Principal Program Manager - Hardware Development Process & Strategy

Microsoft • San Diego, CA

17h

About The Position

Microsoft Silicon, Cloud Hardware, and Infrastructure Engineering (SCHIE) is the team behind Microsoft’s expanding Cloud Infrastructure and responsible for powering Microsoft’s “Intelligent Cloud” mission. SCHIE delivers the core infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft's over 200 online businesses including Bing, MSN, Office 365, Xbox Live, Teams, OneDrive, and the Microsoft Azure platform globally with our server and data center infrastructure, security and compliance, operations, globalization, and manageability solutions. Our focus is on smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering a trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide and we are looking for passionate engineers to help achieve that mission.
As Microsoft's cloud business continues to grow the ability to deploy new offerings and hardware infrastructure on time, in high volume with high quality and lowest cost is of paramount importance. Cloud Hardware Systems Engineering (CHSE) enables consistent, scalable hardware development across Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure. As hardware platforms grow in complexity, variation in development and lab processes introduces execution risk and limits scale.

The Principal Program Manager – Hardware Development Process & Strategy owns HW development process improvement, governance, and long-term strategic programs to improve execution consistency without adding operational overhead.
#SCHIE #CHSE #azurehwjobs

Requirements

• Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 7+ years technical engineering experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience OR equivalent experience.
• 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

• Experience working with ODMs or external manufacturing partners.
• Experience in large-scale cloud or infrastructure hardware programs.
• Experience driving governance models without adding bureaucracy.
• 5+ years of experience leading complex, cross-organizational programs.
• Experience defining or improving hardware development or lab processes.
• Proven executive communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Operations, or related field AND 10+ years of experience in hardware development, program management, or process engineerin OR equivalent experience.

Responsibilities

• Own hardware development process definition, governance, and continuous improvement across CHSE programs.
• Identify gaps and inconsistencies in HW development and lab execution across projects and ODMs.
• Lead strategic initiatives such as ODM frameworks, site strategy alignment, and geographic execution models.
• Establish clear ownership, decision frameworks, and operating mechanisms for strategic programs.
• Partner with Engineering, Lab, Quality, Supply Chain, and Operations teams to drive adoption.
• Improve predictability and execution consistency across programs and systems.
• Provide leadership with data-driven insights on systemic execution risks and opportunities.

What This Job Offers

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