Lease Delivery Manager

Microsoft•Washington, DC

10d

About The Position

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. Within that space, Microsoft’s Cloud Operations & Innovation (CO+I) team is the engine that powers our cloud services. Our infrastructure is comprised of a large global portfolio of more than one hundred datacenters and one million servers. Our foundation is built upon and managed by a team of subject matter experts, who work tirelessly to support digital services for more than one billion customers and twenty million businesses in over ninety countries worldwide. With environmental sustainability and optimization at the forefront of our datacenter design and operations, and the overarching Microsoft mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, we have ambitious plans to grow and evolve as we meet the ever-changing and ever-increasing business demands that position Microsoft as a world-class provider. Underpinning these business imperatives, our culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day. To help us achieve our objectives, growth, and transformation, we are seeking a Lease Delivery Manager to support the Lease & Land Team within CO+I. Within CO+I, we are accountable for the delivery of our cloud infrastructure, which has scaled significantly in the past five years, through building our own data centers and leasing data centers through third parties. Due to the scale and pace of our growth, we are exploring new and exciting ways to manage and develop our business. We are seeking a datacenter professional to play a pivotal role in supporting our Microsoft CO+I Lease and Land portfolio. The ideal candidate will possess in-depth knowledge of the executed datacenter lease agreements and contracts, combined with strong expertise in datacenter construction and risk management throughout the project lifecycle. This role leads a team of lease delivery program managers and requires close collaboration with the datacenter lessors and internal Microsoft teams and ownership of project risk escalations to ensure clear communication and successful project and program delivery. The role will also be instrumental in supporting the development and implementation of portfolio-wide strategic initiatives and programs, with a focus on streamlining processes, enhancing development and analytics capabilities, and enabling business scalability.

Requirements

Bachelor's Degree AND 6+ years experience in engineering, product/technical program management, data analysis, or product development OR equivalent experience.
1+ years people management experience.
3+ years of experience managing cross-functional and/or cross-team projects.
Background Check 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.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's Degree AND 12+ years experience engineering, product/technical program management, data analysis, or product development OR equivalent experience.
4+ years people management experience.
8+ years of experience managing cross-functional and/or cross-team projects.
1+ year(s) of experience reading and/or writing code (e.g., sample documentation, product demos).

Responsibilities

Directly manages a team of Lease Delivery Program Managers, providing clear expectations, coaching, performance feedback, and technical guidance.
Fosters a culture of accountability, collaboration, psychological safety, and continuous improvement across the lease delivery team.
Demonstrate expertise in hyperscale datacenter delivery, including base-build construction, fit-out, commissioning, and integration within leased facilities.
Serves as an escalation point for complex delivery, commercial, or relationship risks with lessors and internal stakeholders.
Proven experience identifying and mitigating delivery risks related to construction quality, safety, commissioning, integration, and operational handoff.
Reviews and challenges risk assessments, mitigation strategies, and escalation plans to ensure consistency, rigor, and appropriate executive visibility.
Ensures lease delivery decisions are aligned with contractual obligations, business priorities, and long-term portfolio strategy.
Identifies opportunities to create or evolve lease delivery programs that improve outcomes at scale
Applies industry best practices and lessons learned to influence how Microsoft delivers leased datacenter capacity globally.
Prepares and delivers executive-level briefings on portfolio health, key risks, mitigation strategies, and decision points.