The Strategic Account Technology Strategist provides technology guidance to clients and orchestrates the interaction between clients and Microsoft resources to drive new opportunities, demand generation, digital transformation, and the mapping of industry/business scenarios to Microsoft solutions. 

In this role, you will work closely with the Strategic Account Executive to manage and align global account strategy with the entire team supporting this customer. Paired with a Strategic Account Executive, leveraging your large, multi-functional extended team across the breadth of the Microsoft product portfolio and the vast catalog of Microsoft Partner offerings. You will build and grow your network of technology executives within your customers and bring industry-relevant solutions to help the customers adopt and embrace digital technologies.

With a proven history of innovating technical solutions to achieve customers’ business objectives and achieving account growth targets, this role will give you the opportunity to combine your technology and industry knowledge to deliver on digital solutions to accelerate your customers’ digital vision and to ultimately become their technology mentor.

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.

In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.

This role does not provide relocation assistance.

Responsibilities

Technology Strategy Leadership

• Understand the customers’ business objectives, technology landscape, and digital strategy to build, document, and maintain their technology architecture and roadmap and use it in communication with the extended account team; grow and manage the technology relationship and orchestrate technology roles in your extended account team and relevant Partners to deliver customer outcomes across the customer lifecycle.

Technology Relevant Trusted Seller

• Drive Microsoft Business growth and customer Technology Transformation including partner co-sell motions, building new solution pipeline based on the customer-aligned technology strategy; be accountable for the development and governance of the customers’ consumption pipeline.

Technology Leadership

• Create thought leadership with the customers’ executives (Technology and Business) in new and emerging technology trends like AI or Industrial Metaverse and establishing a meaningful and mutually agreed path forward for the customers to adopt those technologies; orchestrate the resulting opportunities across Microsoft and Partner teams and create referenceable customer win stories.

• Apply expertise in customer businesses, technology platforms, and industry to build a digital technology strategy with the customer that is aligned to business outcomes.Challenge customers’ assumptions with constructive dialogue about their business and technology.

Customer and Industry Insights

• Synthesizes and combines various business and industry insights from their team, global best practices, proof points from experience/case studies with countries and/or regions, and deep industry expertise related to customers and their competitors to conduct forecasting and develop recommendations for managing accounts and subsidiary planning. Ensures that all levels of the organization provide alternate perspectives to enable customers to consider alternatives and adapt strategies, plans, business models, and solutions to insights. Orchestrates global teams to gather information, collaborate on performance markers, and identify potential risks in customer accounts. Brings in business and industry insights to address the broader business challenges for the customer and deliver solutions.

• Applies deep expertise and thought leadership to identify the right Industry Sales Kits and industry partners within the customer's vertical industry. Articulates and understands specific industry-related market trends, as well as customer threats, opportunities, and barriers to growth as they relate to the customer's broader industry. Applies industry knowledge to support customers in solving issues. Partners with customers and/or partners to provide innovative solutions in new industries, and to integrate Microsoft technology in their business.

Trusted Advisor

• Provides Account thought leadership inclusive of information technology (IT), business strategy knowledge, and technology landscape, and shares best practices internally while providing coaching to subsidiary resources. Leverages account thought leadership in partnership with account executives to set strategy, own accountability for outcomes, and lead extended teams. Provides technical guidance to internal teams to position technology while using customer landscape knowledge. Creates connections and feedback loops with Product and Engineering teams.

• Creates security thought leadership with the customer's executives (e.g., technical decision maker [TDM]/business decision maker [BDM]) using the Microsoft Security and Zero Trust narratives and engages TDM and BDM stakeholders to position security as a business enabler and instill a security mindset in all aspects of the customer's technology landscape. Uses their understanding of the customers' technology and security needs to establish Microsoft’s security credentials and to build opportunities to improve the customer's security posture and orchestrates execution through security specialists.

• Maintains and leverages a broad knowledge of Microsoft's product landscape, solutions, and strategy to address customer's needs. Proactively coordinates with internal and external network of industry experts (e.g., Regional and Global Experts, industry-specific partners) to build knowledge of the industry and the competitive landscape. Leverages deep understanding of their customers to share knowledge with virtual team and promote customer business perspectives.

• Acts as the voice of the customer and internal advocate by providing insights, feedback, and challenges from the customer to internal teams (e.g., product groups, engineers) across all levels of the organization. Drives action to ensure that internal teams understand and respond to insights. Escalates pressing issues for customers to Microsoft internal stakeholders (e.g., Headquarters) to facilitate the appropriate solutions and capabilities for the customer.

Technology Strategy Formulation

• Leads analysis of overall customer situation for some of the largest and most complex accounts, and advises on gaps that would benefit from Microsoft solutions, using an understanding of the business strategies and outcomes that technology can support. Leads the adoption of technologies by plotting the strategic, long-term vision of the customer's/partner's business strategy and drives action to bring to fruition. Acts as a strategic link between Microsoft and the customer for identifying a pathway for strategic efforts and resources necessary for building a strategy.

• Contributes to the creation of trusted, long-term (e.g., three years plus) multi-horizon technological and business roadmaps for highly prominent, challenging, and/or strategic accounts based on a deep understanding of business and technology priorities and the customer's industry landscape. Validates the strategy and plan with customer stakeholders and drives envisioning and articulates business and program changes in the roadmaps around new and groundbreaking capabilities. Contributes to the translation of the customer's business objectives in conjunction with Industry Sales Kits and Solution Plays (including consumption-heavy workloads and cloud services) to develop an effective Industry Technology Architecture to plan for and drive consumption and adoption of Microsoft cloud and a higher share of customer potential and propensity (CPP). ​

Technology Sales: Demand Generation and Orchestration

• Creates, develops, and drives opportunities based on industry best practices. Presents opportunities to the customer and creates demand. Develops a plan, within a broader strategy, to create and qualify a set number of opportunities for product sales, solutions sales, or consumption. Leverages multiple channels (e.g., social media) to create demand. Leads technical teams for driving opportunities including Specialist Team Unit (STU), Customer Success Unit (CSU), and others, as necessary. Leads efforts to reach out to key stakeholders to give customer-driven pitches and drives the appropriate customer reach together with the account executive to generate new demands.

