Azure Infrastructure Technical Specialist

Job Description

Microsoft’s Commercial Solution Area sets the sales strategy, leads technical sales, and operations as a hub for the Commercial Solution Areas and Support Services that power the Microsoft Cloud. Azure Infrastructure is the foundational Commercial Solution Area for both Azure and Microsoft. Our organization accelerates Secure Migrations for our customers to be AI-Ready by leading with Migration opportunities with Windows Server, SQL Server and Linux Estate. We enable customers’ cloud modernization at scale driving innovation with Azure AI Platform. We work closely with other Microsoft teams and partners, especially Customer Success, Marketing, and the Solutions Sales team, to ensure those solutions meet our customers’ needs.

The main goal of a Microsoft Technology Specialist (TS) is to win the technical decision of customers to purchase and use Microsoft technology and cloud services. The TS is expected to both own and win customers’ technical decisions, as well as find new opportunities through their contacts and engagements for Sales Specialists to pursue. As a TS, you work within a virtual team of technical, partner and consulting resources to help educate your customers at a technical level, demonstrate, and prove our solutions, and win the technical decision. Being part of this team will allow you to maintain and develop your deep technical expertise across Microsoft and non-Microsoft cloud-based 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.

Responsibilities

• Own technical discussions for Azure Migration with customers leveraging processes and tools, demos, and programs; use consultative and/or Challenger method; establish rules of engagement (e.g., role boundaries, handoff strategies) for extended teams.
• Build strategy: map the agreed customer vision into a strategy, resolve concerns, preventing, and removing technical blockers, and validating a strong business case for investment and translated technology complexity into business impact. Work with the customer, account team, and partners to orchestrate a roadmap for implementation.
• Drive technical assessments to create a map of the current landscape and to build the technical migration plans, thus building a solid migration business case.
• Design the solution using your technical knowledge, architectural approach, consultancy skills and our methodology to win a customer’s technical decision and meet the customer’s needs. Ensure technical decision makers agree with proposed architecture and on the migration plan. Drive POCs and MVPs.
• Scale through partners, acting as liaison between the partner and account team, facilitating partner resources and processes; supporting partner technical capacity by identifying skill and resource gaps and providing feedback to internal teams.
• Be the Voice of Customer to share insights and best practices, connect with the Engineering team to remove key blockers and drive product improvements.
• Identify and support the creation of new pipeline within customer engagements in collaboration with the Specialist.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience
• Bachelor's OR Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field combined with technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Azure Certifications: Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ-104) or Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions (Exam AZ-305)
• Deep domain knowledge in Data Center Migration, Windows Server, and SQL Server Migration (including modernization to PaaS), VMware, Networking, Security, Storage, BCDR, Infra as Code, Hybrid and Arc, or hands-on experience working with the respective products at the expert level. Additionally deep knowledge/experience with Azure Migrate and RVTools.
• Relationship Building: Proven track record of building deep technical relationships with senior executives. Experience in managing various stakeholder relationships to get consensus on solution/projects. The ability to influence and build relationships across technical and business teams.
• Collaborative: Works cohesively with customers, the Microsoft account team, and Microsoft partners. Helps others succeed by identifying and promoting innovative solutions and strategies.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, 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 and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.