Business Program Manager
About The Position
Cloud Operations + Innovation (CO+I) is seeking a Business Program Manager to support the CO+I leadership team responsible for Microsoft's Americas Region. The Americas Region plans, procures, builds, and operates Microsoft's infrastructure datacenters, and as that footprint scales, predictable management of the region's opex budget and headcount is critical to delivering on our commitments. To help us accelerate our objectives, growth, and transformation, we are looking for a someone who will report to the Chief of Staff of the Americas Region. This role will be responsible for bringing predictability, visibility, and rigor to how the region plans, forecasts, and reports on its opex budget and headcount. You will own budget and headcount planning, forecasting, actuals and variance tracking, spend governance, and the Rhythm of Business, turning established standards and best practices into a repeatable, run-the-business operating model. This individual must have a blend of strategy, planning, data and analytics, communications, and program management skills to successfully support the leadership team. Being part of this team would give you an opportunity to be part of a rapidly growing business and drive strategic execution on our key initiatives. Candidates can be located anywhere in the U.S In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.
Requirements
- Bachelor's Degree in Business, Operations, Finance, or related field AND 6+ years experience in program management, process management, or process improvement OR equivalent experience.
- 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.
Nice To Haves
- Master's Degree in Business, Operations, Finance, or related field AND 8+ years experience in program management, process management, or process improvement OR Bachelor's Degree in Business, Operations, Finance, or related field AND 12+ years experience in program management, process management, or process improvement OR equivalent experience.
- Demonstrated experience owning budget planning, forecasting, and variance management for a large or complex organization, including multi-team, multi-million-dollar operating (opex) budgets.
- Experience with headcount and position based planning, forecasting, and reconciliation strongly preferred.
- Data and analytics skills, with the ability to consolidate multiple data sources into a single source of truth; advanced Excel and experience with financial planning and reporting tools such as Power BI preferred.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with a track record of partnering across finance and business teams, navigating multiple stakeholder requirements, and influencing without authority.
- Process design and program or project management skills, with a track record of turning frameworks and standards into repeatable, run-the-business operating models.
- Experience improving reporting accuracy and controls, and applying automation or AI-enabled approaches to increase data quality and decision velocity, a plus.
Responsibilities
- Own opex planning and execution across the region's non-Datacenter-Operations budgets: annual budget planning and target setting, quarterly reforecasting, actuals tracking, variance management, accruals, and reclasses.
- Manage headcount planning and tracking end to end, including position (PCN)-based forecasting, headcount scaling, and reconciliation of positions to budget, so leadership always has a current, accurate view of staffing.
- Govern spend by type, including vendor and purchase order (PO) management, and non-PO spend governance, travel and expense (T&E) and training budget planning, applying a principle-based link between spend and business need.
- Establish and run a consistent Rhythm of Business, including monthly and quarterly business reviews and budget checkpoints that keep budget owners aligned and accountable.
- Define and enforce ownership, accountability, hierarchy and cost center hygiene across finance, business managers, and business leaders, closing gaps in visibility and accountability.
- Build and maintain the region's single source of truth for financial and headcount reporting: standardize data definitions, create decision-ready reporting views, and continuously improve forecast accuracy.
- Identify efficiency opportunities and implement improvements, including AI-enabled processes and a unified data source, to strengthen accuracy, reduce manual effort, and enhance the internal and external stakeholder experience.
Benefits
- 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
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
