In the Small, Medium, Corporate (SMC) and Digital Sales businesses, we have set out with the purpose of empowering our customers through the unique value of the Microsoft cloud by building a globally led, digital-first scale organization aligned with partners. Dedicated to one of the fastest growing customer segments, the SMC and Digital Sales organization is on pace to be Microsoft's next $100 billion-dollar business - this is where you come in. As part of local subsidiaries or Digital Sales centers around the world, you will support a dedicated set of customers in identifying and achieving their business objectives through best-in-class digital engagement and partner co-selling. You will also have an opportunity to work cross-collaboratively while living our shared SMC and Digital Sales Culture priorities: Diversity and Inclusivity, Wellbeing, Sustainability, and Learning. If you have been described as customer obsessed and have a passion for digital-first solutions, we invite you to learn more about the SMC and Digital Sales organization and the value we deliver to our customers, partners, and one another, every day.

　　As a Data & AI Technical Pre-Sales Specialist, you will be a technical expert within our SMC business, part of a virtual team of technical, partner and consulting resources tasked to advance the sales process and achieve/exceed quarterly Data & AI revenue and usage/consumption targets in your assigned accounts. You will be a trusted technical advisor and Analytics, Data & AI subject matter expert with core capability and expertise in Cloud Databases, Analytics and AI. You will focus on customers in early stages of cloud maturity and help them establish well architected landing zones in the Azure cloud utilizing the Cloud Adoption Framework and Well Architected Framework. You will work with customers to leverage data to help them achieve their business priorities and help guide customer’s journey through Analytics-led Azure Data transformation. You will help customers evaluate their applications and business requirements, recommend solutions that meet their requirements and demonstrate these solutions to win the technical decision. You will need to support customers to remove roadblocks to deployment and drive customer satisfaction. You will help our customers take advantage of our unique hybrid data platform and leading Analytics & AI solutions to realize the value of digital transformation.

　　This opportunity will allow you to accelerate your career growth, honing your solution sales and collaboration skills, and deepening your cloud expertise. 

　　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

　　Engages with customer technical decision makers and anticipates customer needs and issues proactively through data gathering.

　　Uses knowledge of customer context and solution or portfolio expertise to build credibility with customers individually or at scale. Develops technical and market/industry knowledge.

　　Ensures technical wins for core technologies by driving technical discussions with customers. Improves customer interactions through feedback and observation.

　　Engages other internal resources (e.g., roles, Microsoft Technology Center, demo sites, virtual sites), mapping out and leveraging foundational resource knowledge for key areas of technology as needed to overcome technical blockers on assigned technology set.

　　Scale Through Partners

　　Engages in partner sell-with scenarios by contributing to the facilitation of technical engagements and partnering with colleagues to manage the sales process.Build Strategy

　　Shares competitive insights from customer sessions with colleagues and escalates/resolves competitive situations to influence compete strategies.

　　Provides strategic, technical input based on Microsoft capability to contribute to strategy development, leveraging partner and internal teams.

　　Acts as the voice of the customer (VOC) by driving new feedback, blockers, insights, resource (e.g., OneList) items across communities so they can be added and prioritized.

　　Works with account teams to tailor Microsoft messaging to audience and captures and shares customer feedback using knowledge of specific Microsoft solutions and their context in a competitive landscape.

　　Collaborates with team members to monitor and analyze customer usage of key/prioritized Microsoft solutions/products that support customer’s business outcomes. Identifies opportunities to promote usage.

　　Solution Design and Proof

　　Identifies and applies existing demonstration assets. Demonstrates and oversees demonstrations (e.g., architectural design sessions [ADS], proof of concept [POC] sessions) of solutions based on specific Microsoft products through initial engagements. Leverages partner/customer teams as needed to prove capabilities and integration into customer environment. Reviews partner demonstrations and provides feedback to ensure alignment with Microsoft standards.

　　Presents and applies reference architectures across technologies/solution areas to partners or customers for their technology sets.

　　Expands awareness of and begins practicing digital transformation sales methodologies (e.g., challenger sales).

　　Technical Leadership

　　Builds their own readiness plan and proactively identifies learning gaps. Grows domain knowledge and practices expertise by communicating with customers, partners, and senior colleagues to expand knowledge of architecture.

　　Conducts group training or one-to-many events (e.g., workshops, Webinars) or leverages existing scale enablement programs to present and educate customers and colleagues on the capabilities and benefits across Microsoft solutions/products.

　　Monitors and responds to internal and external tech community posts, attends community calls, sessions, hackathon, etc., and acts as a mentor for their technology area. Contributes and participates in Customer Executive Briefing Center sessions. Shares best practices internally on community calls and drives recognition of Microsoft cloud solutions through presentations and engagements with external audiences.

　　Other

　　Embody our  culture  and  values

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　　Qualifications

　　Required/Minimum Qualifications

　　Relevant certifications from Microsoft or competitive platforms AND 3+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience

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

　　OR equivalent experience

　　4+ years experience working in the field of Data & AI, ideally in the cloud.

　　Additional or Preferred Qualifications

　　7+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting, or related experience.

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

　　Azure Data Engineer Certified or Azure Database Administer Certified preferred

　　Breadth of technical experience and knowledge, with depth/subject matter expertise in two or more of the following data platform cloud solutions required:

　　SQL databases including Azure SQL, Azure SQL Managed Instance, Azure SQL on IaaS

　　Data Analytics including Azure Databricks, Microsoft Fabric, Azure Synapse, Azure Machine Learning

　　Artificial Intelligence solutions including Azure OpenAI, Azure Cognitive Services

　　Data Governance including Azure Purview

　　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) .