Principal Group Engineering Manager

Overview

We are seeking a Group Engineer Manager to lead Planner engineering within the TEX organization at Microsoft IDC. Planner is responsible for delivering AI-powered Task/project management, collaboration, and business continuity solutions used at global scale, spanning products such as Planner and Visio, and deep integrations across Teams Meetings and Channels, Loop, and compliance-driven services like Purview.

The Planner organization owns critical, customer-facing services that enable modern work across individuals, teams, and enterprises. The team is central to Microsoft’s strategy of delivering AI-native productivity experiences, including Project Manager Agent (PMA), while maintaining the highest standards of reliability, security, privacy, and operational excellence.

As the Group Engineer Manager, you will provide technical, people, and operational leadership across a globally impactful organization. You will be accountable for the engineering roadmap for Planner at IDC, architecture and execution for mission-critical services in partnerships with senior leaders and counterparts in Redmond. The role leads an organization of 100+ engineers, representing most of the Planner IDC engineering footprint, and includes managing multiple GEMs, Engineering Managers, and Principal ICs.

We are looking for a creative and experienced leader with an entrepreneurial spirit. We have exciting opportunities for you to innovate, influence, transform, inspire, and grow within our organization, and we encourage you to apply to learn more!

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

• Partner with product, design, and stakeholders to define and execute the engineering strategy and product vision for AI-powered project management and collaboration experiences.

• Own the technical roadmap and system architecture for critical Experiences and services, ensuring scalability, resilience, cost efficiency, and compliance at enterprise scale.

• Create and drive a culture of engineering excellence, establishing best practices for secure, high-quality, and maintainable code, including rigorous design and code reviews for high-impact services.

• Establish planning and execution rhythms that enable predictable delivery, effective dependency management, and successful global launches.

• Champion CI/CD automation, telemetry, and observability to enable zero-touch deployments and solid live-site health across services.

• Set strategy for security hardening, privacy, accessibility, and AI safety, including threat modeling and enforcement of security and compliance invariants.

• Balance short-term operational needs with long-term platform and architecture investments, especially in response to Sev1/Sev2 incidents and reliability challenges.

• Drive a solid culture of live-site excellence, proactive monitoring, and automated mitigation across distributed systems.

• Build, develop, and retain high-performing engineering leaders and teams through coaching, mentoring, and career development.

• Foster an inclusive and innovative organization that partners effectively across geographies and engages with CVPs and senior leadership to shape global outcomes.

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
  • 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:

• Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 12+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.

  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 15+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
  • OR equivalent experience.

• 8+ years of experience leading engineering teams or managing complex technical programs, collaborating across multiple teams and senior stakeholders to deliver large-scale, mission-critical systems.

• 4+ years of experience managing managers.

• Solid foundational knowledge of distributed systems and cloud service design.

• 8+ years of experience designing, building, and operating highly available, scalable cloud services on platforms such as Azure, AWS, or GCP.

• Experience integrating AI/GenAI capabilities into developer workflows and customer-facing products at scale.

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

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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.