Program Manager, Release & Value Delivery, Q2C

At Global Vendor Delivery & Solutions (GVDS), we are transforming how Microsoft delivers business operations at scale. As part of Microsoft Business Operations (MBO), GVDS combines operational excellence, AI-powered innovation, and strategic partnerships to create secure, scalable, and high-performing services across a global vendor ecosystem.

As Microsoft evolves toward a Frontier Firm model, AI, automation, and agentic systems are reshaping how work gets done. GVDS plays a critical role in enabling that transformation by helping operations become more intelligent, adaptive, and outcome-focused. We are looking for leaders who can challenge legacy approaches, accelerate AI-first ways of working, and build sustainable systems that continuously improve customer and business outcomes.

The Program Manager, Release & Value Delivery, Q2C owns the integrated release discipline for Quote 2 Cash (Q2C) transformation, maintaining the roadmap and coordinating scope, timing, dependencies, readiness, deployment, hypercare, and expected value across business and functional teams.

Feature Managers and functional owners remain accountable for their respective deliverables. The Program Manager ensures those responsibilities come together with speed and quality and surfaces changes and impacts before Engineering scope lock. Through strong cross-functional coordination, the role drives timely resolution without routine leadership intervention and moves releases through operational readiness and validated business outcomes.

Responsibilities

Release Roadmap & Alignment

• Own the integrated Q2C release roadmap, providing a forward-looking view of planned releases, timing, dependencies, expected value, and operational impacts.
• Align Feature Managers, Engineering, and business partners on priorities, sequencing, capacity, and trade-offs before Engineering scope lock.
• Surface changes, timing shifts, dependencies, and savings impacts early to enable timely resolution without routine leadership intervention.

Scope & Release Governance

• Manage integrated release scope, milestones, change control, and governance across participating workstreams.
• Assess the release-level impact of feature changes on timing, dependencies, readiness, and expected value, while Feature Managers retain ownership of feature scope.
• Establish entry and exit criteria that extend beyond technical acceptance and drive gaps or scope risks to resolution.

Readiness, Deployment & Hypercare

• Integrate business validation, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), defect closure, vendor readiness, operational readiness, controls, training, support, and measurement into a single readiness view.
• Drive accountable owners to complete release, cutover, deployment, stabilization, and hypercare activities with speed and quality.
• Recommend release go/no-go and hypercare exit decisions based on complete evidence, transparent risks, and defined criteria. Final decisions remain with the designated governance forums.
• Transition unresolved actions and ongoing accountability to the appropriate owners at hypercare exit.

Value Delivery

• Connect business priorities and expected value to delivered capabilities and validated benefits throughout release and hypercare.
• Ensure Feature Managers validate expected benefits, address variances during release and hypercare, and record validated benefits in the appropriate systems.
• Drive gaps between expected and validated benefits to resolution with accountable owners.
• Apply release and hypercare learnings to future prioritization and planning.

Reporting, Risk & Escalation

• Provide a concise, integrated view of release health, including scope, timing, readiness, dependencies, risks, expected value, validated benefits, and decisions required.
• Anticipate cross-functional risks and drive resolution through established ownership and governance.
• Escalate unresolved barriers with clear impacts, trade-offs, recommendations, and decision requirements.
• Communicate a consolidated business and release view to Engineering, governance forums, and senior leaders.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

Bachelor's Degree in Business, Operations, Finance, or related field AND 4+ years experience in program management, process management, or process improvement OR equivalent experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience managing large-scale business transformation, technology-enabled transformation, release management, or operational change programs.
• Experience partnering closely with Engineering, product, operations, service delivery, and vendor organizations.
• Experience with UAT, quality management, operational readiness, deployment, cutover, hypercare, and post-production stabilization.
• Experience connecting technology or process investments to measurable business outcomes, productivity improvements, or savings.
• Experience operating in environments where capabilities are managed by different owners but must come together through a common transformation delivery lifecycle.
• Demonstrated ability to create structure, accountability, and governance in complex environments while maintaining speed and quality.

Demonstrated experience leading complex cross-functional programs involving multiple stakeholders, dependencies, and competing priorities.

• Experience developing and managing integrated roadmaps and release plans from planning through implementation, hypercare, and transition.
• Demonstrated ability to create accountability, identify risks and trade-offs, and drive decisions across teams without direct authority.
• Analytical skills with the ability to use data and evidence to support prioritization, readiness, governance, and value-delivery decisions.
• Written and verbal communication skills, including experience communicating program health, risks, impacts, and decisions to senior stakeholders.

Success Measures

Success in this role will be measured by:

• Forward-looking visibility into planned releases, timing shifts, dependencies, and business and savings impacts before Engineering scope lock.
• Timely completion of cross-functional responsibilities with improved speed, quality, and reduced need for leadership intervention.
• Disciplined release scope, change control, entry criteria, exit criteria, and governance across Q2C workstreams.
• Early identification and resolution of dependencies, readiness gaps, delivery risks, and release impacts.
• Evidence-based release and hypercare recommendations that enable timely governance decisions.
• Successful deployment, stabilization, benefit validation, and accountable transition at hypercare exit.
• Clear traceability from prioritized value through delivered capability and validated benefit during release and hypercare.

Business Program Management IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $97,600 - $188,400 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 $125,000 - $206,400 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.