Service Delivery Manager

Microsoft•Reno, NV

About The Position

The Service Delivery Manager (SDM) is accountable for vendor delivery across VL operations, including quality, speed, cost efficiency, compliance, and customer satisfaction. Serving as the central link between Microsoft, vendor partners, and cross-functional stakeholders, the SDM develops vendor management into a proactive, results-focused partnership. This is an individual-contributor role that leads through influence rather than direct authority. At Level 62, the SDM independently runs governance across vendors, sites, and time zones, with responsibility for financial and risk stewardship, continuous improvement, and responsible use of AI and automation. The role owns vendor performance against SLAs, KPIs, and contract commitments; runs performance reviews and escalations; analyzes operational data; manages financial and capacity planning; and helps reduce operational, commercial, security, compliance, and customer-impact risks. It also partners with internal teams on vendor lifecycle and contract matters, process improvements, AI and automation initiatives, onboarding, transitions, and releases. The SDM coordinates across vendors and Microsoft functions, and clearly communicates options, trade-offs, and recommendations to senior leaders. Microsoft describes its mission as empowering every person and organization on the planet to achieve more, and its culture as centered on a growth mindset and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day.

Requirements

Master's degree in Business Management or a related field and at least 2 years of process management, process execution, process optimization, or related experience; OR a degree in Business or a related field and at least 4 years of such experience; OR equivalent experience.
Proven experience managing outsourced or vendor-delivered operations, including performance governance, escalation management, and delivery of corrective actions.
Knowledge of operations and finance, and a working understanding of engineering, data, and analytics.

Nice To Haves

12+ years of experience in service delivery, vendor operations, outsourcing, business program management, or operations leadership, or equivalent experience.
Experience in commercial operations or deal processing for Volume Licensing.
Experience delivering across multiple sites and time zones, including business continuity planning and site recovery.
Lean, Six Sigma, ITIL, or PMP certification.
Understanding of AI or automation adoption with measurable results.
Data skills, for example in Power BI or Excel.

Responsibilities

Own vendor delivery across VL operations against SLAs, KPIs, and contract commitments; provide daily oversight and serve as the primary Microsoft escalation point for complex risks and incidents.
Run weekly, monthly, and executive business reviews using scorecards, trend analysis, and action logs; hold vendors accountable through root cause analysis and corrective and preventive action plans tracked to closure.
Turn data on quality, productivity, CSAT, throughput, rework, cycle time, and backlog into actionable insights, and check vendor-reported data against source systems.
Manage purchase orders and invoices, overtime, accruals, and forecasts; assess vendor requests for additional capacity or investment based on return on investment.
Match vendor capacity, skills, and schedules to forecast demand, especially during peak periods and quarter-end, while maintaining resilience and cost control.
Identify and reduce operational, commercial, security, compliance, and customer-impact risks; maintain workable business continuity and recovery plans and audit-ready records.
Work with Procurement, Legal, Finance, and Risk on vendor selection, onboarding, statements of work, contract changes, renewals, and remedies; ensure contract obligations are applied in day-to-day operations.
Reduce waste, rework, defects, and cycle time; work with Vendor Solutions and engineering to pilot and scale responsible AI and automation with clear benefits and measurable adoption.
Lead vendor onboarding, transitions, process migrations, and release readiness while keeping disruption to a minimum.
Coordinate across vendors, sales, finance, procurement, legal, risk, engineering, and service design; explain trade-offs, options, and recommendations clearly to senior leaders.
Embody Microsoft’s culture and values.