Accessibility Program Manager

Accessibility Program Manager - Core Services Engineering Business Group Sizzle

Core Services Engineering builds, manages the critical products, and services that Microsoft runs on. We boldly pursue big ideas that power transformational advances at Microsoft and for our customers, while helping Microsoft teams work smarter, faster and more securely every day. Core Services Engineering employees have deep technical and business expertise, customer insights, and a clear point of view that comes from first-hand, large-scale experience with Microsoft and industry solutions. We are engineers, technology leaders and experts, digital transformation change agents, and customer advocates. We have exciting opportunities for you to innovate, influence, transform, inspire and grow within our organization and we encourage you to apply to learn more!



Are you passionate about the user experience of Microsoft products for users with disabilities? Are you a technical, experienced professional capable of driving efforts to improve accessibility across a large portfolio of applications and websites? Do you possess strong organizational agility and demonstrate success in engaging multiple levels of the organization? Then read on! Accessibility is a key part of Microsoft’s mission to empower people and organizations to achieve more. Our team partners across the Core Services Engineering and Operations division at Microsoft to make that vision a reality for people with disabilities. We are looking for a Program Manager with proven experience and technical knowledge in Accessibility who can effectively work across multiple organizational boundaries. We are actively seeking a technical program manager who will partner with our PM and engineering teams to drive accessible user experiences across the Core Services Engineering and Operations application and website portfolio. You will work directly with teams to help identify accessibility gaps, coach designers and engineers on best practices, and contribute to on-going policy and guidelines for accessibility standards and requirements. The person in this role will have a wide range of skills, including an understanding of all aspects of disability (including blindness, mobility, deafness, cognitive and speech).



Key responsibilities:

• Be recognized as an accessibility technical subject matter authority for user interface experiences, monitoring industry trends to identify best practices.

• Use your expertise to guide others’ work, establishing and sharing standards and policies.

• Work closely with other accessibility, design and usability specialists within CSEO and Microsoft.

• Coach and guide teams through manual and automated Accessibility testing and remediation techniques and methods.

• Identify the top problem areas or issues impacting the user experience for users with disabilities and drive the appropriate changes across the engineering lifecycle.

• Effectively exercise and demonstrate deep cross group ownership of complex projects and processes. Partner with multiple engineering teams to identify the right support needed to drive accessibility efforts.



Knowledge, experience and skills:

• Passion for technology, Accessibility and overall quality of software and site experiences, including QA testing experience.

• Passion and empathy for all users, and for resolving the difficulties they face while using our software. 3-5 years of experience directly working with Accessibility requirements for technology.

• Experience developing application and websites that are Accessible using technologies such as HTML5, ARIA, JavaScript, ASP.Net, C++, C#.

• Familiarity with free and paid tools in the market for accessibility evaluations and improvements. Ability to effectively communicate the complexities of Accessibility to technical and non-technical audiences - including executive, individual contributors and team audiences with varying skillsets. Demonstrated experience with Accessibility standards and guidelines such as 508, 255, CVAA and WCAG.

• Familiarity with functions and use of Assistive technologies such as JAWS, Narrator, NVDA, Dragonspeak, etc.

• Solid understanding of software tools and software development life cycle.

• Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills.

• Team player with proven ability to build trusting relationships and to work in diverse teams.

• Proven ability to effectively collaborate and manage multiple groups and tasks to schedule



Preferred, not required:

• Experience working and partnering directly with communities of users with disabilities and driving change into the software.

• Experience with guiding developers in the appropriate use of Accessible technology.

• Certification in Accessibility is preferred. E.G.: Trusted Tester, CPACC (Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies), WAS (Web Accessibility Specialist)

• Experience and skills in UI (User Interface) development.



Basic Qualifications

• 2 year of work experience developing applications or website development

• 1 year of experience as a Program Manager or Project Manager

• 2 year of work experience developing applications or website development





The ideal candidate will have experience in a team environment, experience running and designing enterprise scale services and platforms, technical depth in cloud platforms, agile development practices, and experience in designing & tuning telemetry. In addition, this position requires an individual who can demonstrate the ability to ensure highly resilient and scalable service designs through partnership with other members of the service team.





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. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request to askstaff@microsoft.com.

Job #
1080160
Locations
United States, Redmond (WA)
Job families
Core Services Engineering
Teams
Core Services Engineering
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