Finance Manager, Search, Ads, News + Edge

** Overview*
* The goal of the SANE (Search, Ads, News + Edge) team is to provide key insights that help Microsoft make better financial and business decisions related to Bing, Microsoft News, Microsoft Edge, and third party affiliates. SANE is a fast-growing business responsible for delivering advertising that seeks to empower our users by bringing them closer to the people and information that matter most to them and is heavily invested in the future of AI.  

Our team is at the center of Microsoft's financial activities for the Consumer business, being a key strategic partner to a diverse set of stakeholders:
Senior Finance leaders, Ad Sales Leadership Team, Engineering/Product Teams, and Business Development Team.

Finance Managers in our team help us transform the way we measure business performance, manage resources, and lead financial activities using business intelligence, modeling, and analytics. As a Finance Manager, you will have a unique opportunity to use your insights and strategic thinking to partner with leaders on financial analysis, financial decisions and investments, and process transformation projects.

We are looking for a Finance professional with strong modeling and analytical skills combined with strong executive presence and leadership skills. The ideal candidate will be able to dive into the details and understand the key drivers as well as effectively communicate results/drivers to business partners including executives. This person should also exhibit curiosity, be a fast learner and have a passion to understand the business models and drivers in our Consumer advertising business and products

** Responsibilities*
* Prioritize

+ Leads the analysis of present and future financial performance of the Bing Distribution product, which includes budget, forecast, weekly outlook, and the month end results.  Assists in the execution of annual business planning and forecasting process for overall SANE Finance.  Gathers insights and contributes to analysis and research to support preliminary and adjusted forecast cycles.  This includes reviewing the performance by Bing Distribution Partners by rate and volume.

+ Provides support to peers and counterparts during the monthly financial close process.  This includes review of the Gross Revenue and Traffic Acquisition Cost (TAC) by partner to evaluate accuracy and trends in performance to provide overall explanations to leaders across the business.  There is close collaboration with accounting and payables on the TAC accruals.

+ Builds and evaluates deal models for new Bing Distribution partners on revenue expectations along with revenue and costs to determine profitability and margins for each new deal.  (Profitability is evaluated by partner on a monthly basis to review performance margins.)

Partnership

+ Serves as finance contact for partners for all revenue, costs and compliance questions related to reporting and analysis on Bing Distribution. Contributes insights for financial plans, variance analysis, investments, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and driving margin accountability.  Manages and executes processes through engagement with internal and external stakeholders.

+ Learns and applies the foundational aspects of Microsoft Finance (e.g., financial systems, policies and procedures, key metrics, historical performance, reporting and forecast requirements) and business (e.g., monetization strategy, market, key drivers of profitability) to collect information, perform technical analysis and modeling, and complete standardized reporting.

+ Improves current methods used in collecting data, developing automated financial reporting, and forecasting tools, and creating standard and ad-hoc reports.  Learns how advanced technology and AI is leveraged in Finance and across Microsoft to provide greater depth of analysis.

+ Communicates recurring and ad-hoc results in a logical and understandable message.

Protect

+ Ensures compliance with company policies, legal standards, and regulatory requirements by reviewing and monitoring accuracy of financial documents and business processes.  Drives corrective measures.  Supports questions regarding documentation, policy adherence, and requirements.  Recommends approved instruments and processes.  Remains current on all company policies and procedures and updates others.

+ Role model: exemplify a growth mindset and what it takes to be a key driver of the business

+ Accelerate:
Drive success for key partners within SANE and…