Principal Technical Program Manager

Overview

Our team-affectionately known as the Deviation Detectives-plays a critical role in protecting the health and integrity of the Microsoft Ads marketplace. This role is designed for a senior individual contributor ( Principal Technical Program Manager ) who thrives in highly ambiguous, data-rich environments and is motivated by solving complex, high-impact problems at scale.

This opportunity offers a unique blend of hands-on data work and strategic technical leadership. You will lead deep-dive investigations, shape how the organization monitors and responds to marketplace anomalies, and influence partner teams across Ads, Bing, Edge, and Windows. Success in this role requires solid technical judgment, operational excellence, and the ability to drive outcomes across organizational boundaries.

The Mission: Make tomorrow better.

That is the essence of roles within our Microsoft Ads team. Every day, we bring deep curiosity and technical rigor to reimagine what is possible. Microsoft Ads is a sustainable, multi-billion-dollar business, and the Microsoft Ads platform is its economic engine. This team helps ensure that engine runs safely, efficiently, and resiliently-at global scale.

About the Team

The Microsoft Ads Live Marketplace & Forensics team is a group of experienced program managers and applied data scientists with a solid Live Site First mindset. We are responsible for monitoring, diagnosing, and resolving marketplace anomalies that impact advertisers, publishers, users, and Microsoft revenue.

We:

• Monitor hundreds of business and system metrics globally, 24x7
• Investigate deviations and anomalies across advertisers, publishers, users, and core system components
• Connect signals across seemingly unrelated data sources to uncover root causes
• Drive coordinated, cross-organization resolution efforts across time zones
• Lead post-incident learnings to prevent recurrence and improve system resilience

Our culture of continuous learning, customer obsession, and operational excellence is recognized at the highest levels of Microsoft leadership. We are proud pioneers of this mindset.

Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.


Starting January 26, 2026, Microsoft AI (MAI) employees who live within a 50- mile commute of a designated Microsoft office in the U.S. or 25-mile commute of a non-U.S., country-specific location are expected to work from the office at least four days per week. This expectation is subject to local law and may vary by jurisdiction.

Responsibilities

• Lead complex, ambiguous investigations into marketplace deviations by analyzing business performance, advertiser behavior, user signals, and system health metrics across the Microsoft Ads ecosystem.
• Perform advanced data analysis across multiple large-scale data sources to connect disparate signals and generate actionable insights.
• Serve as the technical and operational lead for high-severity marketplace issues, driving structure, clarity, and accountability during live-site events.
• Coordinate end-to-end mitigation of issues by partnering with engineering, product, data science, finance, and business teams globally.
• Drive continuous improvement of marketplace monitoring, anomaly detection, and investigation frameworks, including identifying gaps in tooling, data coverage, or automation.
• Lead deep root-cause analyses and post-incident reviews, ensuring learnings translate into durable fixes and long-term prevention strategies.
• Influence best practices for incident response, operational rigor, and marketplace health management across teams.
• Participate in an on-call rotation (approximately once every 8-10 weeks), acting as the primary point of contact during critical marketplace incidents.
• Mentor and guide other individual contributors by sharing investigation approaches, technical insights, and operational best practices.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree AND 6+ years experience in engineering, product/technical program management, data analysis, or product development
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 3+ years of experience managing cross-functional and/or cross-team projects.

Other Requirements:
Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings:

• Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree AND 12+ years experience engineering, product/technical program management, data analysis, or product development
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 7+ years of experience in technical program management, engineering, data analysis, data science, or product development.
• 5+ years of experience leading cross-functional and/or cross-team initiatives involving complex systems and multiple stakeholders.
• 5+ years working in web analytics, big data, or data science, preferably within advertising platforms or experimentation-driven environments.
• 3+ years of experience with programming languages such as C, C#, C++, ASP.NET, or JavaScript, sufficient to reason about system behavior and data flows.
• 5+ years of experience querying large datasets using SQL.
• 5+ years of experience using analytics tools such as Python, R, Excel, Tableau, SAS, or similar technologies.
• Solid understanding of distributed systems and complex platforms, with a demonstrated service and business operations mindset.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to drive alignment and action across technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience working in Advertising Technology (Ad Tech) or other large-scale online marketplace platforms.
• Experience designing or evolving monitoring systems, anomaly detection frameworks, or live-site operational processes.
• Proven ability to communicate complex technical findings and recommendations to senior and executive stakeholders.

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Technical Program Management IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800.00 - $274,800.00 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $188,000.00 - $304,200.00 per year.


Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.