Principal Expansion Strategy PM Lead

Microsoft•Redmond, WA

11d•$165,600 - $331,200

About The Position

Microsoft’s Cloud Operations + Innovation (CO+I) organization enables the infrastructure powering Microsoft’s cloud and AI services. Within Integrated Planning and Execution (IPE), the Region Expansion function connects long-term business ambitions and customer needs with infrastructure readiness and supply opportunities, using expertise across engineering, finance, planning, and infrastructure acquisition to guide decisions on land, power, network, and datacenter capacity. The Principal Expansion Strategy PM Lead will shape Microsoft’s commercial cloud and AI infrastructure strategy and lead and develop a team of senior program managers. This manager role is part of a central tiger team and has no end-to-end accountability for a specific geography. It owns the strategy, analytical approach, and decision framework for assigned expansion problem spaces, creating geographical growth strategies and investment choices across a 3–10+ year planning horizon. The role balances new-region opportunities with expansion of existing regions and availability zones, translating complex market needs, demand and supply outlooks, infrastructure constraints, and investment choices into clear recommendations and timely decisions. It represents the Americas portfolio in executive forums and collaborates with design, engineering, finance, planning, regional delivery, land, power, network, and leasing partners. The successful leader will coach and mentor team members, foster inclusive collaboration and shared accountability, and help evolve program management through AI-enabled tools and processes, responsible data handling, validation, feedback, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree and 8+ years of experience in engineering, product/technical program management, data analysis, or product development, or equivalent experience.
3+ years of people management experience.
6+ years of experience managing cross-functional and/or cross-team projects.
Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements, including passing the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire or transfer and every two years thereafter.

Nice To Haves

8+ years of cross-functional program or product management experience bringing multiple disciplines together to deliver complex business outcomes.
Experience in infrastructure, supply planning, and business strategy, connecting capacity constraints, demand outlooks, and investment choices into actionable plans.
8+ years of experience using data and analysis to inform strategy, investment choices, or operational decisions.
Eagerness to experiment with, adopt, and evolve program management processes using AI tools, with responsible data handling, output validation, and human judgment.
8+ years of leadership in a business-critical function, with accountability for priorities, stakeholder alignment, and outcomes.
Demonstrated urgency and sound judgment, proactive blocker removal, creative problem solving under ambiguity, and a growth mindset demonstrated through seeking feedback, learning, and adapting.
3+ years managing program management teams.
Demonstrated ability and interest in managing and developing people through empathetic coaching, clear expectations, effective delegation, growth opportunities, and team accountability, while fostering an inclusive culture and collaborating across organizational boundaries.
10+ years of program management experience in mission-critical infrastructure, with experience in cloud-infrastructure planning.
Experience shaping long-range geographical growth strategies or infrastructure investment choices, including scenario analysis, business cases, and executive decision support.
Experience connecting expansion strategy to regional planning and POR governance, including capacity readiness, critical-path constraints, mitigation options, and planning data tools.

Responsibilities

Own research and refinement of global geographical growth strategies, framing strategic questions, scenarios, trade-offs, and recommendations for long-range cloud, commercial, and AI expansion.
Synthesize demand and supply variances with physical infrastructure, geopolitical and economic conditions, customer needs, technology changes, and time-to-market constraints.
Solve ambiguous infrastructure and supply planning problems by testing alternatives, making trade-offs explicit, identifying expansion priorities, and preserving strategic optionality.
Partner with Finance, Land, Lease, and Engineering partners to develop investment business cases that clarify capacity, timing, risk, and economic trade-offs for executive decisions.
Connect strategy to regional planning tools and the plan of record (POR), aligning dependencies and implementation choices with Azure, engineering, planning, regional delivery, land, power, network, and leasing partners.
Shape ahead-of-demand readiness strategies for land, power, permitting, network, and schedule constraints.
Use critical-path and risk insights from prepositioning and delivery programs to improve strategic choices.
Proactively unblock decisions by clarifying owners, escalating time-sensitive risks, and presenting actionable mitigation options.
Lead virtual PM collaboration and strategic governance, invite inclusive participation, and resolve cross-functional disagreements through clear options and recommendations.
Gain decision alignment with GM, VP, and CVP stakeholders and communicate rationale, risks, and implications.
Mentor and develop others through knowledge sharing and constructive feedback; seek feedback, learn from outcomes, and adapt approaches as conditions change.
Lead and develop a team of senior program managers, fostering empathy, inclusion, and shared accountability.
Adopt and evolve AI-enabled program management processes, with responsible data handling and thoughtful validation, and translate learning into scalable practices.