Overview
The Microsoft Security Office of the CTO drives the long-term technical and strategic direction of Microsoft Security, identifying and incubating the capabilities required to protect organizations worldwide against rapidly evolving threats. The team operates at the intersection of deep technical credibility, cross-portfolio strategy, and executive influence—shaping initiatives that redefine how security is built, adopted, and scaled across Microsoft.
As a Principal Program Manager for Strategic Innovation, you will operate as a senior individual contributor within the Office of the CTO, responsible for identifying, shaping, and driving portfolio-level security incubations focused on Security for AI and GenAI-driven defense.
This role owns highly ambiguous and high-impact problem spaces, working closely with product and engineering organizations primarily based in the United States and Israel to translate emerging AI-driven risks into executable strategies, validated technical directions, and cross-organizational roadmaps that deliver CISO-grade outcomes. The role requires hands-on engagement with distributed teams and frequent travel to collaborate effectively with partners across regions.
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
Principal-level incubation leadership:
Own end-to-end incubation for complex, cross-organizational initiatives—from early problem framing and threat validation through technical feasibility, roadmap definition, and alignment for landing across the Microsoft Security portfolio.
Executive customer engagement: Engage directly with Fortune 500 CISOs and senior security leaders to validate emerging threat models, operational pain points, and strategic priorities— ensuring incubations are grounded in real-world, CISO-grade requirements.
Deep cross-geo collaboration: Work day-to-day with product management, engineering, and research teams primarily located in the United States and Israel, serving as a connective layer that accelerates decision-making, alignment, and execution across time zones and cultures.
Portfolio-scale influence: Lead through influence across research, engineering, product, and senior leadership stakeholders; create crisp strategy artifacts (one-pagers, problem statements, architectural options) that unlock alignment and investment.
On-site engagement and travel: Travel frequently to work directly with U.S. and Israel-based teams, facilitating deep technical discussions, incubation workshops, architecture reviews, and execution alignment that cannot be achieved remotely.
Engineering-grounded program ownership: Maintain technical depth to guide architecture and execution tradeoffs across performance, reliability, security, and scale—ensuring incubations are both innovative and executable.
Qualifications
Required/minimum qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical/Computer Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
Proven experience of leading software engineering teams for 7+ years, including ownership of technical direction, delivery execution, and architecture decisions for complex systems (directly or through influence)
Demonstrated ability to own and drive highly ambiguous problem spaces, translating them into executable program strategies, technical direction, and cross-team roadmaps.
Proven track record of Principal-level leadership through influence, operating across multiple organizations without direct authority.
Proven experience engaging and working directly with Fortune 500 CISOs or equivalent senior security executives, translating strategic security needs into actionable technical and product direction.
Deep working knowledge of the Microsoft Security product portfolio, with the ability to reason across capabilities, architectures, and customer-critical scenarios at a portfolio level.
Willingness and ability to travel frequently to collaborate in person with geographically distributed teams, primarily located in the United States and Israel.
Strong security fundamentals, including threat modeling, secure architecture, and modern enterprise security challenges.
Additional or preferred qualifications
15+ years of experience delivering and/or leading mission-critical technology in security, cloud platforms, AI systems, or similarly complex environments.
Experience contributing to or leading venture investment or technical diligence activities, including evaluation of startup technologies, product architectures, and technical risk.
Experience operating at CTO- or VP-equivalent scope within highly technical, engineering-driven organizations, owning technology strategy and execution across multiple teams, organizations, or large technical initiatives.
Demonstrated experience across both private-sector and public-sector / government environments, including work in regulated, adversarial, or high-stakes operational contexts.
Experience leading or contributing to large-scale technology incubations, including portfolio-wide or national-scale initiatives.
Background spanning silicon-to-cloud or low-level-to-application security considerations, informing system-level and architectural decisions.
Record of innovation output, including authored or co-authored patents, publications, or externally visible thought leadership in security or AI.
MBA or equivalent experience bridging engineering execution, product strategy, and business or investment decision-making.
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.**