Principal Technical Program Manager

Overview

The Office of the CTO (OCTO) for Microsoft is chartered with understanding, shaping, and accelerating technologies and their impact across Microsoft, industry, and society. OCTO leads investments in emerging technical bets, provides technical insights, and drives high-priority company-wide AI initiatives, while partnering with our engineering, field, and strategy teams. As part of this, OCTO is responsible for Microsoft's technical strategy for the use of OpenAI technology across Microsoft.

OCTO operates as a high‑leverage organization - partnering deeply across engineering, product, research, and leadership to influence technical direction, execution integrity, and long‑term strategy.

We are seeking a Principal Technical Program Manager (TPM) to lead Simultaneous Shipping (Sim Ship) for a strategic Microsoft AI partnership. In this role, you will orchestrate complex global releases across engineering, product, compliance, and partner teams to deliver high-quality experiences across markets, languages, and regulatory environments. This work moves at the pace of AI and requires strong judgment, coordination, and execution.

This is a high-visibility role at the intersection of engineering execution and business impact. You will operate in an environment of significant scale and ambiguity, bringing clarity, alignment, and operational excellence to deliver consistently and responsibly for customers worldwide. You will also help ensure these AI releases meet Microsoft's Responsible AI expectations and governance requirements.

You will work closely with a key external partner and internal Microsoft stakeholders across multiple organizations to drive synchronized delivery, readiness, and customer success. Success in this role requires the ability to influence across organizational boundaries, adapt quickly to evolving AI requirements, and help Microsoft deliver with speed and quality. We are looking for candidates who demonstrate regular use of AI tools and workflows to accelerate execution and improve operational effectiveness.

Skills:

* Conflict Resolution

* Stakeholder Management

* Agility

* Strategic Thinking

* Technical Domain Knowledge and Skills

* Program Management

Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, and we're dedicated to this mission across every aspect of our company. Our culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day. Join us and help shape the future of the world.

Responsibilities

Program Leadership & Delivery

* Lead end-to-end Sim Ship program execution, ensuring alignment across global release timelines, milestones, and deliverables

* Drive clarity in ambiguous, fast-evolving environments; create structured plans to ensure predictable delivery

* Establish and manage the release rhythm of business (ROB), including ship readiness reviews, checkpoints, and executive reporting

Cross-Company and Partner Coordination

* Partner with engineering, product, localization, compliance, and operations teams across Microsoft and with a key strategic partner

* Drive alignment across organizational boundaries to deliver synchronized releases at global scale

* Manage dependencies across multiple systems, services, and teams to ensure coordinated delivery

Global Release Readiness (Sim Ship)

* Own readiness across all dimensions of Sim Ship, including:

* Localization and global availability

* Regulatory and compliance readiness

* Service health, reliability, and performance

* Identify and proactively mitigate risks that could impact release timelines or quality

Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement

* Define and track key operations metrics (e.g., release readiness, defect trends, coverage, quality benchmarks)

* Drive continuous improvements to release processes, tooling, and cross-team collaboration

* Implement scalable mechanisms to support future global releases

Stakeholder Communication & Influence

* Communicate clearly and effectively with stakeholders at all levels, including senior leadership

* Influence decision-making through data-driven insights and structured recommendations

*…