Regional Datacenter Business Operations Program Manager

Microsoft•Redmond, WA

1d•Remote

About The Position

Microsoft’s Cloud Operations & Innovation (CO+I) powers the company’s cloud services and delivers the core infrastructure and foundational technologies behind services including Bing, Office 365, Xbox, OneDrive, and Microsoft Azure. CO+I operates a global portfolio of more than 200 data centers across 32 countries, supporting services used by more than 1 billion customers and 20 million businesses in over 90 countries. Environmental sustainability and optimization are important considerations in data center design and operations. The Regional Datacenter Business Operations Program Manager provides regional business operations and program leadership for datacenter-centric services. The role analyzes spending and cost drivers, supports financial planning, develops operational efficiency initiatives, manages supplier programs, and coordinates work across regional and global teams. It requires turning complex or ambiguous challenges into structured initiatives with measurable outcomes, and influencing cross-functional partners without direct authority. The position requires the ability to work independently in a remote workplace setting. The role is listed at Data Center Operations Management IC4. The typical U.S. base pay range is $102,600–$202,800 per year. A separate range applies to specific work locations in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City metropolitan area: $137,500–$225,800 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled, and the posting will remain open for at least five days.

Requirements

High school qualification or equivalent and 3+ years of experience supporting IT equipment or related technology, or delivering server and network deployment projects in large-scale environments, or equivalent experience.
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.
Demonstrated written and interpersonal communication skills, including communicating concisely with stakeholders and senior leaders and translating complex analysis into recommendations and actions.
Structured operational planning and project management skills, including executing through others, influencing without authority, and working through ambiguity.
Ability to manage multiple work streams and prioritize as needed.
Experience partnering across teams, influencing without direct authority, and appropriately pushing back when required.
Analytical rigor and ability to work with large datasets, identify patterns and variances, and convert analysis into recommendations.
Understanding of datacenter business objectives, including spending, forecasts, cost drivers, supplier economics, and business cases.
Solid understanding of IT and CE environments, operational processes, and industry best practices.
Bachelor’s or technical college degree in Computer Science, Math, Telecommunications, Electrical or Mechanical Engineering, Supply Chain Management, or a related field and 8+ years of experience in critical environment infrastructure or physical IT infrastructure; OR high school qualification or equivalent and 10+ years of such experience; OR equivalent experience.
5+ years of experience developing tools and apps using Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate, Azure DevOps, SharePoint, or Dynamics.
5+ years of experience providing business support in a 24x7x365 production environment.
6+ years of relevant finance, planning, or analysis work experience with an analytical foundation.
Demonstrated PowerPoint, Excel, Power BI, and Power Platform skills.
Experience owning a strategic vendor management, supplier performance, or supplier assurance program, including scorecards, governance rhythms, and business reviews.
Experience establishing an operational efficiency or continuous improvement program with defined intake, prioritization, and benefits tracking.
Prior experience in driver-based cost analysis, including controllable cost per kW or similar unit-cost metrics.

Nice To Haves

Applicable certifications such as APICS/Inventory Control, CompTIA, Microsoft, network certifications, CCNA, ITIL v3 Foundation, or Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) certifications.
Knowledge of or background supporting AI.
Power Apps, Power Automate, and Azure DevOps experience.
Experience in datacenter, critical environment, supply chain, or large-scale infrastructure operations.
Experience with critical environment infrastructure such as UPS, generators, or AHUs, or physical IT infrastructure such as servers, SANs, networking, capacity, data center racks/enclosures, or structured cabling.

Responsibilities

Provide thought leadership and subject matter expertise related to delivering datacenter-centric services.
Assess complex or ambiguous business challenges, structure initiatives, and manage them from concept through implementation with clear objectives, milestones, governance, and measures of success.
Assist in preparing quarterly spend management review materials at datacenter site and regional levels.
Analyze controllable cost per kW and other operational cost drivers to identify trends, variances, underlying drivers, and opportunities for structural improvement.
Establish and mature a regional operational efficiency program, including intake, prioritization, governance, tracking, reporting, baselines, benefit methodologies, and benefits realization.
Own and evolve the strategic vendor management program, including operating rhythms, governance, performance expectations, accountability, and end-to-end supplier contract management.
Manage supplier procurement engagement, cost and terms negotiations, change orders, scorecards, and recurring business reviews.
Establish and own a Regional Supplier Assurance program providing visibility into supplier health, performance, risk, and compliance through KPIs, scorecards, escalation mechanisms, and corrective-action follow-through.
Support organizational financial management, budgeting, and forecasting.
Evaluate cost-saving opportunities and implement strategic projects to realize savings, using forward-looking indicators to identify cost drivers and where intervention is needed.
Partner with regional and global teams to identify, evaluate, and scale efficiency initiatives and best practices; maintain an integrated portfolio and measure impact across spend, time, people, and productivity.
Identify inefficient, fragmented, or manual processes and lead efforts to simplify, standardize, and automate them, establishing mechanisms to sustain improvements.
Enable cross-functional collaboration across Operations, Finance, Procurement, Sourcing, Engineering, and Global Business Operations, influencing without direct authority and driving clear decisions and accountable execution.
Work independently in a remote workplace setting.
Gather stakeholder feedback on services and programs and incorporate it into decision-making; align resources to improve stakeholder and partner experience.
Develop realistic plans and timelines that account for potential obstacles and immediate and long-term consequences.
Interpret spending, forecasts, cost drivers, supplier economics, and business cases; connect projects and data to broader business objectives and address trade-offs.
Anticipate changes affecting programs and projects and adapt plans, goals, actions, or priorities accordingly.
Analyze large datasets to identify patterns and variances, turn findings into recommendations, and test and adjust approaches while driving adoption.
Build governance, processes, tooling, and operating rhythms for undefined needs, distinguishing activity from measurable impact using defensible baselines and KPIs.