Abstract: Systems and methods for managing rate-controlled and scheduled workloads in distributed computing systems. One example method provides a distributed two-phase algorithm, which utilizes an external timer service and local high-resolution timers to orchestrate time critical workloads on distributed computing systems. The first phase is a planning phase implemented as a recurrent process by means of repeated registrations to the external timer service. During the planning phase, a portion or all of the workload to be performed is broken down into small batches to be assigned to computing instances for execution at a later time. The second phase is a batch execution phase. Each batch planned during the planning phase includes fine-grained instructions as to when each item within the batch is to be executed. The computing instance receiving the batch uses local high-resolution timers to synchronize the execution of items relative to one another.