Join Team Xbox and help shape the future of gaming on Windows. We’re on a mission to empower players to play the games they want, with the people they want, anywhere they want, across PC, handhelds, and beyond.

We are seeking a Principal Product Manager to own and drive Performance Engineering for the Xbox Platform Team to support the gaming device product roadmap including consoles, handhelds, and PCs. This role is accountable for defining performance requirements, building predictable and repeatable performance infrastructure, and establishing a rigorous, automated performance validation and reporting model that scales with our device roadmap.

Operating at the intersection of platform engineering, OS, hardware, and developer experience, this leader will establish performance as a first‑class product requirement, shaping platform roadmaps, driving cross‑org alignment, and influencing architectural and investment decisions across Xbox and Windows.

• Own the long‑term performance vision and strategy for Xbox platforms, aligning console, and device roadmaps with gaming‑specific performance expectations on Windows.
• Define platform level performance requirements and success metrics for core gaming scenarios, ensuring consistency across hardware generations, operating systems, and form factors.
• Act as the single accountable owner for performance readiness across the Xbox platform, influencing prioritization and tradeoffs at senior leadership levels.

• Establish and own a standardized, scalable performance infrastructure that delivers predictable, repeatable performance workloads across representative hardware and OS configurations.
• Drive architectural alignment across engineering teams to reduce variance, improve signal quality, and eliminate one‑off or ad‑hoc performance testing approaches.
• Ensure performance systems scale with platform complexity, supporting consoles, handhelds, and future device categories.

• Establish durable operating mechanisms that sustain performance quality beyond individual releases.

• Own weekly and milestone‑based performance reporting, delivering clear, decision‑ready insights to senior leadership.
• Build and maintain performance scorecards that track trends, risks, and progress across OS releases, device generations, and gaming scenarios.

• Influence architectural and roadmap decisions through deep technical understanding of OS internals, performance measurement, and gaming workloads.
• Raise the bar for performance rigor across the Xbox organization by defining standards, expectations, and best practices adopted at scale.

Required/minimum qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree AND 8+ years experience in product/service/program management or software development
  • OR equivalent experience.

• 10+ years of technical program management experience shipping products/services
• 5+ years of Performance Engineering experience
• Proficient technical depth in low level systems performance, operating systems, and performance measurement at scale, able to engage credibly in architectural discussions.
• Track record of building durable infrastructure, processes, and operating models.
• Experience working with gaming platforms, graphics intensive workloads, or developer performance requirements strongly preferred.
• Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to influence strategy and decisions through data driven insights.

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Product Management IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 - $274,800 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 $188,000 - $304,200 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.