Principal Technical Product Manager
Product, IT
Redmond, WA, USA
At Mojang Studios, the creators of Minecraft, we are on a mission to build a better world through the power of play.
Why play? Well, play is at the heart of everything we do. It’s the blocky backbone of our games, the core of our development philosophy, and even the origin of our name. From the relentless experimentation of our endlessly inspiring community to the classrooms where Minecraft has become an essential teaching tool, play is the bedrock of our existence.
We enable millions to create and play together, connect people across the globe, and foster a community that is among the most active and passionate in the world. Our community is global and incredibly diverse. When we are developing anything within our franchise, we keep this in mind. We want everyone to not only feel included in Minecraft, but also to see themselves in what we make. Our goal is for the Mojang Studios team to be as diverse as our community.
China is one of our most important and most complex markets, where Minecraft is co-developed and published in partnership with NetEase and reaches a massive player base. We are looking for an experienced Technical Product Manager to lead the Minecraft China program.
This is a principal individual-contributor leadership role that owns the technical product strategy, partner relationship, and execution that brings Minecraft to the Chinese market. You will set the long-term technical strategy for China, drive complex cross-team initiatives, and own the health of the China codebase. Success in this role requires deep technical product sense, cross-cultural stakeholder management, ability to lead cross-functional teams, and the ability to build trust with a long-term co-development partner. Mandarin fluency is preferred.
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.
Responsibilities
- Technical strategy
- Own and drive the long-term technical strategy and multi-year roadmap for Minecraft China in partnership with internal and external teams.
- Lead regular ongoing syncs and organize technical summits between internal and external teams to align high-level technical direction, surface risks and dependencies, share knowledge, and build cross-team relationships.
- Development planning and execution
- Ensure on-time delivery of major China content releases, proactively managing dependencies, dev tooling/build upgrades, security needs, and emergent support issues.
- Implement strategy and own health of the China codebase by leading technical migrations, reducing tech debt, driving code integration, identifying areas for improvement and working closely with our co-dev partner to understand their needs.
- Team management
- Lead and manage external development teams, including resourcing, priorities, access, and roadmaps to ensure healthy operations and unblock high-risk workstreams.
- Own resource planning and forecasting (such as annual capacity planning) to ensure the right talent is in place to execute priority China workstreams.
- Partnership management
- Manage stakeholder relationships across leadership and partner teams, advocating for China's needs and raising visibility of partner challenges, contributions, and business impact.
- Partner with security and compliance to ensure China workstreams meet security standards and partners have appropriate access to internal systems and assets.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's Degree AND 8+ years experience in product/service/program management or software development
- OR equivalent experience.
Preferred Qualifications
- Fluent in Mandarin and English, able to lead technical meetings and negotiations in both.
- Experience with Games as a Service (GaaS) and live operations.
- Self-starter who can set a clear path and drive it through ambiguity and obstacles.
- Proven track record of leading large, complex, multi-team technical initiatives with significant cross-team dependencies.
- Stakeholder management skills and the ability to influence and secure resourcing and support from leadership.
- Experience of owning a technical product or platform strategy and multi-year roadmap.
- Experience managing external or partner development teams and co-development partnerships.
- Written and verbal communication, able to translate complex technical topics for leadership audiences.
- Experience working with global teams across multiple cultures and time zones, including Chinese companies and work culture, with the ability to work flexible hours.
In the end, it’s the people of Mojang Studios that make this place truly special. When you join, you’ll find yourself in the company of incredibly bright, warm, and creative individuals – all united and working toward a single goal. Come help us reach it!
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Product Management IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $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.