Regional Datacenter Business Operations Program Manager
About The Position
Microsoft’s Cloud Operations & Innovation (CO+I) delivers core infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft online services, including Bing, Office 365, Xbox, OneDrive, and Azure. The Regional Datacenter Business Operations Program Manager supports datacenter-centric services across Microsoft’s global datacenter portfolio, working with regional and global teams to improve business operations, financial management, supplier performance, and operational efficiency. The role contributes to services supporting more than 1 billion customers and 20 million businesses in over 90 countries. Microsoft emphasizes environmental sustainability and optimization in its datacenter design and operations. The position requires a consultant mindset: assessing complex or ambiguous challenges, structuring initiatives, and owning them from concept through implementation with defined objectives, milestones, governance, and measures of success. The manager analyzes operating costs and financial drivers, builds efficiency and supplier assurance programs, manages vendor relationships and contracts, and partners across Operations, Finance, Procurement, Sourcing, Engineering, and Global Business Operations. Success requires clear communication, analytical rigor, stakeholder focus, adaptability, and the ability to influence without direct authority. The role is expected to work independently in a remote workplace setting.
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 ability to manage multiple work streams and prioritize as needed.
- Demonstrated partnering skills, including influencing without direct authority and appropriately pushing back when required.
- Strong written and interpersonal communication skills, including communicating complex analysis as clear recommendations and actions.
- Analytical capability to work with large datasets, identify patterns and variances, and turn analysis into recommendations.
- Ability to plan and execute through others, work with ambiguity, and adapt plans and priorities to changing circumstances.
- Understanding of datacenter business objectives, including spend, forecasts, cost drivers, supplier economics, and business cases.
- Solid understanding of IT and critical-environment processes and industry best practices.
- 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.
- Experience in driver-based cost analysis, including controllable cost per kW or similar unit-cost metrics.
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; or 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 skills.
- Experience in datacenter, critical-environment, supply-chain, or large-scale infrastructure operations.
Responsibilities
- Provide thought leadership and subject matter expertise related to delivery of datacenter-centric services.
- Assess complex or ambiguous business challenges and lead initiatives from concept through implementation with clear objectives, milestones, governance, and success measures.
- Assist with 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 structural improvement opportunities.
- Establish and mature the regional operational efficiency program, including intake, prioritization, governance, tracking, reporting, and benefits realization with clear baselines and defensible methodologies.
- Own and evolve the strategic vendor management program, including operating rhythms, governance, performance expectations, accountability, and end-to-end supplier contract management.
- Establish and own a Regional Supplier Assurance program with visibility into supplier health, performance, risk, and compliance, including 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 needed intervention.
- Partner with regional and global teams to identify, evaluate, and scale efficiency initiatives and best practices; maintain an integrated initiative portfolio and measure effects on spend, time, people, and productivity.
- Identify inefficient, fragmented, or manual processes and lead simplification, standardization, and automation efforts, with mechanisms to sustain improvements.
- Enable 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.
Benefits
- Training and growth opportunities, including Career Rotation Programs, Diversity & Inclusion training and events, and professional certifications.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
Education Level
High school or GED
