Royalty Operations Program Manager, Global Payout Solutions

Are you passionate about contributing to a high-performing global team that values collaboration, process excellence, and innovation? Do you want to help improve payment experiences that prioritize stakeholder value through compliant, accurate, and scalable execution?

The Global Payout Solutions (GPS) team within Microsoft comprises experts in compliant and accurate payments to Microsoft suppliers and partners. We use digital technologies and data-driven insights to streamline payment processes and inform business decisions.

We are:

People Focused - The needs, well-being, and growth of the team are priorities.
Tomorrow-minded - We focus on innovation and scalability to drive business outcomes.
Data Driven - Decisions and actions are based on data insights.
Customer Obsessed - The needs of our stakeholders, partners, and payment recipients inform our decisions and actions.
Curious - We are passionate about learning, willing to take thoughtful risks, and committed to learning quickly from setbacks.

As a Royalty Operations Program Manager within Global Payout Solutions, you will manage and coordinate defined activities across the end-to-end administration of complex outbound royalty agreements for an assigned portfolio supporting a broad range of Microsoft businesses, including, but not limited to, Gaming, Azure, Advertising, Hardware, and third-party intellectual property. This Business Operations and Process Management role combines contract interpretation, operational execution, data analysis, controls, issue resolution, and cross-functional stakeholder management. You will translate contractual and commercial terms into clear, controlled, and scalable operating requirements; partner with business, legal, finance, engineering, outsourced/BPO operations, and internal operations teams; and help ensure royalty statements and payments are accurate, timely, compliant, and supported by complete evidence. You will use data, dashboards, and operating metrics to identify risk, investigate variances, improve controls, monitor outsourced operational performance, and advance standardization and automation across a high-volume global operation. This role is well suited to someone who combines process discipline, analytical rigor, sound judgment, attention to detail, ownership, and the ability to influence across teams.

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.  

• Support the end-to-end royalty agreement lifecycle, including administrability review, contract setup, operational requirements, system readiness, statement validation, payment execution, amendments, and termination activities.
• Interpret complex royalty and commercial terms and translate them into clear calculation, reporting, data, payment, evidence, and control requirements; identify terms that cannot be reliably administered and recommend practical alternatives.
• Partner with business development, legal, finance, engineering, outsourced/BPO operations, and internal royalty operations teams to clarify ownership, manage dependencies, resolve issues, and support timely launch and ongoing execution.
• Execute governance routines for outsourced operations, monitor quality and service performance, coordinate escalations, support standardization, and follow through on corrective actions and agreed outcomes.
• Oversee operational validation of royalty statements, payment inputs, adjustments, and supporting evidence to confirm completeness, contractual alignment, payment accuracy, compliance, and process readiness.
• Identify, investigate, document, and escalate material variances, control gaps, recurring defects, partner-impacting issues, and risks to payment accuracy, contractual compliance, partner experience, or timely delivery.
• Use data, and operating metrics to monitor accuracy, timeliness, automation, backlog, partner experience, cost, and service performance; translate findings into decisions, corrective actions, and process improvements.
• Maintain operational controls, standard operating procedures, decision records, training materials, and process documentation that support compliance, audit readiness, security, evidence retention, change management, and adoption.
• Recommend and implement standardization, simplification, and automation improvements within assigned royalty processes to reduce manual effort, improve scalability, strengthen controls, and enable exception-based operations.
• Communicate program health, key risks, decisions, tradeoffs, and recommended actions to stakeholders and leadership through concise written updates, business reviews, and presentations.
• Embody our culture and values 

Required/minimum qualifications
Bachelor's Degree in Business, Operations, Finance, or related field AND 2+ years experience in program management, process management, or process improvement OR equivalent experience.

Additional or preferred qualifications

• Master's Degree in Business, Operations, Finance, or related field AND 3+ years experience in program management, process management, or process improvement OR Bachelor's Degree in Business, Operations, Finance, or related field AND 5+ years experience in program management, process management, or process improvement OR equivalent experience.
• Ability to interpret complex contractual and commercial terms and translate them into accurate, repeatable operational requirements.
• Strong analytical and operational validation skills, with the ability to evaluate large or complex data sets, identify variances, determine root causes, and make well-supported recommendations.
• Understanding of operational controls, compliance requirements, audit support, and evidence-based process execution; experience working in a controlled business environment is preferred.
• High attention to detail and demonstrated ability to verify the accuracy, completeness, and consistency of contracts, calculations, statements, payments, and supporting documentation.
• Strong ownership, judgment, and prioritization skills, including the ability to work through ambiguity, assess risk, manage competing priorities, and escalate issues with clear facts and recommended actions.
• Clear written and oral communication skills, with the ability to prepare effective emails, documents, reports, proposals, presentations, and leadership updates for different audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to build productive cross-functional relationships, influence without direct authority, and follow through with partners on agreed actions, timelines, and outcomes.
• Ability to adapt communication and work approach to different audiences, changing priorities, and an evolving program and operating environment.
• Experience using Excel to analyze operational and payment data and PowerPoint to communicate decisions and program status; experience with dashboards, workflow tools, royalty platforms, automation, or AI-enabled process improvements is preferred.
• Experience working with outsourced operations, BPO providers, managed service teams, or vendor-supported operational processes, including monitoring service quality, coordinating escalations, and following through on corrective actions, is preferred.

Business Program Management IC3 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $77,800 - $153,700 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 $102,200 - $169,900 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.