Principal Product Manager - Microsoft Foundry (CoreAI)

The Foundry Inference & Training team is responsible for advancing Microsoft’s most critical model training capabilities, infrastructure, and execution at global scale. We are looking for a principal Technical Program Manager to partner closely with leadership to drive execution excellence, operating rigor, and cross-team alignment across a fast-moving and highly interconnected space.

This role sits at the intersection of strategy, execution, and technical depth. You will help turn priorities into outcomes, ensure internal signals are clear and actionable, and enable leaders and teams to operate with focus and velocity.

Responsibilities

Strategic Execution and Operating Rhythm

• Translate leadership priorities into clear execution plans, milestones, and success metrics across Foundry Inference & Training.
• Establish and run the operating cadence including planning cycles, reviews, executive readouts, and follow-ups.
• Track commitments and dependencies across engineering, research, infrastructure, and partner teams, ensuring risks and gaps are surfaced early.

Cross-Team Alignment and Influence

• Act as a connective layer across teams working on model training, data, infrastructure, and platform integration.
• Drive alignment on goals, timelines, and decision points across multiple senior stakeholders.
• Resolve ambiguity by framing tradeoffs, options, and recommendations grounded in technical and business context.

Program Leadership and Delivery

• Lead complex, multi-quarter programs with high visibility and executive attention.
• Partner with engineering and research leads to ensure delivery plans are realistic, measurable, and resilient to change.
• Own end-to-end delivery health including scope, schedule, risks, and escalation management.

Decision Support and Communications

• Create concise, high-quality artifacts that support leadership decision making including briefs, dashboards, and executive-ready summaries.
• Synthesize complex, fast-evolving inputs into clear narratives for different audiences.
• Anticipate questions leaders will ask and proactively bring data, context, and recommendations.

Continuous Improvement

• Identify opportunities to improve how the organization plans, executes, and communicates.
• Drive simplification and clarity in processes where scale and complexity have increased operational friction.

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 10+ years experience in program/technical program management, data analysis, or product development OR equivalent experience.
• 3+ years of hands-on experience with Azure (or similar cloud) services, including resource provisioning, IAM, networking, and scripting (PowerShell or Azure CLI).
• 6+ years experience managing cross-functional and/or cross-team projects.
• 10+ years experience managing cross-functional and/or cross-team projects.
• Technical fluency with experience working alongside engineering, research, or infrastructure teams.
• Proven track record of leading large, ambiguous, cross-functional programs with senior stakeholders.
• Demonstrated written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to clearly influence at the executive level.
• Comfort operating as a force multiplier in highly dynamic environments.
• Track record of leading cross-functional efforts at scale in high-stakes, fast-paced environments.
• Proven experience in product management for large-scale data or AI platforms.
• Technical background in data lifecycle management, security, and compliance.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams and drive strategic initiatives.
• Experience with cloud data platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP).
• Entrepreneurial mindset; thrives in fast-paced, ambiguous environments.
• Experience with automation, data pipel