Principal Technical Program Manager

Overview Microsoft Silicon, Cloud Hardware, and Infrastructure Engineering (SCHIE) is the team behind Microsoft’s expanding Cloud Infrastructure and responsible for powering Microsoft’s “Intelligent Cloud” mission. SCHIE delivers the core infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft's over 200 online businesses including Bing, MSN, Office 365, Xbox Live, Teams, OneDrive, and the Microsoft Azure platform globally with our server and data center infrastructure, security and compliance, operations, globalization, and manageability solutions. Our focus is on smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering a trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide and we are looking for passionate engineers to help achieve that mission. As Microsoft's cloud business continues to grow the ability to deploy new offerings and hardware infrastructure on time, in high volume with high quality and lowest cost is of paramount importance. To achieve this goal, the Hardware, Infrastructure Management, and Fundamentals Engineering (HIFE) team is instrumental in defining and delivering operational measures of success for hardware manufacturing, improving the planning process, quality, delivery, scale and sustainability related to Microsoft cloud hardware. We are looking for engineers with a dedicated passion for customer focused solutions, insight and industry knowledge to envision and implement future technical solutions that will manage and optimize the Cloud infrastructure. We are looking for a Principal Technical Program Manager to join the team.

Responsibilities

• Lead and be accountable for the Fleet Fundamentals (Fleet Health & Quality) management of the Azure HW Infrastructure.
• Drive fleet management governance best practices including phase gate checklists, waterfall charts, fleet KPIs and forecasting
• Be the champion of Fleet Quality and drive quick-turn solutions to improve customer experience on Azure fleet
• Defining project scope, goals, and deliverables, and managing the project timeline, budget, and resources.
• Developing and maintaining project plans, schedules, and status reports, and communicating project status to stakeholders and senior management.
• Collaborating with business stakeholders and technical teams to identify project requirements, risks, and dependencies
• Collaborate with hardware, firmware and software teams to architect and build highly scalable and reliable solutions for fleet availability and prevention initiatives.
• Collaborate with internal and external partners to ensure systems meet significant quality, reliability, and service level requirements for a cloud environment

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 7+ years technical engineering experience
• OR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience
• OR equivalent experience

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:

• Master’s degree in Electrical, Computer or Industrial Engineering, or a related discipline, with commensurate industry experience.
• Experience with Azure infrastructure, data-center systems and customer or portfolio engineering.
• Experience designing or prototyping technical solutions using scripting, APIs, data platforms or AI/agent frameworks; able to partner effectively with software engineers to take prototypes toward production.
• Familiarity with agentic system patterns such as tool use, workflow orchestration, grounding, evaluation, observability and human oversight.
• Experience with hardware validation, system qualification, reliability or fleet operations.
• Proficient analytical skills and experience using data and visualization tools to identify trends, prioritize work and communicate results.
• Demonstrated ability to operate independently, organize ambiguous work and maintain momentum across multiple teams and priorities.
• 10+ years of technical leadership in a Program or Product Management, platform or validation architecture, systems engineering, or equivalent role. Demonstrated ability to turn complex engineering problems into technical strategies, roadmaps and delivered outcomes.
• Deep technical understanding of cloud infrastructure and modern server platforms, including GPU and SoC architectures and the hardware, firmware and software interfaces across a system.
• Demonstrated experience leading automation, AI-assisted or agentic transformation from problem definition through solution design, validation, deployment and adoption. Able to assess where agents and automation are appropriate, and define how their accuracy, reliability and impact will be measured.
• Proficient data and technical problem-solving skills, including the ability to write or adapt queries and scripts, investigate telemetry, validate findings and use evidence to guide engineering decisions.
• Ability to lead technical deep dives across platform architecture, verification and validation flows, operating systems, networking and storage; identify system-level risks and drive resolution across engineering teams.
• Proven track record driving complex, cross-functional programs across geographies, aligning engineering, product, operations and partner teams around measurable outcomes.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain architecture, trade-offs, risks and results to engineers, executives, customers and partners.

#SCHIE #azurehwjobs Hardware Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $274,800 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 - $304,200 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.