Solution Area Specialist - Cloud & AI

Overview

Are you passionate about AI and eager to transform the IT landscape? Join our dynamic team as a Senior Cloud & AI Platforms Sales Specialist to lead AI transformation and help customers modernize infrastructure, optimize operations, and drive innovation with Azure's advanced AI capabilities. You'll be part of an inclusive, high-performing, and customer-obsessed team where collaboration, connection, and continuous learning are at the heart of everything we do.

As a Senior Cloud & AI Platforms Sales Specialist, you'll be at the forefront of AI growth and disruption, guiding customers through their AI journey and helping them achieve their strategic goals. You'll ensure customers can fully harness the transformative potential of AI to stay ahead of the competition. If you're ready to make a significant impact and drive AI transformation, we invite you to join us and be part of this exciting journey!

This opportunity enables you to:

• Accelerate your career by leading high-impact Cloud & AI solutions.

• Develop technical and consultative selling skills.

• Build deep business acumen and future-ready capabilities.

• Strengthen leadership through collaboration and best practice sharing.

We are currently looking for Senior Cloud & AI Platforms Sales Specialist professionals to join our teams across various business groups, for varying customer sizes, in our enterprise, regulated, and partner services organizations. By applying to this role, you will be considered for multiple opportunities within Microsoft across the United States, including locations beyond where the role is posted. This role is flexible in that you can work up to 50% from home. Travel percentages will very according to role.

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

Customer Engagement:

• Assesses and qualifies sales opportunities following sales frameworks and guidelines, ensuring alignment with AI-enhanced sales methodologies and best practices. Participates in strategy development for driving and closing moderately complex, significant value opportunities. Collaborates across organizations (e.g., Account Team Unit [ATU], CSU, ISD, GPS) to contribute to deal orchestration and handoffs throughout the deal lifecycle. Utilizes best practices to earn customer buy-in, secure deals, and mitigate risks to facilitate sales activities across the solution area.

• Drives sales strategies tailored to each customer's security priorities, showcasing Microsoft's dedication to secure, AI-powered transformation and addressing their specific needs within the customer success plan. Reviews and translates customer and partner feedback to establish recovery action plans. Develops relationships with key customer and partner stakeholders to understand sentiment and satisfaction goals Drives partner teams, resources and relationships are activated, driving co-selling strategies and partner attach to each opportunity through every stage in the sales lifecycle. Drives partner organization connections (i.e. GPS) to drive share, partner health, that aligns with execution plans to accelerate customer value realization at scale.

Sales & Pipeline Management:

• Analyzes business and emerging opportunities to improve the customer portfolio and encourage customer innovation. Leverages technology (e.g., AI sales agents, automation, Power Platforms) to drive growth within assigned domain. Utilizes propensity, renewal, consumption, and usage data to prioritize sales strategy. Optimizes partners assigned to each account and/or opportunity to facilitate handoffs with other teams (e.g., Global Partner Solutions [GPS], Customer Success Unit [CSU], Industry Solutions Delivery [ISD], Partner) throughout the deal lifecycle.

• Engages in sales pipeline reviews with internal stakeholders to drive forecasting accuracy and meeting sales targets, ensuring the use of AI-powered analytics and forecasting tools to enhance precision. Maintains sales and/or consumption pipeline hygiene to enable tracking to achieve assigned sales metrics using all available tools, resources, and processes Leads usage and/or consumption pipeline hygiene to actively monitor adoption trends, identify opportunities for intervention, enabling customers to realize the value of solutions purchased, drive expansion, and ensure healthier, more predictable renewals

Sales Strategy:

• Evaluates solution area(s) and market and develops insights to align sales plays with customer business priorities and outcomes, incorporating AI-driven predictive analytics to forecast future market needs. Partners across teams to propose solutions and strategies that align with customer business objectives. Identifies and addresses gaps, driving market engagement and sales execution.

• Partners with others cross-organizationally and supports the development of solutions to enable AI- and cloud-driven transformations for existing and new customers within the region, emphasizing the integration of cutting-edge AI technologies and cloud services. Leverages established strategies and participates in conversations with customers to distinguish Microsoft's offerings in the competitive landscape. Serves as an trusted advisor for customers and guides the adoption of technologies and solutions that align with their goals and drive digital transformation.

• Leverages whitespace analysis and partners with others to identify business opportunities and market gaps within the assigned market domain, utilizing AI-driven market intelligence tools to assess trends and insights. Evaluates and disseminates market intelligence, trends, and insights across the team. Leverages established market analysis approach to ensure alignment with strategic directives and market trends.

• Leads discussions with customer stakeholders and decision makers to identify, qualify, prioritize and accelerate sales opportunities. Acts as a point of contact and collaborates with internal stakeholders within and across organizations to drive to customer success. Engages with account teams to align the customer's artificial intelligence (AI) transformation vision with their business priorities and success objectives. Incorporates and reinforces security principles in customer interactions, opportunity, and pursuits to maintain trust and compliance standards.

Other:

• Embody our culture and values

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Administration, Information Security, Information Security, or related field AND 4+ years experience in technology-related sales or account management
• OR equivalent experience.

Other Requirements

• Citizenship & Citizenship Verification: This position requires verification of U.S citizenship due to citizenship-based legal restrictions. Specifically, this position supports United States federal, state, and/or local United States government agency customers and is subject to certain citizenship-based restrictions where required or permitted by applicable law. To meet this legal requirement, citizenship will be verified via a valid passport.
• Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's Degree in Business Administration (i.e., MBA), Information Technology, Information Security, or related field AND 8+ years experience in technology-related sales or account management

• OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Administration, Information Security, or related field AND 12+ years experience in technology-related sales or account management

• OR equivalent experience

• 12+ years solution or services sales experience

• 12+ years of experience selling business solutions to global customers with a focus on Cloud Native, AI, or Data platform and/or analytics

• 12+ years of experience engaging with large enterprise customers, including managing multiple stakeholders and navigating complex sales cycles

• Working knowledge of Cloud Platform: Understanding of Microsoft Azure infrastructure, data, and AI application platforms, with the ability to articulate technical solutions to business and IT stakeholders

Solution Area Specialists IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $107,600 - $187,500 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 $145,600 - $205,600 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:


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.