Senior Program Manager, Content Provenance Standards

Microsoft's Corporate Standards Group (CSG) advances standards that support innovation, interoperability, trust, and responsible technology adoption. CSG works across Microsoft and with standards organizations, industry consortia, governments, academia, and civil society to help shape technical and governance frameworks that enable Microsoft's product, policy, and business priorities. 

The Senior Program Manager, Content Provenance Standards will lead Microsoft's engagement in external standards and industry initiatives focused on content provenance, content authenticity, and AI transparency. This role will translate developments across standards, technology, policy, and regulation into actionable strategies for Microsoft and help advance secure, interoperable, and implementable approaches to trustworthy digital content. 

The successful candidate will operate with substantial autonomy in a complex and rapidly evolving domain. They will work across engineering, research, responsible AI, security, legal, public policy, and product organizations and build trusted relationships with external stakeholders. The role is based in Redmond, reports day to day to the Corporate Standards Group, and works through a formal partnership with the Responsible AI Product Organization to support shared strategy integration, stakeholder alignment, and executive sponsorship. 

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. 

• Lead and coordinate Microsoft's engagement in the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) and related standards organizations, industry consortia, and ecosystem initiatives. 

• Develop and advance Microsoft positions on content provenance for synthetic and authentic content, Content Credentials, content authenticity, digital identity, trust models, and related interoperability frameworks. 

• Influence technical specifications, governance frameworks, conformance programs, implementation guidance, and ecosystem adoption in alignment with Microsoft's product, policy, security, and trust objectives. 

• Establish and drive a clear strategy, roadmap, priorities, and measurable outcomes for Microsoft's content provenance standards portfolio. 

• Translate external technical, regulatory, and market developments into actionable recommendations for engineering, product, responsible AI, security, legal, policy, and research stakeholders. 

• Drive alignment across organizational boundaries, manage dependencies, surface decisions and risks, remove blockers, and maintain momentum on complex initiatives. 

• Serve as a trusted advisor to product and engineering teams evaluating or implementing provenance, authenticity, transparency, and trust technologies. 

• Assess technical, security, governance, legal, and operational implications of specifications and conformance requirements, including scalability and interoperability considerations. 

• Serve as the bridge between Microsoft’s provenance strategy, product objectives, regulatory obligations, and the evolution of the C2PA specifications, ensuring external standards align with Microsoft’s implementation, compliance, security, and trust requirements.    

• Work with policy and regulatory affairs teams to monitor global policy and regulatory developments affecting AI-generated or AI-modified content, machine-readable and perceptible disclosures, and content authenticity. 

• Prepare executive briefings, position papers, strategic analyses, decision materials, and external-facing content for senior leaders and key stakeholders. 

• Represent Microsoft credibly in external engagements and explain complex technical issues to technical, policy, executive, and public audiences. 

• Build trusted relationships with industry partners, standards leaders, regulators, researchers, and civil society stakeholders to proactively form coalitions to help advocate for development of standards that best meet Microsoft product and policy objectives. 

• Contribute to a collaborative and inclusive working culture. 

Required/minimum qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Security, Public Policy, Information Systems, Digital Media, Communications, or a related field AND 4+ years of experience in program management, standards development, technology policy, cybersecurity, trust and safety, digital identity, AI governance, or a related discipline,
  • OR equivalent experience.

Additional or preferred qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Security, Public Policy, Information Systems, Digital Media, Communications, or a related field AND 8+ years experience in program management, standards development, technology policy, cybersecurity, trust and safety, digital identity, AI governance, or a related discipline,
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 6+ years experience managing cross-functional and/or cross-team projects.
• Experience participating in or supporting standards organizations, industry consortia, open-source or foundation governance, government initiatives, or comparable multi-party technical communities.
• Experience developing strategies, roadmaps, position papers, technical analyses, or executive decision materials for complex technology or policy topics.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate and influence across technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience with content provenance, content authenticity, digital identity, public key infrastructure, cryptographic signing, trust services, media integrity, or related technologies.
• Familiarity with C2PA, Content Credentials, the Content Authenticity Initiative, CAWG (Creator Assertions Working Group), AI transparency and disclosure mechanisms, watermarking, fingerprinting, or digital media ecosystems.
• Experience contributing to technical specifications, governance frameworks, conformance or certification programs, or implementation guidance.
• Knowledge of the intersection among technical standards, AI governance, responsible AI, digital safety, security, and emerging regulatory requirements.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple concurrent initiatives and drive execution across highly matrixed organizations.
• Demonstrated external influence through standards contributions, industry leadership, public speaking, technical writing, or ecosystem development.
• Advanced degree in a relevant technical, policy, business, or legal discipline.

Government Affairs IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $105,800 - $204,000 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 $138,400 - $223,300 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.