of U.S citizenship due to citizenship-based legal restrictions. Specifically, this position supports United States federal, state, and/or local United States government agency customers and is subject to certain citizenship-based restrictions where required or permitted by applicable law. To meet this legal requirement, citizenship will be verified via a valid passport.
Citizenship & Citizenship Verification: This role will require access to information that is controlled for export under U.S. export control regulations, potentially under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations or the Export Administration Regulations. As a condition of employment, the successful candidate will be required to provide proof of citizenship, for assessment of eligibility to access the export-controlled information. To meet this legal requirement, citizenship will be verified via a valid passport.
Preferred Qualifications
- Master's Degree in Business Management, Information Technology, Law, Marketing (or equivalent) AND 6+ years sales and negotiation experience or related work OR Bachelor's Degree in Business Management, Information Technology, Law, Marketing, Finance, Communication, Education (or equivalent) or related field AND 7+ years sales and negotiation experience or related work or internship experience OR 9+ years sales and negotiation experience OR equivalent experience.
- Familiarity with Microsoft cloud offerings, including Azure and Microsoft 365 (commercial and/or government), MACC experience highly preferred.
- Background in enterprise sales, finance, legal, or commercial operations within regulated industries.
- Experience structuring and closing large, multi‑year strategic agreements.
- Strong collaborator who enjoys working with a wide range of personality styles and across various teams and functions.
- Extensive experience leading complex enterprise deal making and negotiations.
- Demonstrated success operating independently in high ambiguity, high risk environments.‑ambiguity, high‑risk environments
- Strong command of commercial frameworks, contracting principles, and governance standards.
- Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive outcomes without authority.
- Strong executive communication and decision making skills.‑making skills.
- High emotional intelligence (EQ), with the ability to navigate ambiguity and build trust across diverse teams.
- Ability to make recommendations and decisions to move the business forward (owner mentality).
- Commitment to ethical business practices and compliance excellence.
Commercial Sales IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $107,600 - $187,500 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 $145,600 - $205,600 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.**