Director Business Program Management

Microsoft•Redmond, WA

23h•Remote

About The Position

The Customer Experience and Success (CE&S) organization, with over 45,000 employees and partners worldwide, aims to empower customers to accelerate business value through differentiated customer experiences leveraging Microsoft’s products and services, driven by our people and culture. CE&S ensures consistent customer satisfaction across all interactions. Within CE&S, the Global Customer Success (GCS) organization leads customer success on the Microsoft Cloud using AI-powered capabilities and human expertise to deliver innovative solutions that accelerate business value, drive operational excellence, and foster long-term loyalty. The Global Outsourcing Management & Strategy team within GCS focuses on enabling and empowering our Delivery Partner ecosystem to deliver a consistent and differentiated customer experience aligned with the CE&S vision, fostering Trust & Partnership. This senior leadership role is responsible for defining and executing global outsourcing strategy and managing a portfolio of strategic service partners to achieve business outcomes at scale. The position holds end-to-end accountability for partner performance, financial results, risk management, and innovation across a globally distributed ecosystem. Success requires balancing commercial rigor, operational excellence, and strategic partnership to drive sustainable value, strengthen strategic partnerships, and create competitive advantage. This leader will act as a trusted advisor to senior executives, guiding how the organization utilizes external partners to accelerate growth, improve customer outcomes, and enable transformation through data and emerging technologies. Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees, we embrace a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to achieve our shared goals. We uphold our values of respect, integrity, and accountability daily to cultivate an inclusive culture where everyone can thrive.

Requirements

Bachelor's Degree in Business, Operations, Finance, or related field AND 8+ years experience in program management, process management, or process improvement OR equivalent experience.
6+ years management (e.g., people, project, process, vendor, change) experience.
Master's Degree in Business, Operations, Finance, or related field AND 12+ years experience program management, process management, or process improvement OR Bachelor's Degree in Business, Operations, Finance, or related field AND 15+ years experience in program management , process management, or process improvement OR equivalent experience.
8+ years people management experience.
12+ years experience in global outsourcing, vendor management, or partner strategy leadership including 360-degree relationship management (DP as customer, partner, supplier).
Proven track record of managing large, complex partner ecosystems across multiple regions.
Proficient financial and commercial management experience, including contract negotiations and value realization.
Experience working with senior executives and influencing cross-functional stakeholders.
Demonstrated success leading large-scale transformation or operating model change.
Experience driving digital transformation, automation, or AI-enabled operations.
Background in global services, customer operations, or large-scale delivery models.
Experience building and scaling governance frameworks and performance management systems.
Utilizing Microsoft AI for business transformation.

Nice To Haves

Strategic mindset: Thinks long-term, connects strategy to execution, and anticipates industry trends.
Commercial acumen: Deep expertise in deal-making, negotiation, and value creation.
Data-driven decision making: Uses insights to drive accountability and performance improvement.
Executive influence: Builds trust quickly and shapes decisions at the senior leadership level.
Relationship leadership: Creates high-impact, win-win partnerships that drive mutual success.
Change leadership: Leads transformation at scale, navigating complexity and ambiguity.
Ownership and accountability: Takes end-to-end responsibility for outcomes across a global portfolio.
Impact: This role directly shapes how the organization leverages its global partner ecosystem to deliver customer outcomes, drive efficiency, and unlock innovation. The leader will play a critical role in evolving outsourcing from a value-focused model to a strategic capability that enables long-term growth and competitive differentiation.

Responsibilities

Define and execute a multi-year global outsourcing strategy aligned to business priorities and growth objectives.
Design and optimize the partner portfolio, balancing capability, cost, scalability, and geographic coverage.
Translate regional and business needs into a cohesive, enterprise-wide partner model.
Conduct Delivery Partner 360 Account planning – optimizing DP as a customer, business partner, and supplier.
Lead the full lifecycle of strategic partners, including selection, contracting, onboarding, performance management, and offboarding.
Establish scalable governance frameworks that enable consistent execution and accountability across all partners.
Continuously evolve the operating model to support changing business needs.
Own financial outcomes across the partner portfolio, including pricing strategy, negotiations, and investment decisions.
Drive measurable value realization, ensuring commercial structures align to performance and business impact.
Identify opportunities for cost optimization while maintaining service quality and innovation.
Hold partners accountable for service performance, quality, compliance, and risk management.
Implement robust governance, escalation, and performance management mechanisms.
Ensure strong control environments that support security, compliance, and operational resilience.
Leverage data, analytics, and forecasting to identify risks, opportunities, and performance improvement areas.
Translate insights into actionable plans that improve operational outcomes and partner effectiveness.
Shift performance management from reactive reporting to proactive, insight-driven decision making.
Build and maintain senior-level relationships with internal stakeholders and external partner executives.
Serve as a strategic advisor on outsourcing, vendor strategy, and operating model decisions.
Lead executive governance forums, business reviews, and critical escalations.
Drive continuous improvement across processes, tools, and ways of working to increase scalability and efficiency.
Enable partner-led innovation and adoption of advanced technologies, including AI and automation.
Lead transformation initiatives that modernize outsourcing and vendor management practices and enable scalable, future-ready operations.
Build and lead a high-performing, globally distributed team, setting clear expectations and driving accountability for results.
Foster an inclusive, high-performance culture that enables people to grow, innovate, and do their best work.
Scale impact by coaching and developing talent, empowering others, and building leadership capability across the organization.