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Microsoft UK • London, United Kingdom

Solution Specialist - App Innovation

Employment type:  Full time
8.9

/10

Transparency Ranking

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top 3 scores:
83%

Location flexibility

81%

Hours flexibility

79%

Autonomy

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Job Description

Are you insatiably curious, deeply passionate about the realm of digital applications and innovation, and ready to tackle complex challenges in a dynamic environment? If so, we invite you to join our team as a Solution Specialist in Digital Application & Innovation at Microsoft.

Digital Application & Innovation is a growth opportunity for Microsoft Azure, as well as its partners and customers. It includes a rich portfolio of products including Managed/PaaS services on the Azure Platform, GitHub, and Visual Studio. These technologies empower developers to build, deploy, and manage intelligent applications in a cloud-native way.

The main goal of a Microsoft Solution Specialist is to own and win the business decision of customers. By demonstrating the value of Microsoft’s cloud services, you will help organizations trust Azure for their workloads, tools, and data. As an Application Innovation Specialist, you’ll be at the forefront of AI & cloud-native architecture. This means designing systems that fully leverage the unique capabilities of the cloud, such as scalability, automation, and cost efficiency. You will work within a virtual team of sales, technical, partner and consulting resources to advance the sales process and achieve/exceed sales and usage/consumption targets for Application Innovation related workloads in your assigned accounts. You will be a trusted advisor and a cloud application development subject matter expert.

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

  • Create “buy-in” vision with the Apps & AI Decision Makers: Take active role in defining and influencing the customer’s business challenges and opportunities. Understand the financial, qualitative and competitive drivers impacting customer business. Establish credibility and trust by demonstrating that Microsoft solutions not only solve customer business problems but also the value they realized.
  • Map customer current and desired state: Identify customer’s digital & AI transformation needs, business drivers, their perspective, and concerns. Establish and understand the buying decision criteria and timeline to make decision regarding the solution.
  • Lead solution design: Proficient in delivering Microsoft Apps & AI vision, strategy, value to C-level and Apps & AI Decision Makers. Orchestrate the technical experts to create the solution, validate it via Proof of Concept, and showcase how it meets customer business and technology requirements.
    Substantiate the value of the solution: Building business cases with Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analysis and negotiate a deal that’s based on value by leveraging various Microsoft offers and programs. Secure customer commitment for the business proposal.
  • Sales Excellence: Drive the App Innovation & AI business to exceed revenue, consumption and scorecard targets. Maintain excellence in pipeline management, accuracy of sales forecast, and deal close plans.
  • Be the Voice of the customer: Influence the Microsoft Application Innovation & AI go to market strategies by providing feedback to sales, marketing, and engineering on product requirements and sales blockers.
  • Maintain and grow expertise in developer tools, AI & cloud native architecture and technologies, keeping up to date with market trends and competitive insights; collaborate and share with the specialist community.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications (RQs)

  • Technology-related sales or account management experience
  • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Administration, or related field combined with Cloud Technologies Solution Selling experience
  • OR equivalent experience

Preferred Qualifications (PQs)

  • Master's Degree in Business Administration (i.e., MBA), Information Technology, or related field combined with Cloud Technologies Solution Selling experience
  • Solution or services sales experience

Professional

  • Sales or Consulting experience with data center migration or application modernization/ Cloud Native projects
  • Experience selling Cloud Application Platform services, PaaS and Integration, database, Developer Productivity tools, Low Code tools with a demonstrated track record in working towards sales goals.
  • Industry knowledge of application landscape and trends in verticals in Financial Services Industry OR Retails and Consumers Goods.
  • Executive presence with experience selling to C-Suite and Senior IT and Business Decision Makers

Technical

  • Technical passion with good understanding of cloud architectural patterns leveraging managed or Platform-As-A-Service offerings, rearchitecting monolithic applications with cloud native technologies, related databases and modern DevOps/ DevSecOps practices.
  • Subject Matter Expertise with one or more of the following:
    • Experience with Application Modernisation (.Net/Java) on Cloud (e.g. Jboss EAP, Spring Cloud, VM Ware, Tanzu, Pivotal Cloud Foundry)
    • Experience with Cloud Native technologies like Containers, Kubernetes, Serverless and APIs. – preferred
    • Experience with Enterprise Integration Services and API Management - preferred
    • Understanding of Low Code platforms like Power Platform and associated use-cases is a plus
  • Experience with competitive Application development services across public cloud is a plus.

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.

Company benefits

Wellbeing allowance
Health insurance
Dental coverage
Gym membership
Mental health platform access
Buy or sell annual leave
Shared parental leave
Charity donation scheme
Employee assistance programme
Employee discounts
Volunteer days
Fertility treatment leave
Open to compressed hours
Open to job sharing
Fertility benefits
Enhanced sick pay
Enhanced sick days
Compassionate leave
Travel insurance
20 days annual leave + bank holidays
Enhanced maternity leave
Enhanced paternity leave
Adoption leave
Childcare credits
Carer’s leave
Cycle to work scheme
Faith rooms
Annual bonus
Annual pay rises
Company car
Hackathons
Open to part-time employees
Pregnancy loss leave
Life insurance
Equity packages
Financial coaching
Relocation packages
Sabbaticals
Enhanced pension match/contribution

We asked employees of Microsoft UK what it's like to work there, and this is what they told us.

Location flexibility
83%
Employees are very happy with their working location freedom
Hours flexibility
81%
Employees are very happy with the flexibility in the hours they work
Benefits
67%
Employees are largely happy with the benefits their company offers
Work-life balance
63%
Employees feel that they can switch off quite easily from work
Role modelling
74%
Employees feel that most people work flexibly
Autonomy
79%
Employees feel that they can mostly manage how they get their own work done

Working at Microsoft UK

Company employees

Globally: 228,000

Gender diversity (male:female)

67:33

Office locations

London, Reading, Cambridge, Romsey, Manchester, Edinburgh

Hiring Countries

United Kingdom

Awards & Achievements

Most flexible companies

Most flexible companies

Flexa100 2024

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