Principal Technical Program Manager - AI Portfolio

$137,600 - $267,000/Yr

Microsoft - Redmond, WA

Full-time - Senior

Remote - Redmond, WA

Publishing Industries

About the position

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Delivery organization is focused on delivering various platform services to our customers worldwide. This role will require deep partnership across all of Microsoft as these programs are on the leading edge of innovation and include driving initiatives and technology shifts that shape our ongoing commitment to deliver AI platform services rapidly at cloud scale. We are part of Cloud Operations + Innovation (CO+I), the group responsible for one of the world's largest cloud infrastructures, powering all Microsoft online products and services, and supporting Microsoft's 'Cloud First' strategy. CO+I is focused on growth, efficiency, and providing reliable experiences to customers and partners worldwide. We are looking for a highly motivated Principal Technical Program Manager to play a key role in managing our global AI portfolio. This individual will be responsible for GPU deployment portfolio planning, risk management, process improvement, and strategic projects to accelerate portfolio execution. The ideal candidate will leverage a mix of technical program management expertise, process improvement and cross-functional leadership experience to help our AI programs effectively scale within a highly dynamic business environment.

Responsibilities

• Identifies complex opportunities and gaps across divisions, comparing metrics. Leads customer feedback engagements.
• Expert in market research, competitive analysis, and industry trends. Integrates data to identify patterns and build plans.
• Coaches teams on problem statements and hypotheses. Owns experiments to test hypotheses and inform feature decisions.
• Leads process improvements and aligns stakeholders with strategy. Collaborates with teams to meet customer needs. Evaluates market size and explores new opportunities. Defines solution roadmaps.
• Collaborates with Engineering to design architecture and solutions for complex needs across divisions. Reviews and approves designs, identifies best options, and creates new solutions.
• Defines program goals and priorities for multiple feature areas. Translates organizational needs into goals and deliverables based on data insights.
• Defines success criteria and performance metrics (e.g., OKRs, KPIs) across divisions. Ensures necessary telemetry is developed.
• Builds relationships to drive orchestration and integration for multiple feature areas in large, complex projects.
• Partners with engineering to prioritize and deliver on the roadmap, justifying capacity and advocating for resources.
• Manages project schedules, processes, and dependencies, making adjustments as needed.
• Develops staging and implementation plans, aligning with OKRs and KPIs, and collaborates to monitor progress.
• Leads governance programs to meet performance standards.
• Validates outcomes and drives continuous quality improvements, writing test cases to enhance quality.
• Partners with Data Science, Software, and Hardware Engineering to collect and analyze KPIs (usage, quality, speed, cost, performance).
• Monitors progress, derives insights, and improves development across divisional boundaries.
• Leads customer supportability, provides documentation, monitors product usage, and conducts root-cause analysis.
• Acts as a technical advisor, educates customers, leads engagements, gathers feedback, supports sales enablement, and participates in business deals and strategic partnerships.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree AND 6+ years experience in engineering, product/technical program management, data analysis, or product development OR equivalent experience.
• 3+ years experience managing cross-functional and/or cross-team projects.

Nice-to-haves

• Program management certificate (Project Management Professional-PMP, Masters level university certificate program or equivalent)
• Bachelor's Degree AND 8+ years' experience in engineering, product/technical program management, data analysis, or product development OR equivalent experience.
• 10+ years' experience managing cross-functional and/or cross-team projects.
• 3 years' experience managing large-scale programs in technology deployments or cloud infrastructure.
• 3 years' experience applying industry standard risk management methodologies.
• 3 years' experience driving process improvements using Lean, Six Sigma or related methodologies.
• 1+ year(s) SQL & PowerBI experience.
• Analytical skills to analyze data, identify trends and make data-driven decisions.
• Experience in cloud infrastructure management.

Benefits

• The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $137,600 - $267,000 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 $180,400 - $294,000 per year.