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Dwight Jones has a far-reaching legacy of building inclusive products and services at Microsoft and other tech companies.
When he started his career 35 years ago, he wouldn’t have guessed that he’d be a leader in this space. Now, his career as an IT pro at Microsoft has come full circle.
“I didn’t know that I would go on to pursue technology and work for a company like Microsoft,” says Jones, who’s currently a principal program manager in Microsoft Digital, the organization that powers, protects, and transforms the company. “I barely got through my high school programming class, and I thought that was it for me.”
If I wanted a fulfilling career, I had to push past the ‘nos’ to get it. For me, this involved leaving Georgia amid the forcing functions of economic downturn and losing contracts so I could pursue work that enabled me to provide for my family.
– Dwight Jones, principal program manager in Microsoft Digital
Jones’s father passed away when he was 12, and he is the youngest child of eight. Coming out of high school, he didn’t have anyone to support him as he applied for college.
“As a Black person being raised by a working mother, my starting line was further back than many others,” Jones says. “When I went to my high school counselor, she told me that by the age of 21, I’d be in jail or dead. That was the expectation that was set for me.”
Jones didn’t listen to that.
Instead, he enrolled in college, where he discovered business information technology coursework. Those coding classes paved the way for him to land his first job as an assistant computer operator.
That was his foot in the door.
“I was hungry and very appreciative for the opportunity,” Jones says. “I worked on so many systems that I ended up getting promoted four times in five years, all during my early 20s. I had discovered my gift, which was working on technology.”
Jones’s life changed forever when he decided to take the leap and fly to the Pacific Northwest to interview for a role at Microsoft. He believed that this decision had the potential to change his life, even though it required him to leave his home state of Georgia, the place where his grandfather set his family on a path toward success after being a slave, and where his father took that one step further by starting the first Black-owned interstate long haul trucking company in America.
“The best meals aren’t made in a microwave, but are the slow cooked ones that take hours to prepare,” Jones says. “If I wanted a fulfilling career, I had to push past the ‘nos’ to get it. For me, this involved leaving Georgia amid the forcing functions of economic downturn and losing contracts so I could pursue work that enabled me to provide for my family.”
Jones landed a role as a network engineer with the MSN Global Network Services team, which positioned him to chart a path not only for his own career, but for other Black and African American people, along with other racial and ethnic minorities, to make their way into IT-related jobs at Microsoft and its peer companies.
After moving to the Pacific Northwest, Jones and his family had to find community with colleagues and through organizations like Blacks at Microsoft, the company’s oldest employee resource group.
“I was raised around Black doctors, educators, civil and other leaders in Atlanta, and the Pacific Northwest felt significantly less racially diverse,” Jones says. “I’ve had the privilege to travel the world on behalf of Microsoft and today I have an extended family of colleagues from all over the world.”
Early in his career, Jones delivered the first network automation tool for the MSN Global Network Services team. Jones also led service improvements on internet protocol security, which handles permissions to connect Microsoft devices to each other. To this day, his work serves as the foundation for network security at Microsoft. He identified the initial requirements, led monthly meetings with partners and stakeholders, and brought the protocol into the company’s network environment. His work supported the next generation of major redesigns of this protocol, earning him a major internal award that was voted on by fellow employees in the IT organization at Microsoft.
“At other companies, I had brought initiatives to life without getting recognition,” Jones says. “At Microsoft, my team and leadership empowered me to get visibility for my work. As a Black man, I didn’t think that I would get recognition, so it meant a lot to me.”
I love Microsoft and the opportunities it has afforded me, but we have to see the bigger picture. We can’t just think of social injustice as something happening elsewhere. We have to look internally and ask, ‘What can I do at home?’
– Dwight Jones, principal program manager in Microsoft Digital
In his current role, Jones works on initiatives to ensure that United States government agencies can work safely in the cloud. This was after his past work to move infrastructures used by corporate users of Skype for Business from physical datacenters to the cloud and ensuring that Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams were included in the Microsoft 365 licensing framework.
With all his past experiences under his belt, Jones was ready for anything.
