Director of Surface Accessibility

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
Do you have a passion to work for a company that is focused on strengthening community in a diverse, equitable and inclusive way? Do you want to make a measurable impact to Consumer and Commercial products that exceed our customer’s needs? Come join Microsoft and the DPO organization and help champion inclusive growth, leading by example in products, services and within our team.

The DPO (Devices Planning and Operations) organization is looking for an experienced Program Manager to lead the organization as the Director of Surface Accessibility PM with a focus on deepening our inclusive product making practices and knowledge across our Surface Hardware and Software engineering teams to deliver inclusive growth. The role of the Director of Surface Accessibility Program Manager will focus on developing and maintaining a unified plan and communications framework for all accessibility activities for devices, software and experiences, while managing a core set of accessibility subject matter expert resources to help drive accessibility compliance, consultations and guidance to our engineering partners. Desirable candidates should have a natural aptitude for communicating with senior leadership, assessing engineering impact, and addressing implementation challenges that arise from policy decisions. This person will welcome change, focus on enabling our devices engineering partners to create world class accessible products and services, and thrive on teams that constantly adapt and evolve to meet the everchanging regulatory landscape of our complex business. If this sounds like you, this may be a great fit!
Responsibilities

Develop and execute on strategic plans to build world-class accessible products across Surface devices, experiences and SW and ensure alignment with Windows partners
Drive strategic horizontal accessibility initiatives that advance the ability of the Surface organization to deliver compliant world class hardware, software and experiences for everyone.
Understand the business priorities and strategies when it comes to the training and education of accessibility policies and standards to enable accessibility compliance.
Manage a team of accessibility subject matter experts who enable our engineering partners to deliver world class accessible products and services via consultations, training, education, and guidance.
Define the requirements within our Surface development process to ensure we have a repeatable process, partner with our PMO teams to define process requirements
Define the accessibility roadmap along with expected return on investment
Develop Accessibility Rhythm of the Business dashboard to ensure transparency and alignment with partners and product leaders
Develop workstream scorecard and work across teams to provide alignment and updates to the Windows and Devices leadership team
Partner with teams across Microsoft to ensure success in the development and implementation of accessible hardware, software, and experiences for Surface and beyond
Identify, leverage, and evangelize opportunities to improve accessibility inclusive design practices and awareness across Surface.
Convey complex legal concepts and requirements to engineering partners in ways that resonate.
Work closely with Microsoft legal teams and partners to serve as the voice of the customer to the business on matters related to accessibility.

Qualifications


Customer obsession, and a real passion for accessibility
Knowledge and or experience in accessibility industry/practice
Proven track record of leading and implementing large scale transformations and/or driving cultural change management
Demonstrated people management capabilities
Ability to develop quality measures and metrics and use those metrics to drive product feature decisions
Ability to deal well with – and potentially thrive – in ambiguity and successfully execute across a complex, highly-matrixed environment
Exceptional communication skills with an ability to adapt and tailor communications for different audiences
Strategic thinker who can identify inclusive business opportunities across multiple business groups, independently drive alignment and execute action plans that bring focus and synergy
5+ years’ experience in one or more of the following areas or combination thereof: Accessibility, Diversity and Inclusion, Inclusive Design
Either 10+ years’ of proven engineering Program Management or Product Development, driving efforts across multiple disciplines and teams.
Or 10+ years’ experience in Hardware/Software Development, Hardware/Software Development Management, or equivalent.
Bachelors required, MBA or Masters desire


Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.