Senior Technology Specialist - Azure Data & AI

In the Small, Medium, Corporate (SMC) and Digital Sales, we have set out with the purpose of empowering our customers through the unique value of the Microsoft cloud by building a globally led, digital-first scale organization aligned with partners. Dedicated to one of the fastest growing customer segments, the SMC and Digital Sales organization is on pace to be Microsoft's next $100 billion-dollar business - this is where you come in. As part of local subsidiaries or Digital Sales centers around the world, you will support a dedicated set of customers in identifying and achieving their business objectives through best-in-class digital engagement and partner co-selling. You will also have an opportunity to work cross-collaboratively while living our shared SMC and Digital Sales Culture priorities: Diversity and Inclusivity, Wellbeing, Sustainability, and Learning. If you have been described as customer obsessed and have a passion for digital-first solutions, we invite you to learn more about the SMC and Digital Sales organization and the value we deliver to our customers, partners, and one another, every day.

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Senior Technology Specialist - Azure Data & Artificial Intelligence (AI) to join our team. As a Senior Technology Specialist, you will be responsible for engaging with customers, understanding their business requirements, and effectively demonstrating and positioning the value of Azure Data and AI solutions. You will play a crucial role in accelerating customers adoption of Azure through demonstrating technical value and influencing business decision makers. As a Technology Specialist, you provide technical guidance and expertise to customers during the evaluation and adoption of Azure data and AI technologies. To be successful in this role, you will have to collaborate with the broader sales teams to develop and deliver compelling presentations, demonstrations, and proofs of concept to showcase the capabilities of Azure data and AI solutions.  To become a trust advisor to our customers a Technology Specialist will need to have a passion to stay up to date with the latest trends and advancements in Azure to effectively communicate benefits to our customers. Additionally, a Technology Specialist will need to collaborate with product teams to provide feedback and insights on customer requirements, product enhancements, and competitive landscape.

The successful candidate will be required to demonstrate and articulate the value proposition of Azure Data and AI services to customers, including but not limited to:

• Azure SQL
• Azure Data Factory
• Azure Databricks
• Azure Cosmos DB
• Azure Machine Learning
• Azure Cognitive Services
• Power BI

If you are passionate about Azure Data and AI services, possess excellent communication and technical skills, and enjoy working in a dynamic and fast-paced environment, we would love to hear from you. Join our team and contribute to the success of our customers by driving the adoption of Azure Data and AI technologies.

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.  

In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• Relevant certifications from Microsoft or competitive platforms AND 3+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience
  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering or related field AND 4+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience
  • OR equivalent experience.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• 7+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting, or related experience.
• 4+ years experience with cloud and hybrid, or on premises infrastructures, architecture designs, migrations, industry standards, and/or technology management.
• Certification in relevant (Microsoft or industry) technologies or disciplines (e.g., Microsoft Office 365, Power BI, Azure Architect and Development exams, Cloud Platform Technologies, Information Security, Architecture).

Digital Technology Specialists IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $48.65 - $93.65 per hour. 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 $62.50 - $102.50 per hour.

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

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances.  We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.

Scale Customer Engagments

• Engages with customer technical decision makers and anticipates customer needs and issues proactively through data gathering.
• Uses knowledge of customer context and solution or portfolio expertise to build credibility with customers individually or at scale. Develops technical and market/industry knowledge.
• Ensures technical wins for core technologies by driving technical discussions with customers. Improves customer interactions through feedback and observation.
• Engages other internal resources (e.g., roles, Microsoft Technology Center, demo sites, virtual sites), mapping out and leveraging foundational resource knowledge for key areas of technology as needed to overcome technical blockers on assigned technology set.

Scale Through Partners

• Engages in partner sell-with scenarios by contributing to the facilitation of technical engagements and partnering with colleagues to manage the sales process.

Build Strategy

• Shares competitive insights from customer sessions with colleagues and escalates/resolves competitive situations to influence compete strategies.
• Provides strategic, technical input based on Microsoft capability to contribute to strategy development, leveraging partner and internal teams.
• Acts as the voice of the customer (VOC) by driving new feedback, blockers, insights, resource (e.g., OneList) items across communities so they can be added and prioritized.
• Works with account teams to tailor Microsoft messaging to audience and captures and shares customer feedback using knowledge of specific Microsoft solutions and their context in a competitive landscape.
• Collaborates with team members to monitor and analyze customer usage of key/prioritized Microsoft solutions/products that support customer’s business outcomes. Identifies opportunities to promote usage.

Solution Design and Proof

• Identifies and applies existing demonstration assets. Demonstrates and oversees demonstrations (e.g., architectural design sessions [ADS], proof of concept [POC] sessions) of solutions based on specific Microsoft products through initial engagements. Leverages partner/customer teams as needed to prove capabilities and integration into customer environment. Reviews partner demonstrations and provides feedback to ensure alignment with Microsoft standards.
• Presents and applies reference architectures across technologies/solution areas to partners or customers for their technology sets.
• Expands awareness of and begins practicing digital transformation sales methodologies (e.g., challenger sales).

Technical Leadership

• Builds their own readiness plan and proactively identifies learning gaps. Grows domain knowledge and practices expertise by communicating with customers, partners, and senior colleagues to expand knowledge of architecture.
• Conducts group training or one-to-many events (e.g., workshops, Webinars) or leverages existing scale enablement programs to present and educate customers and colleagues on the capabilities and benefits across Microsoft solutions/products.
• Monitors and responds to internal and external tech community posts, attends community calls, sessions, hackathon, etc., and acts as a mentor for their technology area. Contributes and participates in Customer Executive Briefing Center sessions. Shares best practices internally on community calls and drives recognition of Microsoft cloud solutions through presentations and engagements with external audiences.

Other

• Embody our culture and values