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In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.

Microsoft’s Cloud Operations & Innovation (CO+I) is the powerhouse behind our cutting-edge Commercial cloud services and the bedrock of our AI product offerings. Our global reach extends to over 60 cloud regions and 200+ datacenters, spanning more than 25 geographies. Through our robust Datacenter infrastructure, we catalyze the cloud services provided by our esteemed Internal partners, including Microsoft Azure, Bing, M365, Dynamics 365, and Xbox, thereby empowering millions of customers to achieve unparalleled success. 

Cloud Operations + Innovation (CO+I) is the team behind one of the World’s largest Cloud Infrastructures, responsible for powering all Microsoft online Products and Services as well as powering Microsoft’s “Cloud First” mission. Our focus is on smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide, and we are looking for a Principal Business Program Manager to lead our first-of-kind Global Localization Program.

If you want to have fundamental impact on how Microsoft’s Cloud is deployed and operated globally, want to be involved with one of the most strategically important teams at Microsoft, have excellent technical and business acumen, leadership, creativity, and out of the box thinking are some of the skills you bring to the table - this job is for you!  

In this role, the successful candidate will partner closely with key cross-functional teams to drive programs focused on transforming how we deliver localization for our data centers across the globe. As CO+I continues to accelerate and expand Microsoft’s datacenter footprint across the globe, localization is focused on creating content to meet local language needs across the globe to meet our business needs.  

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.

Responsibilities

As the Principal Busines Program Manager leader for the CO+I Global Localization Program, you will be responsible for the overall strategy and planning of the program that will deliver localized content to our employees enabling them to do their job well and safely in their native language. You will lead a vendor team of localization professionals and work closely with stakeholders across the organization to ensure the success of the program. Your pivotal role encompasses creating a roadmap for meeting our CO+I global localization needs, while partnering with our C+AI localization team. The ideal candidate is a leader and team player who thinks strategically while executing at a tactical level.

The ideal candidate will have experience in localization program management, an understanding of localization best practices, and the ability to lead and inspire a team. Excellent communication, collaboration, and strategic thinking skills are essential for success in this role. This role requires a high-level of ownership over the end-to-end localization process, the ability to think outside of the box, willingness to create a new process, the ability to design scalable solutions and influence stakeholders. This position requires an understanding of globalization, localizability and localization technologies, and experience in delivering content and in multiple languages. As the Principal PM, CO+I Localization you will oversee the adaptation of content to different languages, ensuring that they resonate with local audiences while maintaining CO+I’s integrity and message.

Responsibilities

• Deliver high quality localized content across the CO+I portfolio, scaling up to 20+languages

• Identify areas of improvement to increase agility and efficiency in the localization process, and drive innovation to optimize speed to market

• Immerse ourselves in the employee-centric scenarios to understand business environment & competitive landscape; identify the right/suitable local customer experience that have the most value, revenue, or strategic impact

• Source solutions to understand international customer trends, priorities and satisfaction by engaging with content owners, engineering teams (Globalization requirements, localizability, etc.), and other partner teams.

• Generate customer feedback and behavior insights, create and leverage reports and derive customer behavior to determine and adjust localization strategy.

• Build channels and new partnerships with other functions and content owners across CO+I.

• Manage relationship with localization vendor, ensuring efficient and cost-effective localization operations.

• Partner with external localization supplier for smooth localization operations (assess/define/communicate processes) ensure time and cost-efficient solutions.

• Lead and mentor a geo-distributed team of vendor localization project managers.

• Provide thought leadership on the topics of world readiness and localization, ensuring best practices and innovative solutions are applied to meet project requirements.

• Contribute localization systems through continued optimization of processes and workflows, including design of new solutions.

• Stay current with advancements in what localization, globalization and localizability looks like for new technologies like Gen AI and in localization solutions. Recommend and drive enhancements to strategy

• Lead communications and change management efforts, including program communications at executive levels

• Manage the fiscal planning and budget for the program

• Build and maintain relationships with stakeholders, including the CO+I Localization Steerco and the C+AI Localization Team

• Define and measure the success of the program

• Collaborate with program teams, leaders, and process owners across various functions across CO+I

• Embody a data-driven mindset to explore data to find answers, continuously improve processes, optimize global operations, and enhance long-term planning and reporting.

• Engage with the CO+I leaders to evolve elements of the localization strategy.

• Monitor and achieve strategy OKR (Objectives & Key Results) targets to demonstrate impact on the business.

• Build capability to test, pilot and measure ROI (Return on Investment) with customers, suppliers, partners and our employees.

• Embody our  culture  and  values.

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Operations, languages/linguistics, communications or related field AND 8+ years work experience in program management, process management, process improvement

• 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/Additional Qualifications:

• Experience in designing, building and executing highly successful programs at global scale.

• Experience in delivering strategy and transformational programs.

• Comfortable working in a complex environment across a diverse set of business, operations, engineering, and leadership stakeholders.

• Demonstrated ability to lead and influence senior level cross functional teams

• Excellent interpersonal, communication and presentation skills.

• Ability to navigate ambiguity, solve complex challenges, and operate in a fast-paced team environment.

• Able to effectively facilitate change cross-functionally.

• Excel at working with all levels of the organization with detail and assertiveness.

• A curiosity and ability to continuously learn and adapt, what we call in Microsoft, the Growth Mindset.

• Experience presenting to and communicating with senior leaders across enterprise.

• Collaboration & influence: Ability to work with Program Managers and Engineers across Microsoft. You are able to understand the engineering cycles and workflow tooling to surface and propose requirements.

• Technical Expertise: Well versed with localization processes and practices, ability in participating in process reviews, understand and design scalable solutions.

• Ownership: Ultimately own the experience of customers around the world, as a Principal Program Manager you will drive projects end to end, own quality, ensure proper publishing cadence.

• Analytical: Work with large amounts of data, validating inputs, running analysis and being able to draw conclusions and strategy based on data insights.

• Experience in Localization: Hands-on experience with localization processes, internationalization, and culturalization is crucial. This includes familiarity with translation management systems and tools.

• Cultural Sensitivity: An understanding of cultural differences and how they impact localization.

• Problem-Solving Abilities: The capacity to identify issues in the localization process and develop effective solutions.

• Advanced degrees or certifications in localization, project management, or related areas can be an advantage.

• Experience: 8+ years of experience in localization, translation, or project management within a multicultural and multilingual environment is highly desirable.

Business Program Management IC6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $124,800 - $266,800 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 $159,000 - $292,200 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

Microsoft will accept applications for the role until May 13th, 2024.

#COICareers

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, 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 and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html) .