Job description

Overview The Intelligent Conversation and Communications Cloud (IC3) is the core communications platform that powers Microsoft Teams — delivering reliable, high-quality audio/video calling, meetings, chat, and presence to millions of users and organizations around the world. IC3 is also the foundation beneath experiences like Teams Phone and Azure Communication Services, making it one of the largest and most demanding real-time communications platforms in the industry. Operating at this scale means our engineering velocity, developer productivity, and the safety and reliability of every deployment are mission-critical. Within IC3, we're looking for a Principal Product Manager to set the vision and drive execution for the software engineering tools and systems that power how our engineers build, test, and ship software every day. You will own the end-to-end strategy, roadmap, and delivery for a portfolio of internal developer tools and engineering systems — translating a strong understanding of software engineering and the software development lifecycle (SDLC) into a clear, prioritized roadmap that accelerates developer productivity and enables safe, confident deployments across IC3. The ideal candidate brings a software engineering background, hands-on familiarity with developer tooling, and a track record of driving ambiguous, cross-organizational technical programs to measurable outcomes. You'll partner closely with engineering leaders, platform teams, and the engineers who use these tools to identify the highest-leverage investments and see them through to adoption and impact. This position is based in Redmond, Washington and requires the employee to be in the office a minimum of 3 days per week. 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 Strategy & Vision • Define and evangelize a multi-year strategy and vision for IC3's software engineering tools and engineering systems, grounded in a deep understanding of the SDLC and the day-to-day needs of engineering teams. • Identify the highest-impact investments to improve developer productivity, engineering efficiency, and deployment safety, and build the business case for them with data. Roadmap & Planning • Own and maintain the product roadmap — scope, milestones, dependencies, staging, and rollout plans — for multi-team, multi-quarter efforts. • Balance near-term delivery with long-term platform health, making clear, defensible prioritization and trade-off decisions. Execution & Delivery • Drive execution from concept to launch readiness across multiple engineering teams, proactively surfacing and removing blockers, managing risk, and ensuring predictable, high-quality outcomes. • Establish the operating rhythm (planning, reviews, status, governance) that keeps cross-functional teams aligned and accountable. Technical Depth & Engineering Systems • Partner with engineering leaders and architects on technical design and trade-offs for build, test, CI/CD, release, and deployment systems, applying software engineering and SDLC fundamentals. • Champion improvements that drive safe deployments — progressive/ring-based rollouts, automated quality gates, feature flighting, rollback, and telemetry-driven release health. Developer Productivity & Impact • Define the metrics that matter (developer productivity, cycle time, build/test reliability, deployment success and safety) and use them to guide investment and measure impact. • Continuously gather feedback from engineering customers and translate it into tooling and process improvements that measurably reduce friction. Influence & Leadership • Influence without authority across organizational boundaries, driving alignment among engineering, platform, and leadership stakeholders. • Provide technical product leadership and mentorship, raising the bar for product/program management discipline and setting best practices others adopt. Qualifications Required Qualifications: • Bachelor's Degree AND 8+ years experience in product/service/program management or software development • 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 Qualifications: • Bachelor's Degree AND 12+ years experience in product/service/program management or software development • OR equivalent experience. • Software engineering background — you have built, shipped, and/or operated software and understand engineering fundamentals firsthand. • Demonstrated practical understanding of the software development lifecycle (SDLC) — source control, build, test, CI/CD, release, and deployment. • Experience driving the strategy, roadmap, and execution of technical products or programs across multiple engineering teams, from concept to delivery. • Hands-on experience building or managing developer tools and engineering systems at scale — build systems, CI/CD pipelines, test infrastructure, or release/deployment platforms (e.g., Azure DevOps, GitHub, or comparable). • Experience defining and improving developer productivity through metrics and DevEx practices (e.g., cycle time, build/test reliability, DORA-style metrics). • Demonstrated familiarity with safe deployment practices — progressive/ring-based rollouts, feature flags/flighting, automated quality gates, rollback strategies, and release-health telemetry. • Experience with large-scale cloud, distributed systems, or real-time communications platforms. • Experience and record of influencing and aligning cross-functional stakeholders without direct authority, and of using data to drive decisions and measure outcomes. • Experience driving org-wide or cross-team engineering-systems initiatives and influencing senior technical leadership. • Track record of technical leadership and mentoring, and of setting product/program-management best practices adopted broadly. • Effective written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate technical detail into clear strategy for varied audiences. • 4+ years experience taking a product, feature, or experience to market (e.g., design, addressing product market fit, and launch, internal tool/framework). • 6+ years experience improving product metrics for a product, feature, or experience in a market (e.g., growing customer base, expanding customer usage, avoiding customer churn). • 6+ years experience disrupting a market for a product, feature, or experience (e.g., competitive disruption, taking the place of an established competing product). Product Management IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $274,800 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 $188,000 - $304,200 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: careers.microsoft.com This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled. Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. 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 with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.

Requirements

Must-haves

Strategy & Vision
Define and evangelize a multi-year strategy and vision for IC3's software engineering tools and engineering systems, grounded in a deep understanding of the SDLC and the day-to-day needs of engineering teams.
Identify the highest-impact investments to improve developer productivity, engineering efficiency, and deployment safety, and build the business case for them with data.
Roadmap & Planning
Own and maintain the product roadmap — scope, milestones, dependencies, staging, and rollout plans — for multi-team, multi-quarter efforts.
Balance near-term delivery with long-term platform health, making clear, defensible prioritization and trade-off decisions.
Execution & Delivery
Drive execution from concept to launch readiness across multiple engineering teams, proactively surfacing and removing blockers, managing risk, and ensuring predictable, high-quality outcomes.
Establish the operating rhythm (planning, reviews, status, governance) that keeps cross-functional teams aligned and accountable.
Technical Depth & Engineering Systems
Partner with engineering leaders and architects on technical design and trade-offs for build, test, CI/CD, release, and deployment systems, applying software engineering and SDLC fundamentals.
Champion improvements that drive safe deployments — progressive/ring-based rollouts, automated quality gates, feature flighting, rollback, and telemetry-driven release health.
Developer Productivity & Impact
Define the metrics that matter (developer productivity, cycle time, build/test reliability, deployment success and safety) and use them to guide investment and measure impact.
Continuously gather feedback from engineering customers and translate it into tooling and process improvements that measurably reduce friction.
Influence & Leadership
Influence without authority across organizational boundaries, driving alignment among engineering, platform, and leadership stakeholders.
Provide technical product leadership and mentorship, raising the bar for product/program management discipline and setting best practices others adopt.
Bachelor's Degree AND 8+ years experience in product/service/program management or software development • OR equivalent experience.
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.
Software engineering background — you have built, shipped, and/or operated software and understand engineering fundamentals firsthand.
Demonstrated practical understanding of the software development lifecycle (SDLC) — source control, build, test, CI/CD, release, and deployment.

Nice-to-haves

Preferred Qualifications: • Bachelor's Degree AND 12+ years experience in product/service/program management or software development • OR equivalent experience.

Application prep

Use the role’s language and application details while tailoring your materials.

Keywords to mirror

azureci/cd

Platform: eightfold
Effort: medium

Benefits

Benefits detected in the listing.

Vision