Solution Architect - Data & AI at Microsoft

Responsibilities

​Pre-Sales Support

• Collaborates with internal stakeholders (e.g., Solution Architect, Account Delivery Executive, Pursuit Lead, Sales Solution Specialist) in the pre-sale process by understanding business requirements and providing industry and technical input and/or solution offerings to help shape the deal. Supports drafting proposals and/or statement of work (SOW).

• Provides input on staffing and skill requirements for delivery to Resource Deployment, Technical Delivery Managers (TDMs), and/or Project Managers.

Technical Delivery

• Follows capacity process outlined by Global Capacity Management team. Maintains tools with up-to-date skills and availability.

• Leads meetings with customers/partners to understand business needs. Uses business, industry and technology strategies to map customer/partner requirements to the adoption and optimization of Microsoft technology solutions. Engages others appropriately to understand and define customer requirements.

• Participates in project planning and develops project documents by identifying the risks and dependencies. Communicates the business value of planned solutions to customers/ partners. Identifies technical and business risks in programs and proposes mitigations. Assists project managers/architects in preparing for steering committee (e.g., developing artifacts). Manages their schedule and communicates to project leads. Generates and delivers Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

• Implements solutions and may provide oversight and leadership on workstreams across domains while adhering to Microsoft Services processes. Aligns solutions with the intent of the architecture.

• Manages escalations, analyzes situations, and coordinates appropriate resources to resolve issues by following delivery practices, considering cost implications, and engaging in conversations with internal and external stakeholders (e.g., Customer Service and Support, Project Manager, Solution Architect, Product Group) as needed.

• Proactively manages executive-level customer/partner/stakeholder relationships to identify and contribute to the drivers of satisfaction and dissatisfaction, determine the root cause, and establish recovery actions to improve experience. Works with account team to ensure One Microsoft approach. Shares lessons learned with workgroup and consultant community.

Intellectual Property Management

• Acts as an ambassador in consumption of intellectual property (IP) by leveraging and/or modifying existing IP or creating repeatable content where applicable. Provides feedback on Managed IP for continuous improvement, reports IP gaps, reviews IP to be considered for harvesting and curation and ensures it is logged for consumption. Improves Managed Standard Offerings (MSO) quality and collaborates with portfolio and solution teams of the domain by providing feedback.

Business Development

• Identifies opportunities to expand or accelerate the adoption and consumption of the cloud and Microsoft technologies. As appropriate, facilitates other team members to scale the business with existing customers by articulating value propositions of strategic Microsoft products and services and developing new offerings for the domain. Drives innovation and digital transformation. Ensures the use of existing intellectual property (IP).

Readiness

• Learns new technologies or services based on business demands and industry trends. Obtains relevant accreditations and certification(s) as advised by domain leadership team. Identifies certifications and readiness plans in partnership with domain Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Leads or participates in relevant technical communities, and conducts training sessions to evangelize technology and/or offerings based on availability. Mentors team members and acts as a technical advisor for stakeholders by providing thought leadership, articulation of solutions value, and outcomes of business strategies.

Operational Excellence

• Completes operational tasks and readiness, and ensures timeliness and accuracy. Follows Microsoft policies, compliance, and procedures (e.g., Enterprise Services Authorization Policy, Standards of Business Conduct, labor logging, expenses, travel guidelines). Leads as example and guides team members on operational tasks, readiness, and compliance.

Other

• Embody our culture and values

Qualifications

​Required/Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Finance, Business, or related field AND strong technical leadership experience in relevant area of business

  • OR equivalent experience.

Additional Qualifications

• Strong Architectural experience in Azure Data Platform Architecture

Some of the technologies you’ll be well versed with (not all, but a good selection from the list):

• • Strong Azure data platform expertise and experience in pre-sales , delivery, Architecture, design, leading team of consultants to implement large scale opportunities

  • Azure Data platform technologies, Data warehouse, relational database methodologies, development and performance tuning, BI, and ETL skills on large scale enterprise EDW systems (significant experience)

  • Experienced with Migrations from Teradata/Netezza/APS/Oracle/Azure Synapse/PostgreSQL

  • Strong in ETL/ELT approaches and technologies: ADF, SSIS, Informatica etc

  • Big Data and Analytics platform: HDInsight (Hadoop, Spark, HBase)

  • Experience in modern BI technologies (NoSQL, Hadoop, HDInsight, Cosmos, MPP SQL, Spark, etc.)

  • Practical knowledge of common storage options including JSON, Parquet and ORC format

  • Experience in a DevOps culture supporting live site

  • Experience with Continuous Delivery practices, TDD

  • Experience in Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) and REST

  • Experience in delivery thru agile practices

  • End-to-end Microsoft BI stack knowledge and experience: SQL Server, Azure, Azure SQL DB, SSIS, SSAS, SSRS, HD Insight, Streaming Insight, Sharepoint BI, PowerPivot, PowerView, Excel, PowerBI

  • Languages: SQL, C#, Java, or Python / Powershell, use of Visual Studio is preferred

  • Ability to translate technology capabilities into business capabilities

  • Solution architecture design, DBMS architecture

  • Leadership skills

  • Work experience in an Agile environment - preferably Scrum

  • Inclusion of quality attributes in solution designs (security, availability, resilience, performance, scalability, cost, usability)