Principal Product Manager - Delivery Excellence

at  Microsoft

Are you a customer-obsessed, AI-curious problem-solver who thrives in an inclusive, collaborative global team? The Azure Customer Experience Platform (CXP) team’s mission is to transform Microsoft Cloud customers into fans. Through our deep engineering engagements with customers and teams across Microsoft, we analyze and amplify customer needs and drive the vision to improve Cloud quality, security, reliability & supportability. Our culture of growth mindset and empowerment are central to who we are and how we work.
We’re on a mission to make support experiences frictionless – by making it easy for customers to receive the support they need, when and how they need it throughout their Azure development lifecycle. Azure Engineering Direct (AED), pioneers transformational support to expedite Azure adoption and value realization. Advanced Cloud Engineers (ACEs) walk with our AED customers on their Azure journey so we meet them where they are and help them the way they want to be helped. Ensuring the success of ACEs is critical to AED. With over 200+ (and growing) ACEs across 3 continents, they are what makes AED a success & ensures that our customer’s Azure journey is frictionless. Thanks to the support ACEs provide - AED has grown very rapidly these last 18 months. They have overseen exponential growth of AED customers Azure Consumed Revenue (ACR) & we’re only just getting started.
The AED Delivery Excellence’s Principal Technical Product Manager - Operational Excellence owns driving the successful adoption of the AED end to end support journey by ACEs. As the Principal Technical Product Manager responsible for ACE Success, you will ensure that they are able to walk with their customers through the entire AED lifecycle, overseeing pre-sales and onboarding, supporting the successful adoption of processes & tools, and ultimately ensuring that our customers are driving toward ever-increasing Azure adoption with ease. You will not only enable efficiency in AED operations but also bring visibility to how ACEs deliver support, manage changes, communications. Your ability to partner with stakeholders to identify and define success measures and ensure compliance to the AED customer experience journey is important; caring deeply about the lived experiences of ACEs – and ultimately our Azure customers is critical.
The qualified Principal Technical Program Manager will have experience driving operational excellence for a service-based product. This individual will have proven project management skills, and a robust understanding of how sales contracting for enterprise customers works, yet can think big and be hands on to lead end to end process execution. As a leader they will cultivate collaborative relationships with our support delivery managers and other stakeholders to meet shared goals business and operational goals and are comfortable in the details and will roll up their sleeves to help make ACEs successful in providing world class support to Azure’s largest customers. Experience at a cloud provider is a plus.
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.

REQUIRED/MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s Degree AND 8+ years experience in product/service/project/program management or software development
• OR equivalent experience.
• 3+ years 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/ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s Degree AND 10+ years experience in product/service/project/program management or software development
• OR equivalent experience.
• 3+ years of experience using Agile tools and methodologies with proven product management experience
• Experience working with Azure or other cloud platforms and services, preferably in context of Technical Support and Delivery.
• Deep understanding of the Field and Offer Contracts to enable contractual compliance work.
• ITIL/ITSM or MOF certification with background in driving operational excellence and continual improvement for a product or service.
• Experience managing multiple priorities simultaneously with a track record of establishing goals and exceeding them, including taking responsibility and holding others accountable for actions, decisions, and goals.
• Proven experience working with leadership and providing updates on customer. Ability to interface at all levels of the organization.
  Product Management IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $137,600 - $267,000 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 $180,400 - $294,000 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 October 22, 2024.

RESPONSIBILITIES

In this role, you will own and drive the success of AED customers in partnership with ACE delivery managers to enable their ACEs to provide world class support for these customers. Key responsibilities include:

• Drive successful adoption of the AED end to end customer experience, overseeing pre-sales and onboarding of our customers onto our AED support offer. Ensure ACE compliance to standardized processes and tools to drive high quality ACE engagements with their AED customers.
• Engage with sales leadership to ensure that AED contracts adhere to our delivery capabilities and that we are selling what we can successfully deliver
• Design and maintain reports to identify areas for improvement for AED customers.
• Lead a vendor team of PMs that will proactively collaborate with ACE delivery and track how AED customers experiences exceed how we want to deliver support to them. Track and analyze their experience to identity improvements.
• Create documentation such as policies, procedures, workflows and user guides
• Enable ACE success by guiding vendor PMs to partner with delivery to
• Driving strategic reviews, targeted 1:1 support and incentives.
• Drive adoption and compliance to the AED capabilities for their customers
• Bring visibility to how ACEs deliver support, manage change and communications
• Identify and bridge communication gaps between internal teams and external partners to proactively mitigate risks that could impact ACE delivery operations. This includes collaborating with partners to document and effectively escalate processes, fostering a collaborative environment that optimizes fleet performance.
• Developing + maintain training materials for your cohort of ACEs.
• Build and maintain relationships with stakeholders, including engineering, cross org leaders across support delivery organizations, field organizations, and more.
• Leading special projects aimed at improving operational efficiency as well as driving improvements to Azure services as well as AED capabilities.

Other:

• Embody our Culture and Values

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