Site Planning Lead

Overview

Microsoft Cloud Operations + Innovation (CO+I) is the team behind the cloud. CO+I is responsible for delivering over 200 Microsoft web portals, Live and Online Services around the world including infrastructure, security and compliance, operations, globalization, and manageability. Our focus is on smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide. We are looking for a passionate individual to help build the network that powers the world’s largest online services.

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.

Responsibilities

• Lead project-level schedule coordination and updates, including IMS maintenance, forecast adjustments, variance commentary, and alignment with site execution status.
• Develop, maintain, and update the project Integrated Master Schedule covering design, permitting, procurement, construction, commissioning, and readiness milestones.
• Own GC schedule management for assigned project(s), including weekly schedule review meetings, monthly schedule submissions, lookahead reviews, schedule narratives, progress validation, and action tracking.
• Support contractor baseline schedule development and evaluation during pre-construction, ensuring alignment with program guidance, requirements, project milestones, sequencing, and execution strategy.
• Validate GC schedule updates against field progress through site walks, GC inputs, actual start / finish dates, progress quantities, and milestone evidence.
• Analyze schedule performance by tracking critical path, float consumption, logic quality, forecast movement, schedule health, resource loading, resource curves, and schedule variance trends.
• Identify schedule risks, blockers, potential delays, and missed commitments, then document and communicate them through risk registers, weekly reporting, health reviews, and project forums.
• Conduct initial review and support validation of Time Impact Analyses (TIAs), EOT requests, delay narratives, and schedule change impacts before escalation to the Sub-Regional Planning Lead and internal stakeholders.
• Assess impacts of design changes, procurement / long-lead equipment delays, permitting constraints, commissioning constraints, construction sequencing changes, and labor / resource issues.
• Develop recovery schedule options, mitigation scenarios, and what-if analysis to support project decision-making and schedule optimization.
• Produce weekly and monthly schedule reports, including schedule status, milestone performance, lookahead risks, variance root cause, mitigation actions, and required stakeholder decisions.
• Support baseline management and change control throughout the project lifecycle by maintaining schedule assumptions, basis of schedule, change narratives, and decision records.
• Facilitate collaborative planning, pull planning, and lookahead sessions with GC and site teams to improve field coordination and execution readiness.
• Escalate risks, repeated schedule quality issues, missing GC submissions, or stakeholder blockers to the Sub-Regional Planning Lead with clear facts, options, and recommendations.

Required/minimum qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Construction Project Management, Architecture, Engineering, or related field AND 5+ 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 8+ years related experience OR equivalent experience.
• 7+ years experience working on data center projects.
• Primavera P6 capability and understanding of CPM scheduling methodology.
• Experience maintaining construction project schedules and performing weekly / monthly schedule updates.
• Experience working with contractors, site teams, engineering, procurement, commissioning, and project controls stakeholders.
• Ability to prepare clear schedule narratives, variance commentary, risk updates, and forecast explanations.

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Pay and benefits

Construction Project Management IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $97,600 - $188,400 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 $125,000 - $206,400 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.