• Leads Account Strategy Envisioning (ASE, formerly IDTA) with the extended account team, customer, and partner to deliver the outcomes for the customer through joint envisioning, as a vehicle for Industry Sales Kits and Horizontal Solution Plays. Creates new Stage 1 opportunities, both billed and consumed, with Technical Decision Maker (TDM) customer stakeholders, managing consumption pipeline with extended team to maintain velocity, and unblocking issues. Orchestrates efforts to drive MCEM lifecycle and stage progression in collaboration with the Specialist Team Unit (STU), Customer Success Unit (CSU). Coaches peers (often as a mentor across a region or country) on how to create and maintain an opportunity initiation and how to map Microsoft priorities to opportunities. Defines the technology blueprint for opportunity initiation, and sets and shares standards and best practices for others to follow.

• Leads the customer journey into the era of AI and Industrial Metaverse by creating a targeted approach tailored to their current business requirements and positions Microsoft as a leader for the future, both for accelerating productivity as well as helping the customer create new capabilities to support their business. Leverages expertise of current technology landscape and understanding of AI and Industrial Metaverse capabilities to plot the foundational elements on the technology roadmap that need to be in place to realize value for the customer. Builds a mid-term strategy for AI and metaverse projects as well as an immediate opportunity pipeline and orchestrates execution through the appropriate technical teams from the Specialist Team Unit (STU) and with appropriate Partners.

Differentiated Value Proposition

• Acts as the customer's Technology Mentor in established relationships with senior leaders including technical decision makers (TDMs) and/or business decision makers (BDMs) at the Chief X Officer (CXO)-level. Develops extended relationships beyond core customers, advises on solutions, and aligns Microsoft capabilities with customer needs. Leads customer business transformations through digital technologies for assigned accounts to drive business outcomes and create business value for customers by understanding customer industry and position to provide guidance and to challenge customer thinking with innovative ideas that showcase the need for change and new strategic direction, and proactively involves corporate and cross-industry resources to drive customer transformation. Ensures line-of-business wins are captured (e.g., customer write-ups) as reference for scale.

• Partners with a line-of-business leader or senior executive within a large-scale or high-impact customer organization to articulate how complex Microsoft technology/services will meet future business needs better than the competition and will enable the achievement of long-term growth and success. Leverages the full scope of Microsoft's digital technologies for offering varied solutions and services.

Mapping and Account Planning

• Helps customer technical specialists build the message to sell Microsoft offerings to other parts of their business. Contributes to the creation of stakeholder maps for accounts, determines and orchestrates a coverage plan, and builds out an execution framework across multiple Rooms of the House of the customer.

• Orchestrates internal teams and partner ecosystem (inclusive of global systems integrators, consultancy partners, and Microsoft Industry Solutions (IS) to ensure sufficient technical resources for demand generation, when appropriate. Contributes to global resource requirement availability, and understands how to allocate and create the appropriate resources for the project. Proactively bridges technology resources with the customer.

• Establishes best practices and standards around account planning and review for aligning with quota attainment, consumption goals, and customer consumption gaps to inform quarterly and fiscal objectives. Share account planning output with the customer and constantly realign to the customer's expectations. Coordinates highly complex extended account teams (e.g., spanning complex technologies, geographies, functions) and drives forecasting and tracking of the business. Owns the technical portion of the account plan and leads the customer plan delivery for large, critical, and/or strategic accounts. Captures all Account Planning input in MSX D365 Account Plan. Provides Account thought leadership inclusive of information technology (IT), industry, and business strategy knowledge, and shares best practices internally while providing coaching to subsidiary resources. Leverages account thought leadership in partnership with account executives to set and refine strategy, own accountability for outcomes, and lead extended teams.

Education and Thought Leadership

• Leads customer technology engagement by motivating and inspiring technical resources of customer, partner, and Microsoft towards customer’s business transformation. Delivers regular (e.g., quarterly, monthly) industry/technology engagements and/or briefings to customer Chief X Officers (CXOs), their technical team, and business decision makers (BDMs) to drive execution and focus on competitive advantage. ​

• Uses existing and new readiness resources and demonstrates expertise in creating enablement plans for large and high-stakes customers, and all-up Microsoft business. Drives innovations to help customers meet capacity and capability goals, maximize reach and impact, and drive long-term engagement and thought leadership on the Microsoft platform, and influences large customers to see and adopt the strategic value. Drives customer skilling initiatives and execution along with the account executive (AE) and enterprise skilling

Embody our Culture (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/about/corporate-values) and Values (https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/culture)

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business or related field AND 7+ years technical consulting, technical consultative selling, practice building, or related technical/sales/industry experience

• OR equivalent experience.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business or related field AND 14+ years technical consulting, technical consultative selling, practice building, or related technical/sales/industry experience

• OR equivalent experience.

• 5+ years experience in digital transformation or using technology to drive customer business outcomes.

• 4+ years experience in business consulting, consultative selling, or change management.

• 5+ years experience leading technical, support, and/or partner teams.

Strategic Account Technology IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $124,800 - $242,600 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 $159,000 - $264,000 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

Microsoft will accept applications for the role until April 29, 2024.

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 (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html) .