Senior M365 Governance Engineer
About The Position
Hearst Technology Services is seeking a senior-level M365 Governance Engineer to own the governance framework across Microsoft 365 messaging and collaboration platforms, including Exchange Online and Teams, while partnering with the Enterprise Apps team on SharePoint and OneDrive. The role is primarily focused on governance: developing a governance plan and designing and enforcing lifecycle management, retention, data protection, and access and sharing controls to keep the environment secure, compliant, and well organized as it scales. The work is performed in close partnership with the GRC team. Hands-on engineering of Exchange Online and Teams supports the governance mission. The role ensures that platform activity follows policy by design, rather than simply keeping the platforms operational. It also includes collaboration with business units to promote governance best practices without unnecessarily restricting productivity.
Requirements
- At least 7 years of hands-on experience in Microsoft 365 governance, compliance, or administration, with direct experience in Exchange Online and/or Microsoft Teams environments.
- Strong experience with Microsoft Purview (Compliance Center), including retention labels and policies, DLP, and sensitivity labels.
- Proven experience designing and enforcing lifecycle management, naming conventions, and access and sharing governance for mailboxes, groups, and Teams.
- Proficiency in PowerShell scripting for Microsoft 365 governance automation, including Exchange Online and Teams modules.
- Familiarity with Microsoft Graph API for governance automation and reporting.
- Working knowledge of GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2, ISO 27001, and NIST as they apply to messaging and collaboration governance.
- Working understanding of Exchange Online mail flow and Teams architecture sufficient to apply governance controls effectively.
- Experience with Microsoft 365 license management and optimization.
- Strong analytical and documentation skills, including the ability to translate technical policy into clear guidance for non-technical stakeholders.
- Clear communication skills to explain governance rationale to technical and non-technical audiences.
- Ability to balance security and compliance requirements against user productivity and business needs.
- Detail-oriented approach with strong follow-through on policy enforcement and documentation.
- Collaborative mindset and ability to work across teams.
Nice To Haves
- Microsoft certifications such as SC-400 (Information Protection Administrator), MS-102 (Microsoft 365 Administrator), or MS-700 (Managing Microsoft Teams).
- Background in IT compliance, risk management, or audit support.
- Experience supporting Microsoft 365 Copilot data readiness for messaging and collaboration content, including oversharing remediation and sensitivity label coverage.
- Experience with Power Automate and Power BI for governance reporting and workflow automation.
- Exposure to ITIL or change management frameworks.
- Familiarity with Teams Phone and voice engineering, including direct routing, calling plans, and PSTN connectivity.
- Background in messaging migrations, including legacy Exchange, other email platforms, or Teams/Slack migrations.
Responsibilities
- Design, implement, and maintain governance policies for Exchange Online and Teams, including naming conventions, provisioning workflows, and lifecycle management for mailboxes, distribution lists, Microsoft 365 Groups, and Teams.
- Configure and maintain Microsoft Purview retention policies, sensitivity labels, and Data Loss Prevention rules for mail and Teams content.
- Govern external sharing, guest access, and permissions within Teams to prevent oversharing and reduce data exposure risk.
- Build and maintain dashboards and reports using Power BI, Purview, or native Microsoft 365 admin reporting to track compliance posture, license utilization, and policy adherence.
- Partner with security and compliance teams on audits, eDiscovery requests, and regulatory requirements related to messaging and collaboration data.
- Develop automation with PowerShell, Microsoft Graph API, and Power Automate for governance tasks such as orphaned mailbox or Team cleanup, ownership certification, and policy enforcement.
- Conduct periodic access reviews and governance audits of mailboxes and Teams, identifying and remediating policy drift.
- Create and maintain governance documentation, runbooks, and training materials, and serve as the escalation point for governance-related incidents.
- Collaborate with team owners and business units to encourage governance best practices while supporting productivity.
- Evaluate new Microsoft 365 governance and compliance features and assess their impact before tenant-wide rollout.
- Administer and engineer Exchange Online, including mail flow rules, connectors, distribution lists, shared mailboxes, and anti-spam and anti-phishing configuration.
- Support Microsoft Teams architecture, including calling and voice where applicable, meeting policies, channel structure, and Teams app management.
- Monitor service health, plan for capacity and licensing needs, and troubleshoot platform-level issues with Microsoft support when needed.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
