Regional Datacenter Business Operations Program Manager

Overview

Microsoft’s Cloud Operations & Innovation (CO+I) is the engine that powers our cloud services. As a Regional Datacenter Business Operations Program Manager, you will perform a key role in delivering the core infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft's online services including Bing, Office 365, Xbox, OneDrive, and the Microsoft Azure platform. As a group, CO+I is focused on the personal and professional development of all employees and offers training and growth opportunities including Career Rotation Programs, Diversity & Inclusion training and events, and professional certifications.

Our infrastructure is comprised of a large global portfolio of more than 200 Data Centers in 32 countries and millions of servers. Our foundation is built upon and managed by a team of subject matter experts working to support services for more than 1 billion customers and 20 million businesses in over 90 countries worldwide.

With environmental sustainability and optimization at the forefront of our data center design and operations, we continue to grow and evolve as we meet the ever-changing business demands that hold Microsoft as a world-class cloud provider.

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

Responsibilities

As a Regional Business Program Manager your performance objectives include:

Provide thought leadership and subject matter expertise related to the delivery of datacenter-centric services

Operate with a consultant mindset: quickly assess complex or ambiguous business challenges, create structure, and own initiatives from concept through implementation with clear objectives, milestones, governance and measures of success

Assist in preparation of quarterly spend management review materials at datacenter site and regional level

Analyze controllable cost per kW and other operational cost drivers to identify trends, variances, underlying drivers and opportunities for structural improvement

Stand up and mature the regional operational efficiency program, including intake, prioritization, governance, tracking, reporting and benefits realization, with clear baselines and defensible benefit methodologies

Own and evolve the strategic vendor management program, including operating rhythms, governance, performance expectations and accountability, and manage supplier contracts end to end (procurement engagement, cost/terms negotiations, change orders, scorecards, recurring business reviews)

Establish and own a Regional Supplier Assurance program that provides consistent visibility into supplier health, performance, risk and compliance, with KPIs, scorecards, escalation mechanisms and corrective-action follow-through

Support organizational financial management, budgeting, and forecasting

Evaluate cost savings opportunities and implement strategic projects to realize savings, with forward-looking indicators that show what is driving cost and where intervention is required

Partner with regional and global teams to identify, evaluate and scale efficiency initiatives and best practices, maintaining an integrated portfolio of initiatives and measuring impact across spend, time, people and productivity

Identify inefficient, fragmented or manual processes and lead efforts to simplify, standardize and automate them, with mechanisms to sustain improvements beyond initial implementation

Serve as a cross-functional enabler across Operations, Finance, Procurement, Sourcing, Engineering and Global Business Operations, influencing without direct authority and driving teams to clear decisions and accountable execution

Ability to work independently in a remote workplace setting

Capabilities important to success include

Operational Planning & Project Management: Show structured thinking, planning, and the ability to execute by working through others, influencing without authority, and dealing with ambiguity.

Exceptional written and Interpersonal skills: Communicate effectively and concisely with stakeholders, senior managers and leaders, turning complex analysis into a clear so-what, recommendation and action.

Customer/Stakeholder Focus: Gather stakeholder impressions of services and programs, integrating this feedback into decision making. Allocate and align resources to optimize the stakeholder and partner experience.

Performance Goal and Standards Setting: Develop and communicate to realistic timelines via plans that consider potential obstacles and immediate + long-term consequences.

Understand datacenter business objectives: Interpret spend, forecasts, cost drivers, supplier economics and business cases; connect individual projects and data points to larger business objectives and proactively address trade-offs.

Process and Technology: Demonstrate a solid understanding of IT and CE environments including operational processes and industry best practices.

Flexibility and Adaptability: Regularly scan the environment to help anticipate changes that could affect key programs and projects. Effectively changes plans, goals, actions or priorities to respond to changing situations.

Team Player: Ability to both contribute strategically to the team and support strategic decisions.

Analytical Rigor and Bias for Action: Work with large datasets to identify patterns and variances, convert analysis into recommendations, and start with imperfect information, test, learn and adjust while driving adoption across teams.

Program Building and Benefits Realization: Take an undefined need and build the governance, processes, tooling and operating rhythm around it, distinguishing activity from measurable impact with defensible baselines and KPIs.

Required Qualifications

High School Qualification or equivalent AND 3+ years' experience supporting IT equipment or related technology or delivering server and network deployment projects in large-scale environments OR equivalent experience

Other Requirements

Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include, but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings:

Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Preferred Qualifications

Bachelor's or Technical College Degree in Computer Science, Math, Telecommunications, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering, Supply Chain Management or related field AND 8+ years' experience in critical environment infrastructures (e.g., UPS, Generator, AHU), or working in physical IT infrastructures (e.g., Servers, SANs, Networking, Capacity, DC Rack/Enclosures, structured cabling) OR High School Qualification or equivalent AND 10+ years' experience in critical environment infrastructures (e.g., UPS, Generator, AHU), or working in physical IT infrastructures (e.g., Servers, SANs, Networking, Capacity, DC Rack/Enclosures, structured cabling) OR equivalent experience

Applicable certifications: APICS/Inventory Control, CompTIA, Microsoft, Network Certifications, CCNA Certifications, ITIL v3 Foundation, Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) Certifications

5+ years' experience in the development of tools and apps utilizing Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate, Azure DevOps, Sharepoint, Dynamics

5+ years' experience providing business support in a 24x7x365 production environment

6+ years of relevant finance, planning or analysis work experiences with analytical foundation

Knowledge or background supporting AI

Demonstrated PowerPoint, Excel, Power BI and Power Platform skills (Power Apps, Power Automate and Azure DevOps a plus)

Experience in datacenter, critical environment, supply chain or large-scale infrastructure operations

Demonstrated ability to manage multiple work streams and prioritize as needed

Experience owning a strategic vendor management, supplier performance or supplier assurance program, including scorecards, governance rhythms and business reviews

Demonstrated partnering capabilities, including the ability to influence others without direct authority and appropriately push back when required

Experience standing up an operational efficiency or continuous improvement program with defined intake, prioritization and benefits tracking

Prior experience in driver-based cost analysis, including controllable cost per kW or similar unit-cost metrics

Data Center Operations Management IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $102,600 - $202,800 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 $137,500 - $225,800 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.

Insights from previous hires

Top skills: Cost Savings

Common previous titles: Consultant, Datacenter Program Manager, Data Center Project Manager, Datacenter Operations Program Manager, Senior Specialist, Senior, Support Manager, Senior Lead, Senior Solution Architect, Senior Strategy Manager