Principal Region Expansion Strategy PM Lead, Americas

Microsoft•Redmond, WA

11d•$165,600 - $331,200

About The Position

Microsoft’s Cloud Operations + Innovation (CO+I) organization builds and operates the infrastructure supporting Microsoft 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, shaping regional growth through expertise across engineering, finance, planning, and infrastructure acquisition. The Principal Region Expansion Strategy PM Lead, Americas, shapes Microsoft’s commercial cloud and AI infrastructure portfolio across the Americas and leads and develops the program managers advancing that strategy. The role guides long-range planning across new-region opportunities and expansion of existing regions and availability zones, converting market needs, demand and supply outlooks, infrastructure constraints, and investment choices into recommendations and timely decisions. It also represents the Americas portfolio in executive forums and promotes an inclusive, accountable team culture. The role uses AI-enabled tools and evolving program management approaches with responsible data handling and thoughtful validation. This position focuses on pre-execution strategy and handoffs to delivery teams. Technical assessments, procurement, and execution remain with their respective functional owners; the role documents decision rationale, remaining risks, and accountable owners without taking over construction, energy procurement, or delivery ownership. The typical U.S. base pay range is $165,600–$296,400 per year, with a range of $220,800–$331,200 per year for specific work locations in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City metropolitan area. The position will be open for at least five days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until filled.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree and 8+ years of experience in engineering, product or 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.
Infrastructure, supply planning, and business strategy experience, connecting capacity constraints, demand outlooks, and investment choices to actionable plans.
8+ years of experience using data and analysis to inform strategy, investment choices, or operational decisions.
Experience adopting and evolving 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 with sound judgment, proactive blocker removal, creative problem solving under ambiguity, and a growth mindset expressed through seeking feedback, learning, and adapting.
3+ years managing program management teams, with demonstrated ability to coach empathetically, set clear expectations, delegate effectively, create growth opportunities, build accountability, foster inclusion, and collaborate across organizational boundaries.
10+ years of experience leading end-to-end mission-critical infrastructure programs, including cloud infrastructure planning or geographic expansion strategy.
Experience developing regional cloud or AI infrastructure strategies and investment business cases that integrate capacity, market demand, infrastructure feasibility, and financial trade-offs.
Experience across Americas markets and with land, power, network, leasing, or acquisition considerations, partnering effectively with specialists who own those disciplines.
Demonstrated ability to influence executive decisions, lead teams and cross-functional partners through ambiguity, and translate complex portfolio choices into clear recommendations and measurable outcomes.

Responsibilities

Set the Americas geographic portfolio strategy within global cloud and AI planning frameworks.
Develop an integrated long-range capacity roadmap and compare new-region investments with existing-region and availability-zone expansion.
Recommend the sequence of opportunities based on customer impact, resilience, economics, feasibility, and time to market.
Integrate regional demand and supply planning with market, customer, geopolitical, and infrastructure signals; identify variances, constraints, dependencies, and mitigation options early.
Use creative problem solving, scenarios, and sensitivity analysis to challenge assumptions, develop alternatives, preserve supply optionality, and make trade-offs explicit.
Manage and develop the Americas program management team by setting expectations and priorities, delegating ownership, coaching, providing feedback, and creating growth opportunities.
Foster an inclusive team culture, support learning from setbacks, and hold the team accountable for commitments and outcomes.
Align direct reports and cross-functional partners around integrated regional plans, decision milestones, and shared measures of progress; reconcile competing priorities.
Lead cross-functional business-case development with Finance and infrastructure partners, bringing together Azure, Energy, Land, Lease, Network, MCAPS, and CELA perspectives, including sourcing and acquisition options where relevant.
Represent the Americas portfolio with GM, VP, and CVP stakeholders; own the regional executive narrative, frame recommendations, secure alignment, close decisions, and track outcomes against commitments.
Anticipate dependencies, remove blockers, identify decision owners and approval paths, and escalate unresolved trade-offs while respecting necessary controls.
Drive pre-execution strategy decisions and handoffs to delivery teams, documenting rationale, remaining risks, and accountable owners.
Seek feedback, learn from outcomes, and experiment with, adopt, and evolve program management processes using AI tools for analysis, planning, and reporting.