Program Manager (contract)

Microsoft is seeking a Program Manager (Contract) to provide critical control for engagement governance. This role focuses on ensuring compliance, reviewing contracts, and coordinating with various departments to resolve issues before supplier engagements proceed.

Responsibilities:

• Triage new and amended supplier engagement requests to determine readiness versus blockers before contracts or purchase orders are issued
• Review statements of work, change orders, and services contracts to identify issues including scope clarity, misclassification, missing or expired baselines, and misaligned milestones or spend structures
• Enforce required governance gates such as security assessments, software governance, and legal pre-review to ensure compliance before work proceeds
• Document findings clearly and communicate required fixes to business requestors, driving resolution with appropriate partners
• Coordinate with Procurement, Legal, Finance, and compliance partners to resolve blockers and ensure engagement readiness
• Route incomplete or non-compliant work to the correct owners and block items that do not meet governance standards
• Support key performance indicator baselining and reporting by identifying patterns that drive cycle time delays, rework, and stakeholder friction
• Apply consistent engagement governance standards to improve compliance outcomes and user experience
• Maintain audit-ready documentation with accurate issue identification and minimal escalation loops
• Split time between focused document review, asynchronous stakeholder communication, and driving engagement completion

Requirements:

• Minimum 8 years of program management experience in large, matrixed organizations
• Minimum 8 years of experience in contracting, procurement, supplier governance, or compliance-heavy environments
• Minimum 8 years of experience with contract literacy focused on issue identification and compliance enforcement
• Program management expertise in large, matrixed organizations
• Strong contract literacy with ability to identify engagement and compliance issues without performing legal drafting or negotiation
• Experience in contracting, procurement, supplier governance, or compliance-heavy environments
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with ability to clearly articulate findings and required actions
• High autonomy and independent judgment with ability to make control-point decisions
• Proficiency with Microsoft 365 suite including Outlook, Teams, Excel, and PowerPoint
• Experience with SharePoint and Lists for documentation and tracking
• Ability to interpret services contracts and statements of work for compliance and structural issues
• Strong organizational skills with ability to manage multiple concurrent engagement requests
• Stakeholder management and coordination across cross-functional teams
• Prior experience in enterprise technology environments strongly preferred
• Experience with PowerApps and Power Automate strongly preferred
• Familiarity with Copilot and AI-assisted workflows strongly preferred
• Power BI experience for reading and basic dashboard building is a plus