Cloud Solution Architecture within Data and AI

Overview
As a Senior Cloud Solution Architect specializing in Data & AI, you will play a crucial role in enabling customers to achieve their goals through strategic investments in Microsoft technology. Leveraging your expertise in Azure or Data & AI solutions, you will lead technical discussions with customers, guiding them to extract maximum value from their Microsoft investments and identifying solutions to overcome challenges hindering the success of their data and AI projects. This opportunity provides a platform for accelerating your career growth, refining technical and collaborative skills, and deepening your proficiency in cloud technologies.

We are actively seeking Senior Cloud Solution Architects - Data & AI professionals to join our diverse teams across various business groups, catering to customers of different sizes in enterprise, regulated, and partner services organizations. By expressing your interest in this role, you open yourself up to multiple opportunities within Microsoft across the United States, potentially extending beyond the initially posted location. The role offers flexibility, enabling you to work up to 50% from home, with travel percentages varying according to the specific role requirements. Join us in shaping the future of data and AI solutions at Microsoft.

Microsoft's overarching mission is to empower every person and organization globally to achieve more. As part of our team, you will contribute to this mission with a growth mindset, innovative thinking, and collaborative efforts. Our daily endeavors align with values of respect, integrity, and accountability, fostering an inclusive culture where everyone can thrive both at work and beyond.

Responsibilities
Customer Centricity:

• Observes colleagues and learns to gather technology and customer/partner insights (e.g., feedback around technical preferences, environments, business needs) and align with solutions. Acts as the voice of the customer (VOC)/partner by learning to identify and share feedback around technical capabilities, blockers, and insights that relate to the customer/partner with internal teams.

• Works with internal teams and begins building relationships with customer/partner technical specialists under the guidance and supervision of others. Solicits input from others to contribute to proposals for viable solutions based on specific technical products. Demonstrates basic technical concepts and proves those design solutions' capability through design collaboration sessions with the customer/partner. Learns how to work with internal teams and actively seeks ways to support short-term/transactional engagements and understands how work contributes to customer success plans to meet customer/partner needs and deliver customer outcomes. Supports customer skilling needs by participating in discussions on technical delivery with other internal and external stakeholders to transfer knowledge and contribute to customer readiness.

• Contributes to customer/partner satisfaction by providing a positive customer/partner experience. Demonstrates an understanding of customer/partner conditions of success. Supports collection of customer feedback data. Establishes recovery actions or proactively makes offers to improve customer/partner experience.

• Actively listens and respectfully challenges customers/partners when going in the wrong direction, escalating appropriately, under guidance.

Business Impact:

• With supervision, identifies issues and advises customers/partners to operate and optimize performance in accordance with Microsoft best practices. Escalates issues to senior team members or manager, as needed. Applies methodology and governance, as directed, to minimize business and technical risks and adhere to quality assurance while ensuring excellence in contributions to design and/or delivery of solutions. Adheres to quality assurance standards. Leverages standard tools as directed to align with opportunity and milestone execution and pipeline hygiene standards.

• Works with the customer to support resolution of technical blockers and accelerate consumption and solution implementation for selected scenarios (e.g., by application of technical capabilities). May identify and escalate non-technical issues for removal by the appropriate party. Applies foundational technical knowledge of an architecture or other Microsoft solution to meet business and information technology (IT) requirements and resolve identified technical constraints.

• Learns about the products, services, and value propositions of Microsoft's Cloud and Support businesses, and shares learnings with others (e.g., peer groups, customers) as appropriate. Leverages an existing architecture approach or reference architecture to support delivery on Microsoft's Customer Promise. Supports opportunities to expand or accelerate cloud consumption. Assesses customer/partner needs and gathers information that helps others to identify growth opportunities. Participates in discussions around architecture design, resiliency reviews, and technical optimization that result in production deployment application and increase customer/partner usage, consumption, and value outcomes.

• Learns Microsoft solutions and demonstrates an understanding of Microsoft's value to customers/partners.

Technical Leadership:

• Leverages development opportunities (e.g., mentorships, role-based resources, trainings, internal events such as Ready, Build, Ignite) to learn new technologies or services.

• Provides input to virtual team members when asked, using a basic knowledge of Microsoft architectures and products.

• Learns to identify and communicate areas in intellectual property (IP) that need refreshing or have gaps. Contributes to IP development with guidance/supervision.

Other

• Embody our culture and values

Qualifications
Required/Minimum Qualifications

• Solid experience in cloud/infrastructure technologies, information technology (IT) consulting/support, systems administration, network operations, software development/support, technology solutions, practice development, architecture, and/or consulting
• Proficiency in Azure services like Azure Machine Learning, Azure Databricks, and Azure Synapse Analytics
• Strong knowledge of AI concepts, machine learning algorithms, and deep learning techniques
• Proficiency in programming languages like Python, R, and SQL or similar
• Familiarity with development tools and practices, including version control (e.g., Git) and CI/CD pipelines
• Skills in data engineering, data warehousing, and data lakes
• Knowledge of cloud security best practices and compliance standards.

Additional Or Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, or related field AND extensive years experience in cloud/infrastructure technologies, information technology (IT) consulting/support, systems administration, network operations, software development/support, technology solutions, practice development, architecture, and/or consulting
• OR Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, or related field AND extensive experience in cloud/infrastructure technologies, technology solutions, practice development, architecture, and/or consulting
• Experience with data preprocessing, feature engineering, and model deployment
• Solid experience working in a customer-facing role (e.g., internal and/or external).
• Solid experience leading technical projects.
• Technical Certification in Cloud (e.g., Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google, security certifications).

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.

Work site
Up to 50% work from home