IT Operations Principal (M365 Engineer)

Cornerstone Building Brands•Cary, NC

1d•Remote

About The Position

This role is focused on automating manual tasks within the Microsoft 365 platform, including Exchange, Entra ID, Teams, and Microsoft 365 Copilot. The goal is to reduce the need for human intervention through automation, improved defaults, and self-service options. The position requires collaboration with various teams such as security, compliance, and the service desk to enhance organizational efficiency and preparedness. Success will be measured by the business value delivered, including time saved for supported users, reduced risk, and avoided costs, all while maintaining a strong service mindset.

Requirements

Approximately 3-5 years of experience administering a production M365 tenant, including Exchange Online and Entra ID.
Proficiency in scripting with PowerShell and experience using Microsoft Graph for administrative tasks.
Ability to debug issues to root cause, including authentication failures, mail delivery problems, and sync errors, and document findings.
Curiosity and some experience with Microsoft 365 Copilot, either through administration, building agents, or self-directed learning.
Strong written communication skills for clear documentation and explanations to non-technical colleagues.
Ability to work effectively with others across IT and the business, with strong asynchronous communication skills.
A service-oriented mindset, treating colleagues as customers and prioritizing work based on business value.
Ability to connect work to business outcomes, explaining savings, risk reduction, or enablement in business terms.

Nice To Haves

Hands-on experience with Copilot Studio, declarative agents, or Graph connectors.
Infrastructure-as-code experience (Bicep, Terraform, Azure Automation) or CI/CD applied to tenant configuration.
Experience with Defender for Office 365 or Defender for Identity.
Hybrid Exchange or migration experience, including tenant-to-tenant moves.
Relevant certifications such as MS-102, SC-300, or AZ-104.
Experience in a regulated environment with formal audit requirements.

Responsibilities

Automate repetitive tasks and eliminate recurring tickets through solutions like Power Automate, PowerShell, Microsoft Graph, and Logic Apps.
Build self-service capabilities for users to manage access, groups, and common fixes without IT intervention.
Measure and report on the reduction of support tickets through automation.
Prepare the M365 tenant for Copilot by ensuring permissions hygiene, remediating oversharing, and implementing sensitivity labeling.
Manage tenant changes using configuration as code, version control, and peer review processes.
Implement safe change management practices, including testing, deliberate rollouts, and rollback capabilities.
Create and maintain reliable documentation and roadmaps.
Perform hands-on operations for Exchange Online and Entra ID, including mail flow, connectors, transport rules, email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), Conditional Access, MFA, passwordless rollouts, SSO integrations, directory sync, and privileged access.
Provide Tier-3 escalation support for M365 issues, conducting root cause analysis for permanent fixes.
Participate in a shared on-call rotation and occasional maintenance windows.