Cloud & AI Solution Engineering Manager

The role of Cloud & AI Solution Engineering Manager involves managing and empowering teams to deliver success through modeling, coaching, and caring. Managers define team objectives, enable success across boundaries, and invest in the growth of individuals 1. They proactively engage with key customer technical decision-makers, leveraging deep technical and industry knowledge to build credibility and ensure technical wins 2. The role includes orchestrating team resources, maximizing customer engagement impact, and driving mid-to-long-term strategy 3. Additionally, managers coach teams to grow the partner network, identify gaps, and promote Microsoft within the ecosystem 4. They build competitive knowledge, define and execute strategy, and ensure team capability to execute solutions 5. The role also involves overseeing solution demonstrations, guiding customers through digital transformation, and identifying new technical and business trends 6. Finally, managers enable team development, act as technical thought leaders, and share best practices 7.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities 

People Management 

• Managers deliver success through empowerment and accountability by modeling, coaching, and caring. 

• Model - Live our culture; Embody our values; Practice our leadership principles. 

• Coach - Define team objectives and outcomes; Enable success across boundaries; Help the team adapt and learn. 

• Care - Attract and retain great people; Know each individual’s capabilities and aspirations; Invest in the growth of others. 

Scale Customer Engagements 

• Proactively identifies and engages with key customer technical decision makers and influencers while engaging sales team. Coaches and enables team to identify and proactively engage with key customer technical decision makers and influencers to help unblock technical obstacles. 

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

• Enables and empowers team to influence customer decisions and ensure technical wins by streamlining processes and managing the flow of wins, leveraging deep knowledge of processes (e.g., Managed Service Provider [MSP], Managed Certified Professional [MCP]), tools, and programs (e.g., FastTrack, End Customer Investment Funds [ECIFs]). Aligns goals across solution areas and facilitates cross-selling with various workloads (e.g., Apps, Data and Infrastructure) 

• Leverages knowledge of resources (e.g., roles, Microsoft Technology Center [MTC], demo sites, virtual sites, Value Based Delivery [VBD], Customer Success Unit [CSU]) and owns resolution of technical and non-technical blockers by engaging other teams (e.g., engineering, Account Team Unit [ATU], Specialist Team Unit [STU]) and conveying impact. Anticipates and addresses future potential blockers based on needs. Identifies patterns of blockers within area of expertise and drives resolution through local and global escalation. 

• Ensures consistency and quality through capturing, sharing, and adherence of standards and best practices in customer engagements by implementing cross-functional initiatives to different channels across a subsidiary to drive consistency in technical approach and ensure customer technical experience across teams. 

• Orchestrates team resources and coaches team to maximize impact of customer engagements and drive mid-to long-term strategy through cross-workload capacity planning, prioritization, and utilization of resources. Proactively plans team resources and influences future blueprints. Qualifies and prioritizes opportunities, and holds team accountable for maximizing selling time to achieve scorecard objectives and subsidiary strategy. 

Leverage Partner Ecosystem 

• Maximizes area-level capacity and capabilities by coaching team to grow partner network, identifying gaps and promoting Microsoft within the Microsoft ecosystem (e.g., account teams). Raises escalations or alleviates blockers through collaboration with manager-level counterparts in cross-functional groups. 

• 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 of team by enabling competitive learning and identifying experts to share knowledge. Enables team to share compete knowledge with internal teams and communities, influence compete strategies, and highlight Microsoft advantages during architecture and capability discussions. Acts as a subject matter expert on a particular competitive discipline(s). 

• Coaches and provides support to team and across internal teams to define and execute strategy. Proactively approaches customers to understand and identify cross-workload strategy opportunities. Engages internal teams to ensure capability to execute strategy. 

• Maintains communications with internal partners (e.g., Account Technology Unit [ATU], Customer Service Unit [CSU] manager, SSM) on highest potential customers to pre-align technical resources to customer and customer cases based on account planning and priorities, with the flexibility to realign to minimize orchestration and enable proactive engagements as needed. 

• Works with local marketing and account teams to shape strategic win and customer success plans and tailor to audience for the local markets using knowledge of Microsoft offerings, their context in the competitive landscape, and broader market trends. Ensures team is equipped to execute compete strategy, collaborating with cross-functional groups as needed. Where applicable, oversees team(s) in the building of consumption plans with moderately complex requirements in coordination with Partner and Industry Solutions Delivery teams after customer sign-off. 

Solution Design and Proof 

• Coaches team 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. Ensures demonstrations enable customers to identify and resolve technical issues with clear criteria and next steps that guarantee deployment of Microsoft technology. 

• Promotes adaptation and extension of architecture patterns to accommodate complex customer requirements and drive integration solutions for industry flavor. 

• Applies advanced sales methodologies (e.g., challenger sales) and coaches team in guiding customers through digital transformation solutions and using innovation to challenge solutions against changing technology (e.g., Power Apps). 

• Coaches team to envision new and innovative solutions that use Microsoft technology to meet customer needs. Supports team in coordinating with stakeholders to develop solutions for complex sales scenarios. Ensures team capability to execute on those solutions. 

• Identifies new technical and business trends and needs, and identifies ideas that can be transformed into solutions that benefit customers/partners, serving as the voice of the customer (VOC) to Microsoft. Ensures input is utilized and solutions for the customer are established at the area level. 

Education 

• Enables and empowers team to develop technical expertise and provide technical insights to internal teams. Acts as a role model by increasing own technical knowledge and serving as a respected technology leader to team. 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. 

• Ensures team members participate in tech communities and drives feedback to improve overall team member experience and effectiveness at subsidiary level. 

Qualifications

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.