“With all of the outside obstacles and shifting deadlines amid COVID-19, teams had to push their dates by six months,” Jones says. “We met our initial deadline, which is a testament to us taking on the most challenging technical issues head-on.”
[Read about Microsoft’s 2020 Diversity and Inclusion report and the company’s commitment to accelerate progress amid global change. Find out how Microsoft is using inclusive design and prioritizing accessibility when building out experiences and products.]
Finding mentors, sponsors, and allies to advocate for your work
Jones continues to advocate for more representation in the tech industry. He draws on the legacy of Black and African American people who contributed key innovations in tech and Black civil rights leaders and activists, including Martin Luther King, Jr., and Andrew Young, who lived in Atlanta, where Jones grew up. He is energized by the strides that Microsoft has made around having conversations about race and social justice.
“I love Microsoft and the opportunities it has afforded me, but we have to see the bigger picture,” Jones says. “We can’t just think of social injustice as something happening elsewhere. We have to look internally and ask, ‘What can I do at home?’”
Jones’s work at Microsoft hinges on building relationships with others, and having mentors is a core part of that. One mentor is Sean MacDonald, who was in the same organization as Jones for years. Before working on the same team, MacDonald attended a Black History Month event at Microsoft where Jones was speaking.
“My goal was to learn more about the Black and African American community and how I can be an ally,” MacDonald says. “Afterward, Dwight asked if I was open to being his sponsor.”
Jones and MacDonald now have a mutual mentorship relationship, and MacDonald has been an advocate for Jones’s work to build innovative and inclusive products and services. At the time, Jones had set the goal of being promoted to the principal level, which would be a massive personal career milestone.
“Dwight had all the expertise and passion to get promoted,” MacDonald says. “As a sponsor, I was another voice in the room to add to those conversations and offer my perspective about his track record of success.”
In addition to supporting Jones’s growth, MacDonald has grown in his own allyship journey. He encourages others to learn about the challenges faced by Black and African American employees at Microsoft, among other communities and identities. It’s equally important for allies to do their part to help break down barriers that are faced by communities that are underrepresented in the tech industry.
“As an ally, you never really know what someone has gone through, but you can learn about the barriers they’ve faced and advocate for justice,” MacDonald says. “Educate yourself by reading books, presentations, and resources from Black and African American authors. Know that the learning journey is an ongoing one.”
Driving change by community, for community
Not only has Jones made his own career home at Microsoft, but in recent years he’s turned his mentorship toward his son, David Jones, who joined the company in August 2020.
David grew up visiting the Microsoft campus where his dad worked when he was younger. Not only did he love meeting his dad’s colleagues and grabbing candy on Halloween, he was also inspired by the work of employees who built and deployed the technology he used in school on an everyday basis.
Now, David is paving his own path as an IT service operator at Microsoft who is also supporting the federal project that his father works on—his team acts as the first line of defense for government employees who are working in the cloud.
“I’ve always seen my dad as a superhero and role model, and visiting the office so frequently helped me see myself at Microsoft one day,” David says. “I knew Microsoft was a top-tier company, so I needed to have a clear story about my passion for technology and my business mindset for solving problems.”
If you don’t see someone in the role you want, be that person. That’s what my dad did, and I know that this is only the beginning for me.
– David Jones, IT service operator at Microsoft
David is inspired by his father’s energy and passion for his work, something that he brings to every team he works on or with.
“He’s a vocal advocate for others, and he’s always left the door open behind him,” David says. “He leaves every place better than we found it, and that impact alone is beyond measure.”
The elder Jones’s ongoing legacy will continue to echo in Microsoft. His impact is a testament to the importance of having teams with a diversity of experiences, backgrounds, and skills.
“If I made it through the struggles and the doors that were shut on me, you can too,” he says.
Jones has created a strong legacy of building inclusive products and services, one that his son channels in his work.
“If you don’t see someone in the role you want, be that person,” David says. “That’s what my dad did, and I know that this is only the beginning for me. I know I have the potential to have the same level of impact as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.”
