Regional Critical Environment (CE) Program Director - Americas

Overview

Microsoft’s Cloud Infrastructure and Operations (MCIO) is the engine that powers Microsoft’s cloud services. Our global datacenter infrastructure enables more than 200 online businesses—including Azure, Office 365, Xbox, OneDrive, and Bing—and supports over one billion customers and 20 million businesses worldwide.

We are looking for a Regional Critical Environment (CE) Program Director - Americas to help provide strategic and operational leadership for Critical Environments across Microsoft’s Americas datacenter portfolio. This role is accountable for availability, safety, compliance, and operational excellence across a diverse, large‑scale footprint of datacenters while partnering closely with global teams to drive standardized processes, tooling, and governance.

Microsoft’s datacenter portfolio spans more than 200 facilities across 30+ countries, supported by highly specialized Mechanical, Electrical, and Controls professionals. This role focuses on regional program leadership, enabling local site teams to execute consistently while ensuring alignment to global CE strategy, standards, and transformation initiatives.

Responsibilities

Regional CE Leadership & Governance

• Provide regional leadership for Critical Environments across all Americas datacenters, ensuring alignment with global CE strategy, standards, and operating models(insource vs vendor).
• Own regional CE program execution, translating global standards and initiatives into scalable, repeatable regional practices.
• Serve as a key regional voice into global CE governance forums, influencing strategy, prioritization, and roadmap decisions.

Availability, Safety, and Risk Management

• Champion a culture of safety, security, and compliance across all CE operations in the Americas region.
• Drive sustained improvements in Critical Environment availability, resilience, and operational readiness.
• Lead efforts to reduce high‑impact and human‑error‑driven CE incidents year‑over‑year through standardization, learning, and systemic improvement.
• Oversee regional risk posture, ensuring proactive identification, communication, and mitigation of CE risks impacting service availability.

Standards, Process, and Tooling

• Partner with Global CE teams and strategic partners to develop, mature, and deploy standardized CE processes, procedures, and operational tooling.
• Ensure consistent regional adoption of Lease CE standards, best practices, and governance models.
• Sponsor continuous improvement initiatives that simplify operations, improve compliance, and enable data‑driven decision‑making.

Partner & Stakeholder Engagement

• Establish and maintain strong executive‑level relationships with strategic partners and suppliers, ensuring alignment to performance, safety, and cost expectations.
• Collaborate closely with regional and global stakeholders across CE, IT, Operations, Logistics, and Engineering to deliver integrated outcomes.
• Develop and execute regional communication strategies to effectively engage site teams, regional leaders, and global stakeholders.

Financial & Portfolio Management

• Lead region‑wide CE programs and cross‑site initiatives, including lifecycle investments, risk remediation, and operational optimization projects.
• Develop and manage regional CE OPEX budgets, ensuring financial discipline while supporting availability and efficiency objectives.
• Drive cost and energy efficiency initiatives aligned to Microsoft’s sustainability commitments.

People & Capability Development

• Lead and develop regional CE program leaders and subject matter experts, fostering technical excellence, accountability, and inclusive leadership.
• Enable local site teams by providing clarity, priorities, tools, and support—without direct site‑level micromanagement.
• Promote knowledge sharing and best‑practice exchange across the Americas and global CE communities.

Qualifications

Required/minimum qualifications

• High School Qualification or equivalent AND 10+ years experience of mission-critical service management (e.g., providing IT services, manufacturing, warehouse, retail, military, or managing physical operations in an IT and/or critical environment infrastructure)
• OR equivalent experience
• 3+ years people management experience.

Background Check Requirements

Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include, but are not limited