We are looking for a Principal Technology Specialist / Architect for our Aerospace and Commercial Defense (A&CD) team. This team is part of the Manufacturing Vertical, focusing on expanding Microsoft's presence in the Defense Industrial Base globally. The role involves driving digital transformation for customers by providing impactful industry insights, leading strategic projects, and orchestrating sales efforts across various markets. The successful candidate will be responsible for building sales momentum for Microsoft 365 GCC (Government Community Cloud) High, M365 Secret, Azure Gov, Azure Secret, Azure Top Secret, and Dynamics Gov, while ensuring compliance with various regulations such as ITAR (Int’l Traffic and Arms Regulations), DFARS (Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations), and CMMC (Cyber Security Maturity Model Certification) 2.0.

This team is at the forefront of Microsoft's Gov cloud strategy within the DOB (Defense Industrial Base) working closely with internal stakeholders and partners to drive revenue and consumption targets. The role requires a deep understanding of Microsoft's commercial and government cloud offerings, as well as the ability to engage with high-level decision-makers and lead complex, high-value deals. The candidate should have extensive experience in IT (Information Technology)/BDM (Business Decision Maker) sales, consulting, and competitive selling, with a strong ability to influence change and drive results in an ambiguous environment.

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

Scale Customer Engagements

· Proactively identifies and engages with key customer technical decision makers and influencers while engaging sales team and helping lead sales strategy.

· Uses knowledge of customer context, and deep technical, domain, and industry knowledge to build credibility with customers.

· Leads and ensures complex technical wins (e.g., cross-workload, cross-team, cross-geo, subsidiary-level impact) by establishing rules of engagement (e.g., role boundaries, handoff strategies), coaching others (e.g., technical sellers, account teams), leveraging knowledge of processes (e.g., Managed Service Provider [MSP], Managed Certified Professional [MCP]), tools, and programs (e.g., FastTrack, End Customer Investment Funds [ECIFs]). Ensures alignment of Microsoft technologies with future sector standards and requirements by working with industry boards and driving customer case studies and references.

· Leverages knowledge of resources (e.g., roles, Microsoft Technology Center [MTC], demo sites, virtual sites, Value Based Delivery [VBD], Customer Success Unit [CSU) and proactively engages product teams (e.g., engineering) to remediate escalated technical blockers by conveying impact and anticipating and addressing future potential blockers based on needs.

Leverage Partner Ecosystem

· Scales wins through partner in a sell-with environment by promoting the partner within the Microsoft ecosystem (e.g., account teams) and developing deep partner relationships.

· Supports partner technical capacity by monitoring and analyzing resources through interactions, communicating with managers, and identifying new partnership opportunities to build subsidiary strategy.

Build Strategy

· Builds competitive knowledge, documents compete patterns, and shares within the community to drive change and escalations for competitive selling strategies. Acts as a subject matter expert on a particular competition. Delivers competitive knowledge back to product and engineering teams.

· Proactively develops strategic cross-workload/subsidiary and account level responses to specific market threats by identifying market patterns and delivering feedback to business group on trends and needs.

· Works with local account and marketing teams to shape strategic win and customer success plans and tailors to audience for the local markets using knowledge of Microsoft offerings, their context in the competitive landscape, and broader market trends. Where applicable, builds consumption plans with moderately complex requirements in coordination with Partner and Industry Solutions Delivery teams after customer sign-off.

Solution Design and Proof

· Demonstrates and oversees demonstrations (e.g., architectural design sessions, and proof of concept [POC] sessions, pilots, hackathons) of solutions based on multiple products and position solutions against competitors. Leverages partner/customer teams as needed to prove capabilities and programmatic framework for re-use by the business.

· Adapts and extends architecture patterns to accommodate complex customer requirements and drive integration solutions for industry flavor. Delivers assets that can be leveraged by others in the business.

· Applies advanced sales methodologies (e.g., challenger sales) to guide customers through digital transformation solutions and uses innovation to challenge solutions against changing technology (e.g., Power Apps).

Education

· Builds readiness plans for peers and proactively identifies gaps and new opportunities for learning. Provides insight onto Corporate, business and product groups, sales strategy, and business reviews for impact.

· Acts as a technical thought leader by sharing best practices (e.g., architectures, materials) and regularly delivering content at Microsoft events (e.g., TechReady). Provides insight into how to identify opportunities to increase solutions/portfolio understanding.

· Monitors, responds to, and acts as a thought leader on internal tech community posts, establishes and leads vibrant tech communities including community calls, sessions, hackathons, etc., and acts as a mentor to the community.

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications:

• 7+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience

• OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 6+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience

• OR Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 4+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience

• OR equivalent experience.

• Experience with MSFT Commercial (M365 (Modern Work & Security) / Azure / Dynamics)

• Experience with MSFT Gov Clouds

• GCCH (Govt Community Cloud High) / M365 Secret

• Azure Gov (IL4) / Azure Secret (IL6) / Azure Top Secret

• Dynamics Gov IL2 / IL4

• Experience with GCC (Govt Community Cloud) High / M365 Secret / Azure Government / Azure Secret & TS offerings to the Aerospace & Commercial Defense + Nuclear segments of the market in a direct sales model while explaining how these clouds interact / co-exist with our commercial clouds while staying in alignment with the Regulations

• Experience explaining CMMC (Cyber Security Maturity Model Certification) 2.0 (L1-L3)/ ITAR (Int’l Traffic and Arms Regulations) / DFARS (Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations) / EAR (Export Administration Regulations) / FAR (Federal Acquisitions Regulations) / NERC (North American Electric Reliability Corporation) / FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Corporation) / CDI (Covered Defense) / CUI (Controlled Unclassified Information) as well as NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technologies) 800-53 / NIST 800-171 / NIST 800-88 / JSIG (Joint Special Access Programs Implementation Guide) / SAP (Special Access Programs) / SAR (Special Access Required) / NISP (National Industrial Security Program) / DCMA (Defense Contract Management Agency) / DISA (Defense Information Security Agency) / Protection Levels: PL2 / PL3 / PL4

Other Requirements:

Security Clearance Requirements: Candidates must be able to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include, but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings:

• Candidates must have an active TS and be willing to upgrade to TS/SCI (with polygraph) or have an active TS/SCI and be willing to upgrade to TS/SCI (with polygraph). This role will require candidates to maintain the TS/SCI (with polygraph) clearance. Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. Failure to maintain or obtain the appropriate clearance and/or customer screening requirements may result in employment action up to and including termination.

• Clearance Verification : This position requires successful verification of the stated security clearance to meet federal government customer requirements. You will be asked to provide clearance verification information prior to an offer of employment.

• Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter

• Citizenship & Citizenship Verification: This position requires verification of U.S. citizenship due to citizenship-based legal restrictions. Specifically, this position supports United States federal, state, and/or local United States government agency customer and is subject to certain citizenship-based restrictions where required or permitted by applicable law. To meet this legal requirement, citizenship will be verified via a valid passport, or other approved documents, or verified US government Clearance

Additional or Preferred Qualifications:

• 8+ years technical pre-sales, technical consulting, or technology delivery, or related experience

• OR equivalent experience.

• 6+ years experience with cloud and hybrid, or on premises infrastructures, architecture designs, migrations, industry standards, and/or technology management.

• Certification in relevant technologies or disciplines (e.g., Office 365, Power BI, Azure Architect and Development exams, Cloud Platform Technologies, Information Security, Architecture).

Technology Specialists IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $129,200 - $248,800 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 $162,000 - $268,900 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 November 20, 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) .