Metro Construction Director

Microsoft Cloud Operations + Innovation (CO+I) builds and operates the infrastructure that supports Microsoft’s global cloud services. Our focus is smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering trusted experiences to customers and partners worldwide. The Metro Construction Director role offers the opportunity to lead complex, large-scale construction programs that enable reliable, secure, and scalable services for customers around the world. We are looking for an experienced construction leader to help build the infrastructure that powers some of the world’s largest online services. 

The Metro Construction Director is accountable for integrating delivery across multiple campuses and projects within an assigned metro. This role aligns safety, quality, schedule, cost, operational readiness, and stakeholder objectives to achieve predictable portfolio outcomes. The Metro Director serves as the construction leader within the metro and is responsible for driving consistency, governance, risk management, and execution excellence across all projects. 

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.    
   
In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.  

Coordination 

Leads and drives coordination for meetings and activities with vendors, cost managers, and/or owner/architect/contractors. Initializes and identifies opportunities to discuss and integrate lessons learned, advocating for safety- and security-focused approach during project planning. 

Drives Results 

Provides direction and coaching to internal and external partners to help resolve complex issues that may significantly impact global construction projects. This includes establishing and executing team goals, following business processes, engaging vendor relationships, and fostering cross-group collaboration aligned to project strategy, milestone delivery, and core priorities: Safety, Security, Quality, Schedule, and Cost. 

Financial Acumen 

Oversees the creation and application of best practices for identifying and driving cost-effective solutions for the strategic and tactical delivery of a construction project. 

Owns financial stewardship across assigned projects and campuses including forecast accuracy, change management, commercial governance, cost risk identification, mitigation planning, and escalation. 

Goal Alignment 

Leads cross-functional alignment across Construction, Engineering, Supply Chain, Contracts, Project Controls, Commissioning, Quality, Operations, Environmental Health and Safety (EHS), Community Affairs, Legal, and partner organizations to ensure integrated project delivery and effective decision making. 

People Management 

Managers support team success through empowerment, accountability, coaching, and care. Model: Live our culture. Embody our values. Practice our leadership principles. Coach: Define team objectives and outcomes. Enable success across boundaries. Help the team adapt and learn. Care: Attract, support, and retain talented people. Understand each team member’s capabilities and career goals. Invest in the growth of others. 

Project Management 

Oversees the team's deployment of large-scale, campus, and/or regionally-based delivery solutions (e.g., new and/or retrofit data center solutions) while also aligning with regional and global leaders. Sets goals for internal and external project teams under their purview of responsibility, delegates responsibilities, measures performance against contracted Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and seeks and delivers feedback to achieve timely results that prioritize security in documentation, design, and/or execution. 

Project Tracking 

Leads the team's accountability for on-schedule delivery of multiple projects by ensuring project progress reports including scope, schedule, and budget are provided. 

Risk Mitigation 

Establishes, reviews, approves, and communicates risk mitigation goals and develops metrics, dashboards and/or scorecards to drive progress. Analyzes safety and security metrics and communicates and applies results to drive project action and support development for team members and vendors. 

Safety and Regulation 

Manages and advocates for safe worksites by adhering to organizational and industry procedures. Reviews prior audit results and relevant legislation in order to recommend and manage safety and security compliance. Shares lessons learned with relevant stakeholders. 

Technical Acumen 

Analyzes and recommends innovative delivery options utilizing best practices and trends, supports the development and implementation of all organizational procedures and standards, and ensures they are followed by all team members and vendors with adherence to security core priorities and guidelines. 

Vendor Management 

Directs and oversees the management of vendors, ensuring compliance with security policies, non-disclosure agreements, contracts, and prior audit results. Controls vendor performance relative to cash flow and budget summaries (with cost management support). Provides direction, feedback, and guidance to vendors and internal support teams as needed. 

Holds contractors, consultants, and delivery partners accountable to contractual commitments, project milestones, safety expectations, quality standards, and performance objectives while driving timely corrective actions when gaps are identified. 

Vendor Selection 

Manages the preparation of Request for Proposals (RFPs), Project Expenditure Requests (PERs), and other project approval tools and templates. Identifies and directs vendor scope of work, design review of site and building plans, change orders, and invoices. 

Required/Minimum qualifications 

• Bachelor's Degree in Construction Project Management, Architecture, Engineering, or related field AND 12+ years related experience OR equivalent 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 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. 

Additional or Preferred Qualifications 

• Bachelor's Degree in Construction Project Management, Architecture, Engineering, or related field AND 15+ years related experience OR equivalent experience. 

• 15+ years experience working on data center projects. 

• 10+ years project management experience. 

• 10+ years people management experience. 

• Experience leading multiple concurrent mission-critical or hyperscale construction programs. 

• Experience managing construction delivery across multiple campuses, metros, or regions. 

• Demonstrated success building and leading high-performing construction organizations. 

• Experience establishing governance frameworks, KPI reporting, portfolio reviews, and risk management processes. 

• Cross-functional leadership skills with demonstrated ability to deliver results through influence rather than authority. 

• Demonstrated commercial acumen including contracting strategy, cost governance, claims avoidance, and change management. 

• Experience delivering first-of-kind or highly complex capital projects. 

#COICareers | #EPCCareers | #DCDCareers