Cloud Solution Architecture Lead

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.

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.

**Job Overview**

We are looking for a _Cloud Solution Architect (CSA) Lead_, specializing in Data & AI, who is passionate about driving our customers’ transformation on Microsoft Azure, especially in the era of AI.

This role will be part of the CEMA CSU HQ Data & AI team which will enable and support CSU Data & AI priorities around AI & AI Design Wins, CSU Migration Factory and Enhanced Solutions, as well driving our accountabilities in ACR through pipeline acceleration (Job 1) and pipeline contribution (Job 2).

As the CSA Lead, you will guide the CSA and CSA Manager community across CEMA by developing business strategy/motions, planning and execution against those CSU priorities, as well as engaging directly with key customers and partners. As part of this role, you will be expected to engage with other stakeholders in CEMA (including our Support solution area, as well as other segments) and Corp, as part of our one Microsoft approach to helping our customers be successful.

**Responsibilities**:
**Key responsibilities include**:

- Contribute to the design development of the Area strategy for Data & AI CSU priorities
- Convert the above strategy into a clear plan of execution including communication plan, roles & responsibilities, collateral, resources and progress/tracking process
- Executing the plan and demonstrating progress, and escalating blockers, challenges and asks for help as they arise.
- Providing insights against those priorities during review periods, as well as using those insights to advise on direction changes in strategy and execution.
- This includes leveraging the correct reporting and data sources to build views on the performance against our priorities
- Establish the appropriate connections and collaboration with stakeholders from ATU, STU, GPS, ISD, Engineering, Corp and others as necessary to enable our priorities and mission
- Be abreast of current developments in the products and services in our solution area, as well as the market landscape (compete and trends), especially in AI
- Amplify the Voice of the Customer within Microsoft, representing the customers’ technical interests, generating insights, removing obstacles, and influencing engineering roadmaps.
- Identify and document consumption best practices and customer references/wins to further grow the success of Data & AI in CEMA
- Support the build and growth of a healthy CSA community through talent management, diversity and inclusion and skilling. Inspire and foster a culture of customer-centricity and consumption. This includes ensuring our CSA skillset and capacity is aligned to the needs of our customers and Microsoft success.
- Provide support, coaching and enablement to the CSA community to ensure effective delivery against our priorities.
- Become an expert in the CSU Data & AI methodologies, programs and processes.
- Help remove blockers for the team.
- Ultimately the end goal is to be part of the HQ team that will enable, guide and support the field in achieving the priorities of the Data & AI CSU for CEMA

**Qualifications**:
**Experiences Required: Education, Key Experiences, Skills and Knowledge**:

- 3+ years of experience driving business strategy, planning and execution with accountability to meet and exceed specific KPIs and objectives at a territory level
- 2+ years of experience in consultative selling or customer success. Experience in consulting or pre-sales, experience in both is ideal.
- PROSCI certification and/or change management expertise is beneficial
- Experience in running governance of complex deployment and usage projects within large organizations.
- Technical understanding of the Microsoft Azure Platform, especially Data and AI
- Passion for making others successful
- Willingness to travel - up to 30%
- Industry knowledge and experience a plus
- Learn-it-all mentality with desire to better understand both business and technology solutions.