Director, People Business Partner - CoreAI

Overview

Why Microsoft CoreAI — and Why This Role Matters

The success of Microsoft CoreAI depends not only on world class technology, but on exceptional engineering leadership, deep technical talent, and the ability to scale capability as the engineering landscape evolves. CoreAI operates in a fast-moving environment where AI research, engineering, product, and business priorities evolve rapidly. The organization requires people strategy that can support breakthrough innovation, disciplined execution, responsible growth, and an exceptional employee experience at scale.

Role Overview

We are looking for a Director, People Business Partner, CoreAI, CoreAI to serve as a senior advisor to CoreAI leadership. This Director plays a key role in translating complexity into clear, people-centered outcomes that support both individuals and the organization. The role shapes people strategy that enables talent to do meaningful work—balancing rapid response, engineering excellence, and long-term capability building in a high-stakes, fast-moving environment.

The successful candidate will bring strong executive presence, ownership mindset, deep organization and talent expertise, sound judgment, and the ability to mobilize leaders and People Team partners around shared outcomes with a bias for action.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Partner to Leadership: Serve as a principal strategic advisor to CoreAI senior leadership, helping define the business, organization, leadership, and talent agenda for a broad and complex portfolio.
• End-to-end People Strategy: Own and drive an integrated, multi-year people strategy spanning workforce planning, organization design, leadership effectiveness, succession, talent management, rewards, inclusion, culture, and employee experience. Shape organization and operating-model choices at portfolio scale, including leadership structures, decision rights, critical interfaces, spans and layers, and mechanisms that improve accountability, agility, and execution.
• Change & Complexity Leadership at Scale: Lead workforce and capability planning for highly competitive and specialized talent, using scenario planning to anticipate future skill needs and inform deployment decisions. Lead significant organizational transformation across multiple teams and disciplines, establishing a clear change strategy, aligning stakeholders, anticipating downstream impacts, and adoption.
• Executive Coaching: Coach senior executives and leadership teams on leadership effectiveness, succession, team health, inclusive decision-making, and high-stakes people and organization matters.
• Enterprise & COE Partnership: Influence Centers of Excellence and cross-company partners to design and deliver scalable solutions that meet CoreAI’s needs while strengthening enterprise programs, standards, and practices.
• People Team Thought Leadership: Elevate People Team capability by setting a high bar for strategic partnership, mentoring and developing HR professionals, creating strong operating rhythms, and building an aligned community across the portfolio. Exercise broad judgment and accountability on complex and sensitive matters, balancing business urgency, employee experience, organizational health, risk, and long-term capability.

Qualifications

• Required/minimum qualifications
• Master's Degree in Business, Human Resources, or related field AND 6+ years experience in human resources or related processes (e.g., hiring, training, performance management)
• OR Bachelor's Degree in Business, Human Resources, or related field AND 9+ years experience in human resources or related processes (e.g., hiring, performance management)
• OR equivalent experience.
• Additional or preferred qualifications
• Master's Degree in Business, Human Resources, or related field AND 12+ years experience in human resources or related processes (e.g., hiring, training, performance management)
• OR Bachelor's Degree in Business, Human Resources, or related field AND 15+ years experience in human resources or related processes (e.g., hiring, performance management) OR equivalent experience.
• Human Resources Professional Certification (e.g., PHR, SPHR, SHRM, CIPD).
• 5+ years experience with partnering with wide network of clients and across human resources to deliver effective business solutions.
• Experience serving as a HR partner for a global, complex technical, engineering, product, research, or AI-focused organization.
• Demonstrated ability to shape and execute a multi-year people strategy that is directly connected to business priorities and measurable organizational outcomes.
• Deep expertise in organization design, leadership and talent assessment, succession, workforce planning, culture shaping, and transformation.
• Track record of advising and constructively challenging senior executives with credibility, discretion, and strong business judgment.
• Experience leading through rapid growth, shifting priorities, organizational ambiguity, and significant changes in strategy or operating model.
• Data driven mindset, with the ability to synthesize quantitative and qualitative insights into clear decisions, tradeoffs, and actions.
• Ability to influence across organizational boundaries and mobilize HR and business stakeholders without relying solely on formal authority.
• Demonstrated commitment to inclusive leadership, organizational health, and building environments where diverse talent can do its best work.
• Experience developing HR talent and raising the strategic and operational effectiveness of an HR team or community.

HR Business Partnership IC6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $130,900 - $277,200 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 $165,600 - $303,600 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.

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.