Cloud Solution Architect

Microsoft • Washington, DC

1d • $106,400 - $222,600

About The Position

The Cloud Solution Architect acts as the voice of customers and partners, translating their problems, goals, and feedback into industry solutions aligned with Microsoft product and platform strategy. The role guides customers toward secure, resilient, AI-enabled, cost- and performance-optimized cloud architectures that support operational readiness, business outcomes, long-term adoption, and increased consumption and usage.

The architect collaborates across Microsoft, customer, and partner teams; manages business and technical risks and blockers; and delivers solutions using Microsoft methodologies and proven practices. The role identifies and develops opportunities for consumption, usage, and Unified expansion, supports partners in building repeatable offerings and implementing solutions, and provides technical pre-sales assistance. It also shares customer insights with engineering and product teams, contributes to scalable frameworks and intellectual property, mentors colleagues, and participates in technical and community engagements.

The position requires a bachelor's degree in a relevant field and at least four years of relevant experience, or equivalent experience. Preferred qualifications include additional relevant experience, customer-facing and technical-project experience, cloud certification, and proficiency in Microsoft collaboration and productivity platforms. The role requires passing a Microsoft Cloud Background Check and verification of U.S. citizenship because it supports government customers subject to citizenship-based legal restrictions. The typical U.S. base pay range is $106,400–$203,600 per year, with a range of $137,600–$222,600 for specified San Francisco Bay Area and New York City metropolitan locations. Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis, and the position will remain open for at least five days.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, Liberal Arts, or a related field and at least 4 years of experience in cloud or infrastructure technologies, IT consulting or support, systems administration, network operations, software development or support, technology solutions, practice development, architecture, or consulting; or equivalent experience.
• Must pass the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire or transfer and every two years thereafter.
• U.S. citizenship verification is required because the position supports U.S. government customers subject to citizenship-based legal restrictions.
• Preferred: Bachelor's degree in a relevant field and at least 8 years of relevant experience, or a master's degree in a relevant field and at least 6 years of relevant experience in cloud or infrastructure technologies, technology solutions, practice development, architecture, or consulting; or equivalent experience.
• Preferred: At least 4 years of experience in a customer-facing role, internal or external.
• Preferred: At least 4 years of experience working on technical projects.

Nice To Haves

• Technical certification in cloud technologies, such as Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google, or security certifications.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Exchange, Exchange Online, SharePoint, SharePoint Online, and Teams.
• Additional relevant experience or a master's degree, as specified in the preferred qualifications.

Responsibilities

• Operate according to required operational excellence standards and proven practices throughout sales stages, activities, and tools of record.
• Collaborate across Microsoft and customer and partner teams to deliver against customer and partner objectives and improve satisfaction.
• Manage business and technical risks, apply governance principles, and adapt methodologies to identify, communicate, and mitigate risks.
• Prioritize competing demands and align work with customer impact, business priorities, and goals.
• Deliver solutions using company methodologies and proven practices to prepare customers for operational readiness and business outcomes.
• Help customers deploy solutions for long-term adoption, leveraging change-management practices or involving change-management teams as appropriate.
• Guide customers and partners toward secure, resilient, AI-enabled, cost- and performance-optimized solutions.
• Provide feedback to the Unified Delivery Team to refine and develop value-based deliverables.
• Identify opportunities for Consumption, Usage, and Unified expansion, especially Enhanced Solutions, based on customer value and Microsoft’s value proposition.
• Listen to and respectfully challenge customers and partners, building trust and advocating for architectures or approaches that improve requirements and outcomes.
• Evaluate industry trends, gather customer and partner insights, and map architectures and digital-transformation solutions to business outcomes.
• Capture opportunities in appropriate systems and work across the organization to execute them in alignment with Microsoft’s Customer Engagement Model.
• Identify, escalate, and mitigate blockers using appropriate tools and processes to accelerate deployment, value realization, and usage or consumption.
• Apply business, technical, industry, and enterprise knowledge to architecture or support projects and resolve constraints.
• Translate customer and partner problems into industry solutions aligned with Microsoft product and platform strategy, explaining their fit with desired outcomes and ROI.
• Help customers and partners adopt and use Microsoft-aligned cross-solution-area products and platforms.
• Build relationships with technical decision makers and bridge communication between technical and business decision makers.
• Engage with CIOs, CISOs, and other C-level roles as needed to connect security, compliance, operational, and risk requirements, involving subject matter experts when deeper expertise is needed.
• Promote efficient delivery and a seamless customer and partner experience; define conditions for success, anticipate dissatisfaction and unmet needs, and execute strategies to improve experience and transformation outcomes.
• Share customer and partner feedback, insights, success stories, and strategic and technical input with engineering, product-offering teams, and internal communities.
• Identify patterns in customer and partner feedback and develop actionable insights; present business cases to influence product roadmaps, decisions, bug-fix prioritization, and initiatives.
• Understand solution-area market opportunities and collaborate with Global Partner Solutions stakeholders to turn opportunities into action.
• Guide partners in developing repeatable offerings, practices, products, and solutions, and advise them during initial strategic customer implementations.
• Prioritize opportunities aligned with revenue goals and grow the solution-utilization pipeline with partners.
• Support partner and sales teams with proof of concept and technical pre-sales assistance to clarify opportunities.
• Use market insights and demand signals to help leadership identify upskilling and accreditation needs.
• Model technical readiness across solution-area priorities and broader Customer Success Unit and corporate initiatives, and encourage team readiness.
• Mentor colleagues and lead readiness and upskilling activities by sharing technical and non-technical knowledge and proven practices.
• Identify delivery gaps and communicate them to stakeholders; connect patterns across business and technology to drive improvements to products, intellectual property, technologies, processes, and practices.
• Contribute to the development and modification of Microsoft frameworks and methodologies, and provide local thought leadership and innovation.
• Contribute to leading virtual teams addressing technologies and customer or partner challenges, sharing insights and technical input across Microsoft.
• Contribute to and lead presentations and engagements for internal and external audiences, demonstrating industry knowledge and Microsoft solutions.
• Contribute to intellectual property and identify opportunities to create scalable, repeatable models where IP does not exist.
• Participate in external technical and non-technical community events and share learnings internally.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level