Senior Cloud Solution Architect - Data & AI

With over 17,000 employees worldwide, the mission of the Customer Experience & Success (CE&S) organization is to empower customers to accelerate business value through differentiated customer experiences that leverage Microsoft's products and services, ignited by our people and culture. Come join CE&S and help us build a future where customers achieve their business outcomes faster with technology that does more.

CSA Global Delivery organization within Global Customer Success (GCS) & CE&S, is leading the effort to enable customer success on the Microsoft Cloud by harnessing leading, AI-powered capabilities and human expertise to deliver innovative solutions that accelerate business value, drive operational excellence and nurture long term loyalty. This team, consisting of both full-time employees (FTEs) and Partner Cloud Solution Architects (CSAs), is dedicated to enhancing customer experiences as they transition to hybrid and public cloud solutions.

We are looking for a S enior Cloud Solution Architect specializing in Data & AI , who is passionate about driving our customers' transformation on Microsoft Azure to join our CSA Global Delivery team. This is a customer-facing role, owning the technical relationship between the customer and Microsoft, helping customers to leverage their Microsoft investments through architecture, and operational health engagements. Using your expertise in Azure and Data & AI solutions, you will lead technical engagements with customers, empowering them to unlock the full potential of their Microsoft investments. You will also guide them in overcoming obstacles that hinder the success of their data and AI projects. This role offers a unique opportunity to advance your career, sharpen your technical and collaborative skills, and deepen your expertise in cloud technologies. Role also might involve leading and growing Partner CSAs on the team as a Pod Lead.

Your Role and Impact:

• Strategic Guidance: Engage with customers to understand their goals and challenges, then provide strategic solutions that maximize the value of their Microsoft technology investments.

• Technical Leadership: Lead in-depth technical discussions, offering insights and recommendations to overcome complex challenges in data and AI initiatives both On-premises (SQL Server) as well as in Azure .

• Empowering Customers: Support customers in achieving successful outcomes by developing tailored solutions that drive their digital transformation and innovation.

• Continuous Growth: Leverage this opportunity to advance your career while enhancing your knowledge and skills in cutting-edge cloud technologies.

This role is flexible in that you can work up to 50% from home.

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.

Responsibilities:

You will understand customers' overall data estate Business and IT priorities and success measures to design Data & Analytics solutions that drive business value and drive positive Customer Satisfaction & become a trusted advisor.

• You will ensure that solution exhibits high levels of performance, security, scalability, maintainability, repeatability, appropriate reusability , and reliability upon deployment and provide feedback and insights from customers/partners.
• You will develop opportunities to drive Customer Success business results & help Customers get value from their Microsoft investments and identify resolutions to Customer blockers by leveraging subject matter expertise . Deliver according to MS best practices & using repeatable Intellectual Property (IP).
• You will apply technical knowledge to architect and design solutions that meet business and IT needs, create Data & Analytics roadmaps, drive Proof of Concepts (POC) and Minimal Viable Product (MVP), and ensure long term technical viability of new deployments, infusing key AI technologies where appropriate .
• You will be the Voice of Customer to share insights and best practices, connect with Engineering team to remove key blockers and drive product improvements.
• You will maintain technical skills and knowledge, keep up to date with market trends and competitive insights; collaborate and share with the AI technical community while educating customers on Azure platform.
• You will accelerate customer outcomes - Share expertise , contribute to IP creation & re-use to accelerate customer outcomes and obtain relevant accreditations and certifications. Proactively identify gaps through delivery and communicating those gaps to others (e.g., Leadership, managed intellectual property [MIP], Design, and Governance). Applies subject matter expertise to develop new IP that fills identified gaps

Technical leadership

• Design the solution using your Data Platform technical knowledge, architectural approach, consultancy skills and our methodology to win a customer's technical decision and meet the customer's needs; drive proof of concepts (POCs)/production deployments to create momentum for MVPs, infusing key AI technologies where appropriate and being technically proficient to do POC with hands-on-skills.
• Data Platform technologies, including SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, and Azure Cosmos DB, as well as Analytics, Data Warehousing, and Data Engineering scenarios. Focus on Intelligent Data and Analytics Platforms such as Synapse, Lakehouse architecture, Fabric, Azure Databricks, and Power BI. Stay informed on market trends and competitive insights and actively collaborate and share knowledge within the Data & AI technical community.
• Experience in Azure architecture design, Azure IaaS, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, High Availability, service resilience and distributed systems.
• Experience as a Database Administrator, data platform design, SQL Server at scale, on-premises to Azure migrations, complex SQL Server troubleshooting, performance tuning and optimization, scaling OLTP and OLAP workloads, and securing SQL Server on-premises or in Azure
• Experience with High Availability/Disaster Recovery solutions such as Failover Clustering, Database Mirroring, Always-On Availability Groups, and Replication
• Use trace analysis, debug skills, source code, and other proprietary tools, to analyze problems and develop solutions to meet customer needs; this may involve writing code
• Consultative experience along with p resentation skills with a high degree of comfort with both large and small audiences
• Leverages development opportunities (e.g., mentorships, role-based resources, trainings, internal events such as Ready, Build, Ignite) to learn new technologies or services.
• Learns to identify and communicate areas in intellectual property (IP) that need refreshing or have gaps. Contributes to IP development with guidance/supervision.

Other

• Embody our culture and values.

Qualifications:

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, or related field AND 4+ years experience in cloud/infrastructure technologies, information technology (IT) consulting/support, systems administration, network operations, software development/support, technology solutions, practice development, architecture, and/or consulting
  • OR equivalent experience

• 4+ years experience with cloud and hybrid, or on premises infrastructures, architecture designs, migrations, industry standards, and/or technology management.

• 4+ years of experience with SQL Server, SQL Server on Azure VMs, Azure SQL DB, and/or Azure SQL Managed Instance, Data Warehouses, Power BI.

• Experience in SQL Server at scale, on-premises to Azure migrations, complex SQL Server troubleshooting, performance tuning and optimization, scaling OLTP and OLAP workloads, and securing SQL Server on-premises or in Azure.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, or related field AND 8+ years' experience in cloud/infrastructure technologies, information technology (IT) consulting/support, systems administration, network operations, software development/support, technology solutions, practice development, architecture, and/or consulting
  • OR Master's Degree in Computer Science , Information Technology, Engineering, Business, or related field AND 6+ years experience in cloud/infrastructure technologies, technology solutions, practice development, architecture, and/or consulting
  • OR equivalent experience
• 4 + years experience working in a customer-facing role (e.g., internal and/or external).
• 4 + years experience working on technical projects
• Technical Certification in Cloud (e.g., Azure, Azure Data Plaftorm , Power BI, Amazon Web Services, Google, security certifications).
• Technical experience and knowledgein Enterprise-scale technical experience with On-premises , cloud and hybrid infrastructures, architecture designs, migrations, and technology management.Have and develop proficiency in:
  • SQL Server technologies
  • Azure Databases (Azure SQL, Azure Postgres SQL, Azure MySQL, Cosmos DB)
  • Power BI
  • Microsoft Fabric (Fabric DW, Real-Time Intelligence, OneLake , Data Integration, Data Engineering, Copilot, Data Science)
  • Azure Databricks
  • Microsoft Purview
  • Azure AI Foundry

Cloud Solution Architecture IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $106,400 - $203,600 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 $137,600 - $222,600 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: ;br>
Microsoft will accept applications for the role until August 1, 2025.

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.

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