Director, Solution Engineer (Azure)

Overview

The Software and Digital Platforms organization at Microsoft is one of the fastest-growing, most dynamic, and most innovative teams in the Company - operating with agility inside a global Cloud and AI leader. We partner with large software and platform companies building frontier AI, next-generation SaaS platforms, and cloud-native products.
We are hiring a Director, Solution Engineer (Azure) to lead a high-performing team of Solution Engineers who build Azure-powered solutions, design end-to-end technical approaches, run deep technical engagements, and shape the cloud strategy for some of Microsoft's most strategic AI-native customers.
This leader will coach Solution Engineers who thrive in ambiguity, love solving complex technical challenges, and operate with an entrepreneurial mindset. You'll guide the team through technical design, customer engagement, proofs of concept, cloud adoption planning, and cross-functional orchestration with engineering, product, partner, and field teams.
This is a high-visibility role with strong executive sponsorship, offering a career-defining opportunity to influence Microsoft's position in the startup and AI ecosystems while developing the next generation of technical leaders.

The Director, Solution Engineer (Azure) has people management responsibilities including driving employee growth and development, executing projects, and managing performance. Proactively identifies and engages with key customer technical decision makers and influencers while engaging sales team. Uses knowledge to build credibility with customers. Enables and empowers team to influence customer decisions and ensure technical wins by streamlining processes and managing the flow of wins, leveraging deep knowledge of processes. Leverages knowledge of resources. Ensures consistency and quality through capturing, sharing, and adherence of standards and best practices in customer engagements by implementing cross-functional initiatives to different channels across a subsidiary to drive consistency in technical approach and ensure customer technical experience across teams. Orchestrates team resources and coaches team to maximize impact of customer engagements and drive mid-to long-term strategy through cross-workload capacity planning, prioritization, and utilization of resources. Maximizes area-level capacity and capabilities by coaching team to grow partner network, identifying gaps and promoting Microsoft within the Microsoft ecosystem. Supports partner technical capacity by monitoring and analyzing resources through interactions, communicating with managers, and identifying new partnership opportunities to build subsidiary strategy. Coaches and provides support to team and across internal teams to define and execute strategy.

Responsibilities

Advising Client Technical Decisions

• Engaging with customers and guiding them through technical decisions related to the purchase and use of Microsoft technology. Providing expertise and insights to help customers make informed decisions that align with their technology goals.

Competitive Analysis

• The ability to identify competitors and evaluate their respective strengths and weaknesses in terms of products, services, marketing, and other areas. This includes an ability to gather intelligence and interpret it for the purposes of business decisions.

Consultative Selling

• The ability to understand customer needs through dialogue before recommending products/services.

Driving Insight-Led Conversations

• The ability to bring a differentiated, tailored point of view to customer or partner conversations that create a valuable purchase experience for the customer/partner.

Strategic Technical Planning

• The ability to map the company's products and solutions to customer modernization and digital transformation plans in order to drive business outcomes.

Technical Communication

• The ability to adapt communications around different technologies, products, and services to the audience's level of understanding.

Technical Sales

• The ability to explain Microsoft's products and services to customers and identify opportunities for customers to grow their business.

Business Knowledge

• The ability to appreciate the technical nature of the business, as well as how a particular function relates to that industry and the competition.

Building Stakeholder Relationships

• Building and nurturing strong, long-term relationships with clients and stakeholders to foster trust and enhance customer satisfaction.

Demonstrating Microsoft Solution Capabilities

• Demonstrating the capabilities of Microsoft solutions effectively to showcase their value to customers. Applying technical architectures to client scenarios, illustrating how Microsoft technology can address their unique challenges, and collaborating with partners in sell-with scenarios to leverage the partner ecosystem.

Readiness for Deployment

• Serving as a contact point for technical resources, both within the organization and externally through partners. Proactively supporting readiness of clients for implementation and supporting resolution of blockers or challenges to that readiness in order to ensure that customer needs are met.

Build Strategy

• Builds competitive knowledge of team by enabling competitive learning and identifying experts to share knowledge. Enables team to share compete knowledge with internal teams and communities, influence compete strategies, and highlight Microsoft advantages during architecture and capability discussions. Acts as a subject matter expert on a particular competitive discipline(s).Maintains communications with internal partners (e.g., Account Technology Unit [ATU], Customer Service Unit [CSU] manager, SSM) on highest potential customers to pre-align technical resources to customer and customer cases based on account planning and priorities, with the flexibility to realign to minimize orchestration and enable proactive engagements as needed.Works with local marketing and account teams to shape strategic win and customer success plans and tailor to audience for the local markets using knowledge of Microsoft offerings, their context in the competitive landscape, and broader market trends. Ensures team is equipped to execute compete strategy, collaborating with cross-functional groups as needed. Where applicable, oversees team(s) in the building of consumption plans with moderately complex requirements in coordination with Partner and Industry Solutions Delivery teams after customer sign-off.

