Azure Solution Sales Specialist - Cloud & AI Platforms
About the job
- At least 10 years of technology-related pre-sales and/or cloud consulting experience in data, artificial intelligence, infrastructure, or applications.
- A bachelor's degree in computer science, information technology, and/or business administration.
- Own Azure sales strategy and execution for a strategic oil and energy account, including account planning, forecasting, pipeline development, and consumption growth.
- Build trusted relationships with C-level and senior stakeholders across business, information technology, digital, operations, engineering, and sustainability functions.
- Bring oil and energy industry insights into customer conversations and translate Azure capabilities into measurable business value.
- Manage end-to-end business for strategic accounts across the organization, lead forecasting, and develop portfolio and territory plans that drive intentional selling and on-strategy engagements in high-propensity accounts.
- Bring industry insights into customer engagements, close deals, advise customers on digital transformation, lead virtual transformational shifts to drive deployment and customer business value, and integrate partners into account and territory planning and customer engagements.
- Act as a subject matter expert, use competitor knowledge to inform pursuit or withdrawal decisions, and develop strategies for best-practice sharing across subsidiaries.
- Coach others on customer and partner satisfaction and develop recovery action plans to improve clients' overall experience.
- Drive consumption and grow business with existing strategic customers by initiating conversations, guiding others on demos or quotes, and collaborating with partners or internal teams.
- For licensing transactions and project engagements, ensure rapid and robust deployment plans at the point of sale that are validated by services and partners, and drive advanced workloads and usage.
- Orchestrate team campaigns to discover opportunities and generate leads; lead conversations with strategic and high-potential customers alongside account teams or partners.
- Facilitate account and specialist team members in building pipeline with partners and services, guide others on social selling, and apply Microsoft's sales process to assess opportunity quality and educate customers on addressing their needs.
- Lead opportunity planning and execution with resources and partners to cross-sell and up-sell; coordinate partners and resources across solution areas; validate partner solution relevance; and provide input to the Enterprise Partner Solutions team on partner strategies.
- Lead sales orchestration with internal stakeholders and partners, build networks across territories, and position opportunities to promote collaboration and participation.
- Lead conversations and set up internal Microsoft events, develop strategies for best-practice sharing across subsidiaries, and contribute ideas that can be adopted across Microsoft.
- Speak or share information at external events and drive conversations with prospective customers and partners as a thought leader across solution areas.
- Act as a trusted advisor by identifying customer pain points and working with partners to design solutions that support the business case.
- Own customer pre-sales discussions using processes, tools, demos, programs, consultative sales methods, and technical expertise; influence customer vision and establish engagement rules for extended teams.
- Collaborate with Microsoft solution engineers and partners to build technical strategies, map customer vision into strategy, resolve concerns, remove technical blockers, validate investment business cases, translate technology complexity into business impact, and orchestrate implementation roadmaps.
- Guide customers in choosing Microsoft analytics, data, artificial intelligence, applications, and infrastructure platforms.
- Work with Microsoft's Industry Solutions Delivery organizations and partners to design customer solutions, develop architectural approaches and deployment services, and win customer business and technical decisions that meet their needs.
- Drive proofs of concept and pilots to create momentum for minimum viable products, incorporate Microsoft artificial intelligence technologies where appropriate, and use hands-on technical skills to execute proofs of concept.
- Collaborate across artificial intelligence, applications innovation, artificial intelligence workforce, artificial intelligence business process, and security teams to drive artificial intelligence design wins and support customer transformation, including artificial intelligence applications and data foundations.
- Support new pipeline creation with account teams and Microsoft partners.
- Act as the voice of the customer by sharing insights and best practices with Global Black Belt and Engineering teams to remove blockers and drive product improvements.
- Maintain and grow expertise in Microsoft Azure services, including Azure OpenAI Service, Azure AI Services, Azure Machine Learning, and Model Catalog, as well as analytics, data warehousing, data engineering, data science, and artificial intelligence; stay current on market trends and competitive insights.
- Engage internal and external stakeholders in business planning and Rhythm of Business meetings to review and plan strategic accounts across territories.
- Collaborate with extended sales teams, partners, and marketing on business analysis, including whitespace analysis and industry trend identification, to pursue high-potential customers and develop target lists.
- Lead forecasting for strategic accounts and develop portfolio and territory plans to drive intentional selling and on-strategy engagements in high-propensity accounts.
- Complete required training, obtain relevant product and role certifications aligned to the role and workload or industry, seek training that builds understanding of customers' businesses, and share that learning with team members.
- Experience in financial services industries and large multinational cloud deployments is highly desirable.
About the company
Microsoft builds workplace software, operating systems and cloud infrastructure for consumers, businesses and government agencies, from small organizations to global enterprises. Microsoft 365 combines Word and Excel with Teams communication and Copilot AI features, while Windows runs PCs and Surface supplies the company's own computers. Azure rents computing capacity, storage and databases to build and run web applications. Microsoft also sells Xbox consoles and games, collecting revenue through software licenses, subscriptions, usage charges and product sales. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft is headquartered in Redmond, Washington.
Company Size
10,001+
Company Stage
IPO
Headquarters
Redmond, Washington
Founded
1975
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- US corporate staff receive education support: eligible, approved graduate coursework qualifies for up to $10,000 annually.
- Cloud demand expands: July 2026 results showed Azure and other cloud services revenue grew 43% year-over-year in fiscal Q4.
- Investment has an earnings cushion: July 2026 results reported $155.2 billion consolidated operating profit for fiscal 2026.
What critics are saying
- Performance reviews include security: every Microsoft employee must discuss their security contribution with their manager.
- Office flexibility depends on the role: Microsoft's postings specify requirements ranging from fully remote to fully on-site.
- Cloud capacity faces local limits: Microsoft describes power-grid delays and water constraints affecting US datacenter expansion.
What makes Microsoft unique
- Hybrid customers stay within reach: Azure Arc manages servers across customer datacenters and competing clouds.
- Developer reach extends beyond Azure: Microsoft's GitHub hosts code collaboration alongside AI coding tools.
- Professional data widens its business: Microsoft owns LinkedIn's recruiting, advertising and workplace-learning network.
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Benefits
Health Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
401(k) Company Match
Professional Development Budget
Conference Attendance Budget
Flexible Work Hours
Remote Work Options
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
0%1 year growth
0%2 year growth
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