Principal Customer Experience Program Manager

Microsoft • Mineral, VA

4d • $142,800 - $304,200 • Hybrid

About The Position

This role is for a Principal Customer Experience Program Manager within Advanced Cloud Engineering & Supportability (ACES), a global Azure engineering support organization. The position focuses on building and operating a new Gov Customer Resiliency function and driving support readiness for Microsoft's Sovereign Cloud portfolio. The goal is to proactively prevent customer outages and enhance the support experience for sensitive cloud customers in regulated environments. The role involves building a new function from scratch, managing customer relationships, and ensuring compliance and operational maturity across Azure's Government and Sovereign cloud offerings. This is a strategic opportunity to shape how Microsoft supports its highest-trust customers.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Math, Business, or related field AND 6+ years' experience in engineering, product/technical program management, data analysis, or product development OR equivalent experience.
• US Citizenship & Citizenship Verification: This position requires verification of citizenship due to citizenship-based legal restrictions. Specifically, this position supports United States federal, state, and/or local government agency customers and is subject to certain citizenship-based restrictions where required or permitted by applicable law. To meet this legal requirement, and as a condition of employment, the successful candidate’s US citizenship will be verified with a valid passport.
• Microsoft Cloud Background Check: Required upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Nice To Haves

• Master's Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Math, Business, or related field AND 8+ years' experience in engineering, product/technical program management, data analysis, or product development OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Math, Business, or related field AND 12+ years' experience in engineering, product/technical program management, data analysis, or product development OR equivalent experience.
• Experience in CRE, SRE, ACE, or operational reliability roles within a cloud hyperscaler environment.
• Hands-on experience with resiliency tooling, platform monitoring and similar detection and incident management systems.
• Deep knowledge of Sovereign compliance, data residency, and geo-centric architecture models (e.g., EU Data Boundary, government cloud isolation requirements).
• Track record of executive-level customer engagement, ability to lead confidence calls, MBRs, and exec-level progress reviews with enterprise customers.
• Demonstrated experience in customer-facing resiliency, reliability engineering, or incident management roles, including proactive detection, crisis coordination, or post-incident program management. Customer and Field facing experience driving deep technical and architecture conversations including resiliency workshops.
• Experience working with government agencies, sovereign entities, or regulated industries, with strong understanding of their missions, operating models, compliance requirements, and IT environments.
• Strong understanding of Azure services and cloud technologies, including monitoring, diagnostics, incident response tooling, and infrastructure architecture.
• Proven ability to build new functions or programs from scratch, defining charter, playbooks, metrics, operating cadences, and scaling across customers.
• Exceptional cross-org stakeholder management skills, ability to drive alignment across engineering, support delivery, product teams, and customer-facing partners without direct authority.
• Experience working effectively across multiple geographies, cultures, and organizational boundaries.

Responsibilities

• Stand up a new proactive resiliency function for Government cloud customers, define charter, build playbooks, establish operating cadences, and own the end-to-end engagement model
• Own the full resiliency lifecycle: proactive detection and monitoring, incident and crisis coordination, post-incident root cause analysis, and architecture/DR guidance
• Drive Gov-vs-Commercial parity closure across monitoring, tooling, incident response, and remediation maturity
• Drive resiliency and reliability workshops and customer conversations including Field enablement teams to drive customer value.
• Scale the resiliency model from a single anchor customer to a portfolio of 3-5 top Government customers using a repeatable, metrics-driven playbook
• Develop and deliver internal enablement content such as training materials, case studies, and learning sessions, to embed resiliency practices across Gov Support delivery teams and scale knowledge beyond the immediate function
• Define and report on success metrics including mean time to detect, time to engage, incident recurrence, proactive detection rates, and customer confidence
• Leverage telemetry, monitoring data, and trend analysis to proactively identify and address emerging risks before they become customer-reported incidents
• Partner with reliability engineering, product teams, and delivery leadership to ensure resiliency insights feed into upstream engineering actions, product improvements, & prevention strategies
• Drive end-to-end support readiness (people, process, technology) for Microsoft's Sovereign Cloud portfolio across multiple regions and future launches
• Design escalation pathways, incident handling standards, and compliance-aligned operational processes for Sovereign environments
• Own readiness frameworks for new Sovereign cloud launches, influence design decisions upstream to prevent customer impact
• Lead operational reporting and insights; translate data into risk assessments and executive-ready recommendations
• Represent Sovereign and Government customer needs in cross-org forums, influencing priorities and investments to strengthen long-term customer trust
• Leverage AI, automation, and data-driven insights to proactively identify gaps, reduce risk, and improve customer experience at scale
• Extend the Gov Resiliency playbook to Sovereign clouds as they mature, build a unified approach across regulated environments
• Drive alignment across geographically distributed teams and operating partners spanning multiple countries and time zones
• Embody our culture and values.

Benefits

• 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 psychological safety where everyone can thrive at work.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal