Principal Technical Program Manager

Microsoft · Washington · $142,800–$274,800 (stated in the posting)

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The Microsoft AI Monetization team plays a pivotal role in shaping how Microsoft generates value from AI innovations across products including Copilot, Bing, Edge, and Microsoft Advertising. Our teams operate at the intersection of engineering, product, data science, privacy, monetization, publishers, and business operations to deliver trusted, responsible, and scalable experiences.

We are looking for a Principal Technical Program Manager to lead Online Forensics Operations, driving complex programs at the intersection of traffic quality, fraud prevention, partner operations, technical investigations, compliance, and advertising ecosystem integrity.

In this role, you will own execution across high-impact and often ambiguous operational programs. You will bring together engineering, product, traffic quality, partner management, support, and business stakeholders to investigate emerging issues, coordinate remediation, manage critical escalations, and establish mechanisms that make Online Forensics operations increasingly scalable, measurable, and effective.

This is a highly cross-functional role requiring solid technical judgment, operational discipline, executive communication, and the ability to create clarity and drive action when ownership, signals, or solutions are not immediately obvious.

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.  

Starting January 26, 2026, Microsoft AI (MAI) employees who live within a 50- mile commute of a designated Microsoft office in the U.S. or 25-mile commute of a non-U.S., country-specific location are expected to work from the office at least four days per week. This expectation is subject to local law and may vary by jurisdiction.

• Online Forensics & Operational Program Leadership
  • Lead complex, cross-functional Online Forensics programs from problem identification and triage through investigation, mitigation, remediation, and operational follow-through.
  • Establish clear ownership, milestones, decision points, dependencies, and success measures across programs involving multiple engineering and business teams.
  • Drive execution in ambiguous environments where issues may span technical systems, partner operations, traffic quality, fraud, and business processes.
  • Build operating mechanisms that provide clear visibility into priorities, risks, decisions, and outcomes.
• Fraud Remediation & Advertiser Protection
  • Coordinate high-impact fraud investigations and remediation workflows across Online Forensics and partner teams.
  • Manage critical case workflows, including High Impact Cases and fraud investigation packages supporting strategic partners.
  • Drive timely coordination across investigation, remediation, credit, and sign-off processes.
  • Identify recurring operational patterns and work with engineering and product stakeholders to improve upstream prevention, detection, and remediation capabilities.
• Traffic Quality, Suppression & Enforcement Operations
  • Drive operational execution for invalid traffic suppression and enforcement programs across signals such as IP, domain, user agent, and other traffic-quality indicators.
  • Coordinate approval processes for suppression and enforcement changes.
  • Partner with engineering and traffic-quality teams to ensure operational actions are appropriately tracked, reviewed, and executed.
  • Establish mechanisms for monitoring the effectiveness and operational health of enforcement programs.
• Partner & Traffic Quality Escalations
  • Coordinate publisher and advertiser traffic-quality escalations, including initial assessment and routing to appropriate investigation teams.
  • Use traffic-quality and analytics dashboards to conduct health checks and identify signals requiring deeper investigation.
  • Support initial analysis of significant advertiser and publisher supply-quality issues.
  • Provide clear communication to stakeholders regarding investigation status, risks, decisions, and remediation.
• Strategic Partner Operations
  • Manage operational engagement with strategic publisher partners on traffic-quality and Online Forensics matters.
  • Coordinate recurring partner communication, investigation follow-ups, and issue resolution.
  • Translate complex technical or forensic findings into clear, actionable narratives for business and partner stakeholders.
  • Build durable engagement mechanisms that improve responsiveness, accountability, and transparency across partner-facing operations.
• Audit, Compliance & Operational Readiness
  • Coordinate Online Forensics support for audit and compliance activities, including MRC, SOX, and SOC-1 related requests.
  • Drive collection and organization of required operational evidence and summaries.
  • Ensure appropriate operational artifacts, meeting records, and production-change evidence are available to support audit activities.
  • Partner across Online Forensics, Traffic Quality, engineering, and compliance stakeholders to maintain ongoing audit readiness.
• Experimentation & Pilot Programs
  • Lead operational execution of traffic-quality experiments and strategic pilot programs.
  • Define program objectives, execution plans, measurement approaches, and stakeholder responsibilities.
  • Coordinate results analysis and reporting to determine outcomes and inform next steps.
  • Translate pilot learnings into recommendations for scaled operational or technical improvements.
• Technical Program Management & Risk Management
  • Translate complex technical and operational problems into structured execution plans.
  • Partner closely with engineers, product managers, data scientists, and business stakeholders to understand technical dependencies and operational constraints.
  • Review technical designs, specifications, workflows, and system diagrams to understand risks and integration points.
  • Identify operational and technical risks early and drive mitigation plans across organizational boundaries.
  • Use data and operational metrics to identify trends, prioritize investments, and evaluate program effectiveness.
• Automation & Operational Scale
  • Identify repetitive investigation, reporting, triage, and operational workflows that can be simplified or automated.
  • Partner with engineering teams to improve tooling and workflow efficiency.
  • Promote practical use of automation and modern productivity tools to increase investigator and operational leverage.
  • Turn recurring manual processes into scalable mechanisms wherever possible.
• Executive Communication & Organizational Leadership
  • Provide concise, data-informed updates to leadership on operational health, major investigations, risks, dependencies, and emerging trends.
  • Translate complex technical and forensic issues into actionable narratives for technical, business, and executive audiences.
  • Drive alignment among stakeholders with different priorities and perspectives, influencing without direct authority.
  • Establish clarity in high-ambiguity situations and ensure teams converge on decisions, owners, and next actions.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree AND 6+ years experience in engineering, product/technical program management, data analysis, or product development
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 3+ years of experience managing cross-functional and/or cross-team projects.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree AND 12+ years experience engineering, product/technical program management, data analysis, or product development
  • OR equivalent experience.
• Demonstrated ability to drive high-ambiguity programs from problem definition through execution and measurable outcomes.
• Solid technical aptitude with the ability to engage engineers, understand system architecture and data flows, and reason about technical and operational dependencies.
• Solidanalytical and problem-solving skills, particularly for situations involving incomplete or conflicting signals.
• Demonstrated ability to influence without authority and drive decisions across organizational boundaries.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills across engineering, business, partner, and executive audiences.
• 8+ years of experience leading complex, cross-functional programs in technology organizations.
• Experience with advertising platforms, online marketplaces, search, fraud prevention, abuse detection, traffic quality, trust and safety, cybersecurity, risk operations, or related domains.
• Experience managing operational investigations, high-severity escalations, or incident-style programs involving multiple technical and business stakeholders.
• Experience using telemetry, dashboards, and large datasets to support investigations and operational decision-making.
• Experience reviewing technical designs, specifications, system diagrams, or data workflows.
• Experience driving automation or tooling improvements for operational teams.
• Experience working with audit, compliance, or evidence-management processes.

#AIX

Technical Program 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:
https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

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.

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