Technical Program Director

Principal Technical Advisor – Worldwide Incentive Compensation  

Worldside Incentive Compensation (WWIC) operates a mission‑critical system that directly impacts revenue realization, seller behavior, and compliance. Our purpose is to deliver a best‑in‑class, design‑to‑deployment incentive compensation program that inspires sellers to maximize their success and rewards, while enabling sustainable growth, share, and customer success.

As a leader in the Worldwide Incentive Compensation (WWIC) team, you will be part of an organization that enables Microsoft strategy by designing and implementing variable incentive-based compensation plans for more than 40,000 sellers, sales leaders, and consultants globally.

Role Overview

Do you have a passion for technology strategy, innovation, and shaping AI decisions that drive impact at scale? As a Technical Program Director, you will accelerate how WWIC evaluates, adopts, and operationalizes technology for internal team use to reduce system complexity, improve seller experience, and enable faster, more reliable execution of incentive programs.

You will translate ambiguous problem spaces into actionable technology decisions, validated prototypes, and adopted solutions that translate strategy in to execution and sustained value. You are accountable for advising technology decisions from evaluation through adoption and realized impact. This includes prioritizing internal organizational problem areas, ensuring decisions result in implemented solutions, and validating that outcomes deliver measurable improvements to WWIC’s operational effectiveness.

You will partner closely with the CVP, the WWIC leadership team, and the entire organization ensure technology investments and solutions align with strategic priorities and deliver measurable impact. Success in this role is measured by demonstrable improvements in team system effectiveness, team member effective tool adoption, decision velocity, and operational efficiency.

Each day will require agility, ownership, and a commitment to integrity, respect, and our learn‑it‑all culture. This individual will excel in ambiguous situations, influence without authority, and communicate complex topics clearly for executive audiences.

Pillar 1 — Advise the CVP on Technology Strategy & Decisions (10% of time)

• Evaluate emerging technologies on behalf of the CVP: Platforms, and tools to drive adoption decisions that improve scalability, reduce complexity, and enhance seller experience.
• Focus on high‑impact problem areas: Areas may include areas such as internal incentive system complexity, tooling fragmentation, data visibility, and design‑to‑deployment cycle time.
• CVP Ready Decision Insights: Conduct deep research and synthesize opportunities, risks, and industry trends into clear, decision‑ready insights for senior leaders. Translate complex technical concepts into concise, actionable insights tied directly to business outcomes.
• Trusted Advisor: Guide WWIC on technology investments, architecture choices, and integration strategies.
• Establish a principle-based evaluation framework: Ensure decisions are repeatable, scalable, and aligned to long‑term architectural direction.

Pillar 2 — Partner with the Leadership Team to Accelerate Prototyping, Validation & Execution Acceleration (65% of time)

• Reduce Toil By Implementing Automation & AI: Build automation and AI‑assisted capabilities, where appropriate, to reduce toil, improve accuracy, and accelerate execution within WWIC’s incentive systems.
• Decision‑Driven Prototyping & Experimentation: Prototype concepts and explore technical scenarios to validate feasibility and accelerate decision making.  Support hands‑on experimentation to move from concept to validated solution quickly.  Vet demos, prototypes, and solution proposals to ensure quality, clarity, and alignment with WWIC’s strategic and operational needs.
• Support LT in Change Management: Contribute to technology storylines and strategic narratives that connect prototypes and investments to measurable impact.

Pillar 3 — Impact the Organization with Custom Skilling, Cross‑Org Alignment, & Operational Impact (25% of time)

• Adoption & Capability: Enable sustained adoption through custom skilling plans, coaching, and repeatable practices, ensuring solutions are fully utilized and deliver intended impact over time. Drive capability uplift across WWIC by identifying skill gaps and enabling teams to effectively adopt new tools and technologies in their day‑to‑day work.
• Sustainable & Measurable Gains: For relevant tool adoption and engineering efficiency, and alignment between product strategy and COO priorities, the focus is on sustainable and measurable operational gains.
• Own End to End Outcomes: Partner with the team to ensure technology decisions support end‑to‑end business outcomes. Drive visibility into what is working and not working across systems to inform continuous improvement and prioritization.
• Cross-org alignment: Build strong relationships with team leaders to surface gaps, unblock progress, and accelerate alignment.  Act as a connector across teams to reduce ambiguity and prioritize the highest‑impact technology investments.
• Security, Governance & Risk: Ensure technology decisions and adopted solutions strengthen WWIC’s governance posture, meeting security scalability, and compliance requirements in a high‑stakes, global environment, and proactively mitigating downstream operational or audit risk.

Success in this role is measured through demonstrable improvements such as reduced design‑to‑deployment cycle time of internal projects, increased relevant tool adoption by team members, reduced manual effort or system complexity, improved reliability or audit readiness, and clearer decision velocity for senior leaders, with baseline‑to‑outcome comparisons used wherever practical.

Required/minimum qualifications

Preferred Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience managing complex, cross‑functional and/or cross‑team initiatives.
• Experience translating ambiguous problem spaces into actionable decisions and adopted solutions.
• Experience influencing senior stakeholders and driving alignment without direct authority.
• Demonstrated ability to write and understand code (any modern language), enabling hands‑on experimentation and informed evaluation of technical solutions.
• Experience moving from concept → prototype → adoption in complex enterprise environments.
• Experience working in large‑scale, compliance‑sensitive or financially impactful systems.
• Experience influencing decisions across organizational boundaries and leadership levels.
• Executive presence with written and verbal communication skills.
• Understanding of Microsoft business groups and the commercial ecosystem.

Technical Program Management IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 - $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.