Data Center Program Manager

About the role

We are seeking a Datacenter Program Manager (Business Operations) to reduce stranded capacity as a key member of the local team. You will focus on deployment planning and optimization of IT capacity, collaborating closely with Electrical Engineers and Critical Environment Field Service Engineers. Microsoft’s Cloud Operations & Innovation (CO+I) powers our cloud services, including Bing, Office 365, Xbox, OneDrive, and the Microsoft Azure platform. In this role, you will enable data center capacity through increased Infrastructure Utilization Effectiveness (IUE) and Power Harvesting (PH), leading retrofit efforts to upgrade legacy datacenters and optimize our existing fleet.

Our infrastructure includes a global portfolio of over 100 datacenters and 1 million servers, supporting services for more than 1 billion customers and 20 million businesses worldwide. With a focus on environmental sustainability and optimization, we continue to evolve to meet business demands as a world-class cloud provider.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end project execution for datacenter initiatives from intake through close-out, ensuring service quality, completeness, and a positive customer experience across IT, network, infrastructure, remediation, and modernization projects.
• Build and manage project plans, schedules, milestones, and dependencies across multiple parallel workstreams, proactively reviewing schedules to avoid conflicts and offering alternatives for customer solutions.
• Execute projects inside live production datacenters in strict adherence to safety, security, and change-management standards, including MOP/SOP compliance and access controls; report any safety or security issues immediately.
• Recognize and communicate the potential customer impact of operational events such as lock-downs and maintenance windows, planning to minimize disruption.
• Act as the single coordination point between Datacenter Operations, Engineering, Construction, IT/Network teams, vendors, integrators, and contractors, managing relationships to ensure expectations are clarified, documented, and met.
• Manage stakeholder expectations, resolve conflicts, and maintain alignment across all parties, identifying and coordinating solutions while communicating alternatives.
• Proactively identify schedule, technical, safety, and operational risks, suggest risk-reduction strategies, and develop mitigation and contingency plans in collaboration with relevant teams.
• Perform troubleshooting for service incidents and escalate appropriately to meet SLAs and OLAs with minimal disruption to clients and the business.
• Demonstrate conscientiousness around cost, track project costs and resource utilization, and contribute to keeping work within approved budgets and timelines.
• Balance speed of execution with operational stability and quality, aligning with management priorities and company culture and values.

Requirements

• High School Qualification or equivalent AND 3+ years of experience supporting IT equipment or related technology or delivering server and network deployment projects in large-scale environments OR equivalent experience.
• Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements, including the Microsoft Cloud Background Check (required upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter).

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Technical College Degree in Computer Science, Math, Telecommunications, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering, Supply Chain Management, or related field AND 8+ years of experience working in physical IT infrastructures (e.g., Servers, SANs, Networking, Capacity, DC Rack/Enclosures, structured cabling) OR
• High School Qualification or equivalent AND 10+ years of experience working in physical IT infrastructures (e.g., Servers, SANs, Networking, Capacity, DC Rack/Enclosures, structured cabling) OR equivalent experience.
• Applicable certifications: APICS/Inventory Control, CompTIA, Microsoft, Network Certifications, CCNA Certifications, ITIL v3 Foundation, Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) Certifications.

Benefits

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

Pay

The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $102,600 - $202,800 per year. For specific work locations within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, the base pay range is USD $137,500 - $225,800 per year.