Strategic Account Technology Strategist

Job Description

Microsoft is on a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Our culture is centred on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day. In doing so, we create life-changing innovations that impact billions of lives around the world. You can help us to achieve our mission.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Strategic Account Technology Strategist (ATS) working with Vodafone one of the world’s leading Telcos.

Vodafone and Microsoft recently announced a far-reaching 10-year strategic partnership that leverages their respective strengths in offering scaled digital platforms to more than 300 million businesses, public sector organisations, and consumers across Europe and Africa. Through the partnership, the companies will collaborate to transform Vodafone’s customer experience using Microsoft’s generative AI, hyperscale Vodafone’s leading managed IoT connectivity platform, develop new digital and financial services for businesses, particularly SMEs across Europe and Africa, and overhaul its global data centre cloud strategy.

This role will be joining the growing Vodafone account team that are leading the joint partnership engagement. As an Account Technology Strategist (ATS), you will be responsible for setting the technical vision and roadmap that will put technology at the centre of the partnership. You will need to use your technical acumen, industry knowledge and commercial understanding to enable Vodafone to do business in new disruptive ways through the adoption of Microsoft Cloud solutions; with an additional focus on adopting and capitalising on the opportunity AI presents.

Internally, you will drive a culture for winning as a team; being customer obsessed first, operating as #onemicrosoft across the multi-functional team to deliver market leading solutions. You will also be expected to find synergies in how we work by sharing learning across both Microsoft and Vodafone.

We would love to hear from you if you:

• Have a passion for driving business transformation through technology with a focus on AI
• Can translate technology into a benefit-led business conversation
• Have a real passion and belief in how GenAI can have a positive impact on organisations
• Can think creatively on how technology trends can translate into superpowers for orgs
• Can see the ‘big picture,’ and can comfortably engage the C-Suite – beyond just IT- on their business goals, and interpret these into capabilities and outcomes with technology peers
• Can articulate complex problems and solutions in a clear and logical manner
• Have experience of working with a globally distributed customer and colleague base, with an engagement style that seeks to understand and embrace geographical and cultural differences
• Embrace diversity and inclusivity in all that you do, and create environments for others to be successful
• Advocate growth mindset, turning challenges into opportunities

Responsibilities

Key areas of responsibility:

Digital Transformation & Innovation Strategy: Understand the customers business goals and industry trends, Microsoft solution areas and partner solutions to build a compelling vision for the impact technology can deliver. Aligned with a multi-year roadmap for delivery of the vision, helping them understand the impact of emerging and strategic technologies and inspire and influence them for Microsoft technologies to become the main enabler of business innovation.

Industry & Business Architecture: Create a long-term strategy which links business, technology, and industry needs of our customers to enable their business and transformation strategy and drive sustainable change

Technology Sales: Orchestrate technology sales activities to drive the digital transformation vision and roadmap of our customers with Microsoft technologies. Plan and orchestrate the solution proposal and coordinate technology sales teams to provide the right solution to the customer

Account Leadership: Be a Change Agent internally and externally to inspire and ideate innovative technologies to drive business strategy and the priorities of our customers. Own and strengthen the collaborative relationship with C-level technology, innovation, and technology executives. Create an inclusive and supportive environment for your matrix team to be successful, embracing Microsoft’s philosophy of ‘come as you are, do what you love’!

Orchestration: Ability to manage and lead a diverse virtual matrix of teams across all areas of Microsoft

Qualifications

Common attributes we typically look for can include:

• Expertise in digital transformation roles & GenAI experience in the P12M
• Strong technical foundation, well versed in coaching a customer through a technical envisioning conversation (Business and Technical)
• Ability to connect the technical capabilities necessary to achieve the customer business outcome
• Change Leadership Skills - Fully achieving the business impact customers demand requires the sustained usage of our solutions and cloud services. This can only be achieved by helping the customer fully integrate our cloud services into the workflows and processes of their business
• Put the customer central to the approach
• Ability to work with senior Business and Technical Decision Makers to define clear outcomes for success and understand business processes
• Possess solution and enterprise architecture knowledge that allows you to connect solutions to the business outcomes a customer requires balanced with a resourceful mindset to challenge the status quo
• Preferred background in delivering large scale cloud transformation programs across a multi-geo customer & working across the business (not just with the IT org)
• Technical sales experience & Leadership skills that drive business outcomes through mobilising a team
• Experience working in a global team (+25% of travel)

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.