Senior Program Manager

Job ID: 200056361Posted: 2026-09-22Location: United States, Washington, RedmondSalary: USD $119,800 - $234,700 per yearEmployment type: Full-TimeWork site: 3 days / week in-officeRole type: Individual ContributorTravel: Less than 25%Profession: Program ManagementDiscipline: Technical Program ManagementCompany: MicrosoftOverviewThe Cloud Delivery & Governance team helps Microsoft Defender deliver reliable, secure services for customers around the world, including in sovereign and regulated cloud environments. We bring together product engineering, cloud infrastructure, and service operations to improve readiness, resolve cross-team delivery challenges, and turn operational learnings into lasting improvements for the services customers rely on.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.ResponsibilitiesIn this role, you will gain end-to-end experience helping Microsoft Defender deliver resilient, trusted services for customers across global, sovereign, and regulated cloud environments. You will work with product engineering, Azure infrastructure, and service operations teams to use telemetry and incident learnings to improve service readiness, customer experience, and the operational systems that support Defender at scale. • Lead cross-functional technical programs that improve the operational readiness, reliability, and delivery performance of Microsoft security services across global, sovereign, and regulated cloud environments. • Own program outcomes from problem definition through delivery: set success measures, milestones, dependencies, decision points, and accountability across engineering, infrastructure, operations, security, and regional teams. • Lead readiness and live-site improvement programs that identify service risks before launch, strengthen operational controls, and close gaps that affect customer experience, availability, supportability, or compliance. • Use incident trends, service telemetry, post-incident findings, and operational data to identify recurring failure patterns and prioritize corrective engineering and process work. • Partner with engineering teams to simplify manual or error-prone operational processes through automation, tooling, clearer runbooks, and measurable operating practices. • Establish execution rhythms that turn risks and incident learnings into owned actions, timely decisions, and visible progress for technical teams and senior leaders.QualificationsRequired: QualificationsBachelor's Degree AND 4+ years experience in engineering, product/technical program management, data analysis, or product development OR equivalent experience. Preferred Qualificaitons• Proven experience leading complex, cross-functional technical programs in cloud, enterprise software, infrastructure, or service-operations environments. • Working knowledge of cloud services, distributed systems, deployment and operational-readiness practices, service telemetry, or live-site operations. • Experience using incident data, operational metrics, root-cause findings, or customer signals to identify recurring problems and drive measurable improvements. • Practical technical fluency in one or more of data querying, telemetry analysis, scripting, workflow automation, dashboards, or engineering systems such as Azure DevOps, GitHub, Kusto, Power BI, or Grafana.• Ability to turn ambiguous technical and operational problems into clear outcomes, plans, dependencies, decision points, and success measures. • Demonstrated ability to partner with engineering, infrastructure, security, and operations teams to improve service reliability, readiness, and customer experience. • Clear written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical risks, tradeoffs, and progress to both engineering teams and senior leaders.Other RequirementsAbility 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 background and Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.Preferred QualificationsBachelor's Degree AND 8+ years' experience engineering, product/technical program management, or data analysis OR equivalent experience. o 6+ years of experience managing cross-functional and/or cross-team projects. Technical Program Management IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $119,800 - $234,700 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 $160,200 - $261,000 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.