Education

• Ensures team members participate in tech communities and drives feedback to improve overall team member experience and effectiveness at subsidiary level.Acts as a technical thought leader by sharing best practices (e.g., architectures, materials) and regularly delivering content at Microsoft events (e.g., TechReady). Provides insight into how to identify opportunities to increase solutions/portfolio understanding.Enables and empowers team to develop technical expertise and provide technical insights to internal teams. Acts as a role model by increasing own technical knowledge and serving as a respected technology leader to team. Provides insight onto Corporate, business and product groups, sales strategy, and business reviews for impact.

Leverage Partner Ecosystem

• Supports partner technical capacity by monitoring and analyzing resources through interactions, communicating with managers, and identifying new partnership opportunities to build subsidiary strategy.Maximizes area-level capacity and capabilities by coaching team to grow partner network, identifying gaps and promoting Microsoft within the Microsoft ecosystem (e.g., account teams). Raises escalations or alleviates blockers through collaboration with manager-level counterparts in cross-functional groups.

People Management

• Managers deliver success through empowerment and accountability by modeling, coaching, and caring. Model: Live our culture. Embody our values. Practice our leadership principles. Coach: Define team objectives and outcomes. Enable success across boundaries. Help the team adapt and learn. Care: Attract and retain great people. Know each individual's capabilities and aspirations. Invest in the growth of others.

Scale Customer Engagements

• Proactively identifies and engages with key customer technical decision makers and influencers while engaging sales team. Coaches and enables team to identify and proactively engage with key customer technical decision makers and influencers to help unblock technical obstacles.Enables and empowers team to influence customer decisions and ensure technical wins by streamlining processes and managing the flow of wins, leveraging deep knowledge of processes (e.g., Managed Service Provider [MSP], Managed Certified Professional [MCP]), tools, and programs (e.g., FastTrack, End Customer Investment Funds [ECIFs]). Aligns goals across solution areas and facilitates cross-selling with various workloads (e.g., Apps, Data and Infrastructure)Leverages knowledge of resources (e.g., roles, Microsoft Technology Center [MTC], demo sites, virtual sites, Value Based Delivery [VBD], Customer Success Unit [CSU]) and owns resolution of technical and non-technical blockers by engaging other teams (e.g., engineering, Account Team Unit [ATU], Specialist Team Unit [STU]) and conveying impact. Anticipates and addresses future potential blockers based on needs. Identifies patterns of blockers within area of expertise and drives resolution through local and global escalation.Uses knowledge of customer context, and deep technical, domain, and industry knowledge to build credibility with customers.Ensures consistency and quality through capturing, sharing, and adherence of standards and best practices in customer engagements by implementing cross-functional initiatives to different channels across a subsidiary to drive consistency in technical approach and ensure customer technical experience across teams.Orchestrates team resources and coaches team to maximize impact of customer engagements and drive mid-to long-term strategy through cross-workload capacity planning, prioritization, and utilization of resources. Proactively plans team resources and influences future blueprints. Qualifies and prioritizes opportunities, and holds team accountable for maximizing selling time to achieve scorecard objectives and subsidiary strategy.

Solution Design and Proof

• Applies advanced sales methodologies (e.g., challenger sales) and coaches team in guiding customers through digital transformation solutions and using innovation to challenge solutions against changing technology (e.g., Power Apps).Identifies new technical and business trends and needs, and identifies ideas that can be transformed into solutions that benefit customers/partners, serving as the voice of the customer (VOC) to Microsoft. Ensures input is utilized and solutions for the customer are established at the area level.Coaches team and oversees demonstrations (e.g., architectural design sessions, and proof of concept [POC] sessions, pilots, hackathons) of solutions based on multiple products and position solutions against competitors. Ensures demonstrations enable customers to identify and resolve technical issues with clear criteria and next steps that guarantee deployment of Microsoft technology.Promotes adaptation and extension of architecture patterns to accommodate complex customer requirements and drive integration solutions for industry flavor.Coaches team to envision new and innovative solutions that use Microsoft technology to meet customer needs. Supports team in coordinating with stakeholders to develop solutions for complex sales scenarios. Ensures team capability to execute on those solutions.

Qualifications

QualificationsRequired/minimum qualifications

• Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business or related field AND 4+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 6+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience OR 7+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience OR equivalent experience.

Additional or preferred qualifications

• 8+ years technical pre-sales, technical consulting, or technology delivery, or related experience OR equivalent experience.
• 6+ years experience with cloud and hybrid, or on premises infrastructures, architecture designs, migrations, industry standards, and/or technology management.
• 3+ years people management experience (including leading virtual teams).

Solution Engineering M5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $130,900 - $251,900 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 $165,600 - $272,300 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:
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This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.