Silicon Engineering Operations Leader

Overview

Microsoft Silicon Cloud Hardware 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, Skype, One Drive 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 trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide and we are looking for passionate, high energy engineers to help achieve that mission.

Our team is creative and resourceful; we value growth and learning. We want to amplify your abilities so you can do your best work. Join us, and together we will turn groundbreaking hardware designs into reality!

Microsoft's Cloud Hardware organization is seeking a Silicon Engineering Operations Leader to drive business operations, organizational effectiveness, and operational excellence across a global Silicon Engineering organization.

This role serves as the primary business partner to engineering leadership and owns the operational ecosystem supporting custom silicon development-from strategic planning and financial governance to supplier management, PMO, analytics, AI enablement, and engineering support operations. The successful candidate will operate across organizational boundaries, influence executive stakeholders, and build scalable operational frameworks that enable engineering teams to execute efficiently while supporting Microsoft's long-term silicon strategy.

Responsibilities

Business Strategy & Operational Leadership

• Partner with engineering leadership to define and execute the organization's operational strategy and annual objectives.
• Translate engineering priorities into scalable operational plans, governance models, and measurable business outcomes.
• Lead organizational planning processes including annual planning, OKRs, headcount strategy, investment planning, and business reviews.
• Drive operational excellence initiatives focused on scalability, efficiency, automation, and continuous improvement.

Financial Planning & Portfolio Management

• Own planning, forecasting, reporting, and governance for a multi-hundred-million-dollar operational portfolio spanning engineering software, infrastructure, managed services, vendor engagements, and operational investments.
• Partner closely with Finance to optimize spend, improve forecasting accuracy, identify savings opportunities, and ensure financial accountability across the organization.
• Develop investment strategies and executive recommendations balancing business priorities, growth, and cost optimization.

Supplier & Commercial Strategy

• Lead strategic relationships with Microsoft's semiconductor ecosystem, including EDA vendors, cloud partners, managed service providers, and engineering technology suppliers.
• Drive commercial strategy, enterprise negotiations, renewals, licensing optimization, contract governance, and executive business reviews.
• Define and monitor supplier KPIs, SLAs, governance frameworks, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Partner with Procurement and Legal to structure scalable commercial agreements aligned with long-term engineering needs.

Program Management Office (PMO)

• Build and lead centralized PMO capabilities supporting cross-functional engineering initiatives.
• Define governance models, execution frameworks, risk management practices, portfolio reporting, and executive communication.
• Drive organization-wide programs involving engineering, infrastructure, finance, procurement, and external partners.
• Establish standardized project management methodologies that improve execution quality and reduce delivery cycle time.

Business Intelligence & Analytics

• Own the organization's operational analytics strategy and executive reporting.
• Develop scalable dashboards and reporting frameworks covering operational performance, financial health, engineering productivity, supplier performance, and service delivery.
• Partner with data engineering teams to transform operational data into actionable executive insights supporting strategic decision making.
• Establish KPI frameworks measuring organizational effectiveness and operational maturity.

Engineering Operations & Support

• Lead centralized engineering support functions including CRM and service management platforms, operational workflows, managed services governance, and engineering enablement programs.
• Define operational processes supporting engineering teams while continuously improving user experience, responsiveness, and service quality.
• Drive adoption of AI-enabled operational capabilities to increase engineering productivity and automate repetitive workflows.

Executive Engagement & Organizational Leadership

• Serve as a trusted advisor to engineering executives, influencing…