Principal Cloud Solution Architecture Enterprise
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About this role
Employer-provided description, formatted for easier reading.
Overview We are in search of a Principal Cloud Solution Architect .
The Principal Cloud Solution Architect
Proactively acts as the voice of the customer/partner and internal communities leveraging relevant insights from feedback tools and systems. Proactively identifies and/or translates customer/partner problems into industry solutions. Drives self and guides other team members to focus on customer/partner experience through efficient delivery and ensuring a seamless and connected customer experience.
Anticipates, identifies, escalates, and mitigates blockers using appropriate tools. Delivers solutions in line with company methodologies, ensuring proven practices and patterns are followed. Proactively identifies and anticipates new cross-solution opportunities for Consumption, Usage & Unified expansion at scale.
Operates according to required operational excellence and proven practice standards throughout all sales stages/activities/tools of record. Leverages market insights and demand signals. Leads, mentors, and may assemble virtual teams using knowledge of Microsoft architectures and their context in the competitive landscape.
Proactively identifies and anticipates gaps that enable solutions to scale across customers.
The person for this position needs to live within commuter distance to the Mountain View office.
Microsoft is on a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Our culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day.
Growth mindset encourages each of us to lean in and learn what matters most to our customers, to create the foundational knowledge that enables us to make customer-first decisions in everything we do. In doing so, we create life-changing innovations that impact billions of lives around the world. You can help us achieve our mission.
Responsibilities
Business Impact
Delivers solutions in line with company methodologies (e. g. , product offerings such as value-based deliverables [VBDs], advice, training, technical validation), ensuring proven practices and patterns are followed to prepare complex customers for operational readiness and achievement of their business goals and targets.
Leveraging knowledge of change management proven practices and/or involving the change management team, proactively helps the customer deploy for long-term organizational adoption to increase customer satisfaction and drive consumption/usage. Guides complex customers/partners towards a well-architected (e. g.
, secure, resilient, artificial intelligence [AI]-enabled), and cost- and performance-optimized solution to increase retention and expansion opportunities. Articulates the value of Unified and supports sellers, partnering with account teams to build consumption plans aligned with appropriate services. Provides feedback to Unified Delivery Team on VBDs to refine and further develop content.
Proactively identifies and anticipates new cross-solution opportunities for Consumption, Usage & Unified expansion (especially Enhanced Solutions) at scale based on business value to customer/partner and clear understanding of the Microsoft value proposition for supported platforms to empower cloud success, foster and strengthen security and resiliency, and drive AI innovation.
Strategically consults with, actively listens to, and respectfully challenges customers/partners, building trust to then advocate for alternative architectures/solutions/approaches that shape and/or enhance customer requirements. Identifies, anticipates, and evaluates industry trends (e. g.
, customer industry verticals, information technology [IT] industry), gathers customer/partner insights (e. g. , feedback around technical preferences, environments, business needs, competitive landscape), and maps both existing and novel architecture and digital transformation solutions to customer/partner business outcomes.
Proactively anticipates and captures opportunities in appropriate systems, processes, and tools, working collaboratively across the organization to execute on opportunities aligned with Microsoft's Customer Engagement Model.
Anticipates, identifies, escalates, and mitigates blockers using appropriate tools and processes to accelerate solution deployment, value realization and usage/consumption for complex customers/scenarios. Proactively applies broad business, technical, industry, and/or enterprise knowledge to architecture or support projects to meet business and information technology (IT) requirements and resolve identified constraints.
Operates according to required operational excellence and proven practice standards throughout all sales stages/activities/tools of record (e. g. , pipeline updates, time tracking).
Orchestrates and collaborates across Microsoft and customer/partner teams through on-strategy delivery to achieve customer/partner objectives and increase customer/partner satisfaction. Proactively anticipates and manages business and technical risks, adapts methodology and applies governance principles to identify, communicate, and minimize business and technical risks.
Executes work in compliance with industry and Microsoft guidelines and procedures. Continuously prioritizes among competing demands in their work and identifies where impact occurs with customers, ensuring alignment with business priorities and goals.
Customer Centricity
Proactively identifies and/or translates customer/partner problems into industry solutions aligned with Microsoft product and platform strategy, creates or improves an existing business model, and explains why and/or how they meet customer/partner outcomes and return on investment (ROI) goals (e. g. , via proof of concept, minimally viable product [MVP], rapid prototype) relative to competitive offerings.
Proactively helps the customer/partner accelerate their adoption and use of Microsoft product/platform strategy-aligned (cross-solution area) solutions. Builds relationships with, and provides direction to technical decision makers (TDMs) up to the C-suite level, and builds the bridge between TDMs and business decision makers (BDMs).
Leads and elevates interactions as needed with customers/partners' Chief Information Office (CIO), Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), and other C-level (CXO) roles to bridge understanding of security, compliance, operational and risk requirements across BDMs, TDMs, CIO and CISO teams, appropriately engaging additional subject matter experts when deeper expertise is required.
Proactively acts as the voice of the customer/partner, sharing ideas, feedback, insights, success stories and strategic/technical input with Engineering teams, Product Offerings teams and internal communities leveraging relevant insights from feedback tools and systems.
Identifies and aggregates patterns of feedback across customers/partners/territories/industries, and leverages them with relevant industry perspective to develop strategic and actionable insights. Presents business cases to program managers to advocate for and influence product roadmaps, decision making, and bug fix prioritization, and own and drive initiatives as appropriate.
Drives self and guides other team members to focus on customer/partner experience through efficient delivery and ensuring a seamless and connected customer experience. Drives the realization of customer/partner conditions of success by leveraging an understanding of customer goals.
Anticipates, addresses, and leads customer confidence calls to resolve customer/partner dissatisfaction and unmet needs, and creates and executes strategies to improve customer experience, value realization, and acceleration of transformation.
Partner Specialization
Identifies and directs attention to multiple, strategic opportunities (e. g. , launch deals) that align with revenue goals, and orchestrates growth of solution utilization pipeline with partners.
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