Senior Easements Program Manager

Cloud Operations and Innovation (CO+I) delivers the global datacenter infrastructure capacity that powers Microsoft's cloud platform. Within CO+I, the Land Development team enables cloud growth by delivering and pre-positioning real estate, land rights, and infrastructure access required to support datacenter development at scale.

Easements to support the delivery of datacenter capacity are increasingly prevalent and complex. The Senior Easements Program Manager leads end-to-end execution of easements and related real estate instruments (power, water, fiber, access, and other critical infrastructure) to keep development and build milestones on track across a fast-moving, multi-stakeholder portfolio.

This role partners closely with Land Development Managers, Acquisition Managers, Engineering & Design, Utilities, Fiber, Construction, and Legal, as well as external parties (utilities, landowners, public agencies, and consultants). The ideal candidate brings strong program and transaction leadership, a bias for action, and a passion for building scalable, repeatable processes that improve speed, quality, and risk management.

• Drive cross-team delivery of power, water, fiber, access, and other easements required for datacenter development and infrastructure delivery.
• Lead negotiations and commercial terms with landowners, utilities, public agencies, and other counterparties to secure timely execution.
• Project-manage external land/ROW suppliers and consultants; set scope, priorities, timelines, and quality expectations, and remove blockers.
• Partner with internal and external legal counsel to streamline drafting, review, approvals, and signature workflows to meet critical deadlines.
• De-risk easement delivery by engaging early in site diligence (e.g., title/ALTA review inputs, constraints identification, and market/authority research) and coordinating mitigation plans.
• Own stakeholder communication and reporting: track milestones, risks, dependencies, and decisions; provide clear, executive-ready updates.
• Drive standardization and continuous improvement: create repeatable playbooks, templates, and automation/controls to improve predictability and reduce cycle time.

Required/Minimum Qualifications:

While not required, we also look for the following Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Business Management, Real Estate, Project Management, or related field AND 7+ years of experience in infrastructure real estate delivery, right-of-way, and/or easement acquisition and negotiation across multiple utility/infrastructure types OR 10+ years equivalent experience.
• Direct datacenter development, utility delivery, or large-scale linear infrastructure experience.
• Experience working in a large, matrixed organization and/or across multiple geographies.
• Familiarity with route engineering constraints for fiber, water, and power projects.
• Experience with project scheduling tools (e.g., Microsoft Project) and process automation/standardization.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple concurrent transactions and stakeholders, prioritize effectively, and deliver results under time pressure.
• Negotiation, written and verbal communication, and executive-ready stakeholder management skills.
• Proficiency with Microsoft tools (Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, Word, SharePoint) and comfort tracking workflows and reporting milestones.

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Real Estate Portfolio Management IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $116,900 - $203,600 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 $148,400 - $222,600 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.