Senior Technical Program Manager – Datacenter Lease

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.

Within that space, Microsoft’s Cloud Operations & Innovation (CO+I) team is the engine that powers our cloud services. Our infrastructure is comprised of a large global portfolio of more than one hundred datacenters and one million servers. Our foundation is built upon and managed by a team of subject matter experts, who work tirelessly to support digital services for more than one billion customers and twenty million businesses in over ninety countries worldwide.

With environmental sustainability and optimization at the forefront of our datacenter design and operations, and the overarching Microsoft mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, we have ambitious plans to grow and evolve as we meet the ever-changing and ever-increasing business demands that position Microsoft as a world-class provider. Underpinning these business imperatives, our culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day.

To help us achieve our objectives, growth, and transformation, we are seeking a  Senior Technical Program Manager to support the CIA | Lease & Land team within CO+I.

Within CO+I, we are accountable for the delivery of our cloud infrastructure, which has scaled significantly in the past five years, through building our own data centers and leasing data centers through third parties. Due to the scale and pace of our growth, we are exploring new and exciting ways to manage and develop our business.

We are seeking a seasoned Technical Program Manager to play a pivotal role in supporting our Microsoft CO+I CIA | Lease & Land portfolio. The ideal candidate will possess in-depth knowledge of the executed datacenter lease agreements and contracts, combined with strong expertise in budget management and change management throughout the project lifecycle. This role requires close collaboration with the datacenter lessors, acting as the primary Microsoft point of contact, and taking ownership of the lessor relationship to ensure clear communication and successful project and program delivery.

The role will also be instrumental in supporting the development and implementation of portfolio-wide strategic initiatives and programs, with a focus on streamlining processes, enhancing development and analytics capabilities, and enabling business scalabilit

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Construction, Project Management, Architecture, or related field AND extensive related experience, or equivalent experience.
• Extensive experience working on data center projects.
• Excellent written and oral communication and presentation skills
• The ability to think strategically and ask questions, work with data sets and numbers, and provide thoughtful, detailed analyses
• Meticulous organizational skills with the ability to multitask and manage projects to keep teams on track with deliverables in a high-pressure setting
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment, operate with a strong sense of urgency, and turn in quality work quickly, under strict time constraints
• Painstaking and consistent attention to detail
• Flexibility, including willingness and desire to go above and beyond

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.

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Responsibilities

• Acts as the main Microsoft representative with lessors, coordinating internally to ensure clear communication throughout the entire project lifecycle, including datacenter construction, fit-out, and integration.

• Works closely with internal Microsoft teams (e.g., Datacenter Engineering, Operations, Project Management team, Legal, Project Controls, Finance, Security, Safety) to align program activities with the company's vision and goals.

• Monitors and tracks program data related to cost, schedule, KPIs, invoices, processes, and policies. Regularly reports on program progress concerning scope, schedule, standards, and budget to leadership.

• Participates in and provides guidance during scheduled meetings with datacenter lessors and other program stakeholders. Coordinates meetings and activities to support program execution and resolve issues.
• Represents Microsoft as a safety advocate, ensuring compliance with safety standards and regulatory requirements.

• Analyzes safety metrics provided by lessors and communicates results to leadership to drive accountability and action.

• Assists in developing and implementing risk mitigation strategies, while tracking progress through metrics, dashboards, and scorecards.
• Leverages best practices to identify and recommend cost-effective solutions, applying influence, strategic thinking, and negotiation skills to support successful project delivery.
• Identifies and scopes opportunities to develop new programs and improve current ones. Identifies and provides solutions to root problems, defines the program strategy, gathers program requirements, identifies resource needs, creates the project plan and targets, and works across teams to align.
• Improves operations of existing programs by applying industry methodology, defining complex program issues, assessing various scenarios, and selecting the optimal scenario to resolve issues.