Regional Datacenter Business Operations Program Manager

Microsoft•Ca, CA

14h•Remote

About The Position

Microsoft’s Cloud Operations & Innovation (CO+I) powers Microsoft’s cloud services and delivers the core infrastructure and foundational technologies behind online services such as Bing, Office 365, Xbox, OneDrive, and Microsoft Azure. The organization operates a global portfolio of more than 200 data centers across 32 countries, supporting services for customers and businesses worldwide. The role contributes to datacenter business operations, financial management, supplier performance, and regional operational efficiency. It works across Operations, Finance, Procurement, Sourcing, Engineering, and Global Business Operations, often influencing teams without direct authority. The position requires independent work in a remote workplace setting. The Regional Datacenter Business Operations Program Manager provides subject-matter expertise and thought leadership for datacenter-centric services. The role establishes and manages operating programs, financial analysis, supplier assurance, and efficiency initiatives, with clear governance, measures, and benefits tracking. It also identifies ways to simplify, standardize, or automate processes and supports strategic projects that improve costs, time, people, and productivity. Microsoft emphasizes employee development through training and growth opportunities, including Career Rotation Programs, Diversity & Inclusion training and events, and professional certifications. Its stated mission is to empower every person and organization to achieve more, and its culture is grounded in growth, innovation, collaboration, respect, integrity, accountability, and inclusion. Environmental sustainability and optimization are stated priorities in the design and operation of Microsoft’s data centers.

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 PowerPoint, Excel, Power BI, and Power Platform skills.
Demonstrated ability to manage multiple work streams and prioritize as needed.
Demonstrated partnering capabilities, including influencing without direct authority and appropriately pushing back when required.
Ability to analyze large datasets, identify patterns and variances, turn analysis into recommendations, and act with imperfect information while testing, learning, adjusting, and driving adoption.
Ability to build governance, processes, tooling, and operating rhythms around undefined needs, and distinguish activity from measurable impact using defensible baselines and KPIs.
Strong written and interpersonal communication skills, including communicating concise analysis, recommendations, and actions to stakeholders and senior leaders.
Ability to plan and execute through others, handle ambiguity, set realistic timelines, and consider obstacles and short- and long-term consequences.
Ability to gather stakeholder feedback and incorporate it into decisions, while aligning resources to improve stakeholder and partner experience.
Understanding of datacenter business objectives, including spend, forecasts, cost drivers, supplier economics, and business cases.
Understanding of IT and critical-environment operations, processes, and industry best practices.
Flexibility to adapt plans, goals, actions, or priorities to changing circumstances.
Ability to contribute strategically to a team and support strategic decisions.

Nice To Haves

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; alternatively, high school qualification or equivalent and 10+ years of such experience, or equivalent experience.
Applicable certifications such as APICS/Inventory Control, CompTIA, Microsoft, network certifications, CCNA, ITIL v3 Foundation, or Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) certifications.
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 experience with an analytical foundation.
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 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.

Responsibilities

Provide thought leadership and subject-matter expertise related to delivering datacenter-centric services.
Assess complex or ambiguous business challenges, structure initiatives, and lead them from concept through implementation with objectives, milestones, governance, and success measures.
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 the regional operational efficiency program, including intake, prioritization, governance, tracking, reporting, baselines, defensible 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 contracts through procurement engagement, cost and terms negotiations, change orders, scorecards, and recurring business reviews.
Establish and own a Regional Supplier Assurance program that provides visibility into supplier health, performance, risk, and compliance, with 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 required interventions.
Partner with regional and global teams to identify, evaluate, and scale efficiency initiatives and best practices; maintain an integrated initiative 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, with mechanisms to sustain improvements.
Serve as a cross-functional enabler across Operations, Finance, Procurement, Sourcing, Engineering, and Global Business Operations, influencing without direct authority and driving decisions and accountable execution.
Work independently in a remote workplace setting.