Critical Environment Program Manager

Microsoft’s Cloud Operations & Innovation (CO+I) is the engine that powers our cloud services. As a CO+I Critical Environment 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 trainings and opportunities including Career Rotation Programs, Diversity & Inclusion trainings and events, and professional certifications.

Our infrastructure is comprised of a large global portfolio of more than 200 datacenters 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 datacenter 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

Data Center Operations

• Follows and adheres to processes and policy(ies) provided by security and safety governing partners. Reports immediately any safety or security issues or concerns. Participates in safety and security related Root Cause Analysis (RCA) processes as appropriate. Makes recommendations for improvements to safety and security processes or procedures. Fosters and exhibits a culture of safety. Ensures no unauthorized or unescorted personnel access in secured production environments, ensuring alignment with security practices and standards. Manages and regularly audits physical access lists for personnel accessing secured production environments and related systems. Conducts regular security risk assessments of data center operations and assesses the design, build, and delivery of technology, tools, data, and processes to meet high security standards. Proactively monitors security Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and identifies and resolves action items, escalating as needed.

• Adheres to compliance and security standards with Data Center business units and contractual service agreements. Ensures third parties are compliant with Microsoft security, safety, and all other guidelines. Abides by all service level agreements (SLAs) to meet compliance requirements. Exercises judgement and discretion to suggest improvements to policies. Identifies and proposes improvements to policies to enhance security posture across operations. Investigates root causes of policy faults, degradation, or security incidents and suggests improvement plans. Delivers policy plan improvements per Data Center business unit(s).

• Engages with appropriate teams and resources to execute tasks or projects. Manages programs associated with area of responsibility. Ensures the right resources and technical requirements are aligned to projects and that projects are staying within scope.

• Understands strategic vision as communicated by leaders and learns to align strategies with a security-first culture. Identifies potential improvements aligned with this vision, including security enhancements.

• emonstrates conscientiousness on cost, adheres to budget requirements, and understands fiscal strategies to reduce costs or improve fiscal efficiency from best practices. Supports managers in creating budget forecasts. Provides input as needed to meet timely and accurate estimates on budget allocation. Manages POs end-to-end process, invoicing, accruals, and adheres to After-the Fact (ATF) policies. Supports and assists with the development of demand cost forecasts, drives awareness among direct-line managers on the business implications of service management issues. Monitors the cost model and reporting systems to raise awareness with any risks to future forecasting, tracking, reporting of costs, security and operational risks, and dependencies for a campus, country, or region. Articulates level of importance on priorities needed to maintain availability expectations. Adjusts plans based on assigned financial spend for the year. Plans and works with business partners on executing their requirements to maintain adherence to data center availability, security, and safety. Identifies opportunities for cost reduction and efficiency.

Data Center Work Environment

• Collaborates and negotiates effectively with others to identify delegates to deliver results. Seeks guidance from management on delegation of resources.

• Realizes that changes impact the work of others and proactively shares relevant information to enable continued workflow efficiency(ies). Participates in change advisory board (CAB) meetings. Supports implementation of changes in accordance with documented procedures accurately and provides feedback in a timely manner. Regularly scans the internal and external environment to help anticipate changes that could affect key projects. Develops an understanding of change management principles and their varying application. (e.g., PROSCI vs. ITIL). Assesses the security implications of planned changes and identifies and proposes mitigation to address risks, escalating as needed.

Service Delivery

• Manages multiple complex technologies projects or programs within a single discipline to meet service delivery Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Participates in pilot programs or task forces to ensure smooth implementation for future service delivery. Escalates to appropriate stakeholders to remove obstacles. Maintains a security-oriented perspective in escalation procedures to safeguard infrastructure integrity. Recommends improvements to service execution tooling standards and supports the adoption of standard toolsets across their discipline. Promotes the adoption of security-enhancing tools and practices. Applies information regarding changes resulting from escalations as communicated by managers or leaders as appropriate. Adopts and effectively leverages approved engineering released tools and systems to support day-to-day operational processes and procedures and protect against current and emerging threats. Supports escalation of issues to appropriate owner(s). Conducts audits or risk assessments for potential security vulnerabilities or threats and recommends remediation plans to address findings.

• May assist others within or across data center teams in learning role, process, procedures, and best practices. Stays up to date on current changes and ensures others have awareness as needed. Seeks training opportunities that meet the interest of the business as well as own career goals and objectives. Completes required security, corporate, and/or mandated training and shares security best practices. Onboards new hires in the same role. May serve as a mentor in the mentorship program.

• Monitors Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and reports on trends and anomalies. Leads key processes, such as project, program or triage meetings, informing prioritization requirements for the team, and rebalances priorities to respond to changes. Reviews contracts with landlords and third-party vendors and evaluating alignment with security needs and standards. Participates in regular operational meetings to review OKRs and/or KPIs. Analyzes data and collaborates with internal business partners, clients, and vendors to improve OKRs and/or KPIs and increase efficiency. Identifies discrepancies in data and reports observations to drive reporting improvement opportunities.

• Exercises judgment and discretion to contribute to issue tracking for supporting the overall quality of the end-to-end service and client satisfaction with complete and consistent communication. Learns and understands the client's business and maintains a dedicated client focus and security-first approach. Considers current processes and procedures to proactively review schedules and resolve conflicts by identifying, coordinating, managing expectations, and offering alternatives when defining client solutions. Identifies risk in service delivery approach(es) while minimizing and aligning client to risk vs. impact decisions/tradeoffs. Recognizes potential client impact of other events and issues occurring across the service (e.g., lockdowns; change management). Communicates potential impact to adjust plans accordingly. Understands strategy adaptations, plans, and solutions, regarding insights about communicated end-customer, market, and business environment changes impacting service delivery. Proactively adapts strategies to align with evolving security needs.

• Adheres to notifications to supporting incident management partners according to agreed upon Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) and/or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Analyses, reports on, or presents incident Post-Mortem outcomes and Root Cause Analysis (RCA) details, including security incidents. Recommends budget needed to make necessary service delivery improvements. Triages and prioritizes complex problem management scenarios while documenting and driving mitigation strategies. Drives and delivers RCAs where appropriate, across multiple functions and disciplines.

• Drives stakeholder and cross functional partnerships. Manages relationships with clients and suppliers to ensure that all expectations and operational, safety, and security requirements are clarified, understood, documented, and met. Communicates with clients and partners. Works with regional support teams to implement changes (e.g., regional or global initiatives like process improvement, safety, compliance, security, engineering, tooling). Identifies and develops opportunities to forge partnerships. Works with business partners to establish a collaborative process to enable understanding of business partners' areas of expertise. Holds external partners accountable to Microsoft’s security standards.

• Performs troubleshooting of service incidents and escalates, as appropriate, to achieve applicable Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) or supporting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) with minimal disruption to the client and business. Partners with others across local teams/campus/metro as needed to troubleshoot and resolve issues. Identifies common and repeating cases or observations of service issues and shares with direct-line management. Understands best practices to address and mitigate issues and reduce recurrence. Participates in applicable Incident Bridges for their workstream(s) and/or location(s). Prioritizes security in daily operations and implements secure approaches to products, processes, and tools in alignment with security initiatives.

Qualifications

Required/minimum 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 critical 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.

Additional or 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.

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.