Industry Principal, CSA

Softchoice•Toronto, ON

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

As an Industry Principal, you will play a critical role at the forefront of organizational transformation, enabling enterprises to progress from innovative experimentation to achieving tangible, measurable impact. The position emphasizes leveraging technology to create operational advantages for clients, rather than focusing on sales. You will facilitate organizations in realizing the full potential of workplace modernization, infrastructure enhancement, security improvements, data and AI advancements, and platform optimization, supporting them within Microsoft, AWS, and Google Cloud environments. Your expertise will extend beyond preliminary pilots and proofs of concept, as you design and implement strategic approaches that are practical, scalable, resilient, and compliant with regulatory and operational demands. Through an integrated consulting and engineering model, you will guide clients through each phase of transformation, from conceptualization to execution, modernizing workflows, decision-making processes, and value creation strategies. You will develop programs to enhance productivity, reduce operational inefficiencies, strengthen governance, and deliver clear returns on investment that resonate with executive leadership and boards. Serving as a trusted advisor, you will provide clarity amidst uncertainty, assisting senior leaders in aligning strategic priorities, evaluating trade-offs, and making informed investment decisions. You will formulate business cases, define strategic roadmaps, and ensure AI deployment is conducted responsibly, securely, and with a focus on desired outcomes. Additionally, you will engage with high-performing teams by aligning account leaders, architects, engineers, and partners to deliver bespoke solutions tailored to each client’s specific needs. From participating in boardroom discussions to overseeing delivery, you will ensure strategic objectives translate into effective implementation and impactful results.

Requirements

Senior executive credibility, with a proven ability to engage CIOs, CISOs, CTOs, and business leaders in outcome-focused, strategic conversations.
Deep expertise in one or more core domains—Security, Data & AI, Infrastructure Modernization, or Workplace prepared with strong working knowledge across the full enterprise technology stack.
Proven experience owning complex, services-led sales cycles, including discovery, solution shaping, proposal and SOW development, and executive-level deal closure.
Strong business acumen, with the ability to build and articulate ROI-driven business cases tied to productivity, cost optimization, risk reduction, and regulatory compliance.
Hands-on architectural and consulting background, enabling you to move seamlessly between strategy, design, and execution when required.
Experience operating in a partner-centric ecosystem, working with Microsoft and other hyperscalers to drive co-sell motions, funding programs, and joint GTMs.
Comfort with ambiguity and transformation, able to lead through change, evolving operating models, and emerging technologies.
A High-Performance Team mindset, excelling at orchestrating virtual teams, enabling others, and scaling impact through collaboration.
Strong communication and storytelling skills, capable of simplifying complexity and influencing decision-makers at all levels.
A disciplined operator, maintaining pipeline rigor, forecast accuracy, and CRM hygiene without losing focus on customer outcomes.
Values-driven leadership, balancing confidence with humility, ownership with empowerment, and ambition with accountability.
Deep expertise in one or more enterprise domains, with strong working knowledge across the full technology landscape: Security & Risk – Zero Trust, identity, governance, compliance, data protection, SOC/MDR, and secure AI adoption; Data & AI – Modern data platforms, analytics, AI/ML, intelligent agents, data governance, and AI operating models; Infrastructure Modernization – Cloud, hybrid, and AI-ready infrastructure, platform engineering, networking, and resiliency; Modern Workplace – Collaboration platforms, endpoint management, digital employee experience, and AI-enabled productivity.
Ability to connect domains together into cohesive, outcome-driven architectures rather than siloed solutions.
Experience designing and guiding enterprise-scale transformations, balancing innovation with security, governance, and operational rigor.
Strong understanding of cloud ecosystems (Microsoft, AWS, Google Cloud) and how to position services and solutions across multi-cloud environments.
Demonstrated experience working within the Financial Services & Insurance sector
Proven ability to align technology strategy to industry-specific challenges, including regulatory requirements, data sovereignty, risk management, and operational efficiency.
Experience advising senior executives on industry trends, competitive pressures, and transformation priorities, translating insight into actionable roadmaps.
Comfortable engaging with industry bodies, partners, and executive forums to represent a strong point of view and thought leadership.
Microsoft: Proficiency with Microsoft Fabric, Azure AI, M365 Copilot, and Copilot Studio/Agents.
AWS: Familiarity with Bedrock, SageMaker, and a range of data analytics services, including an understanding of patterns for Amazon Q and related guardrails.
Google Cloud: Experience with Vertex AI, Dialogflow/CCAI, and BigQuery analytics patterns.
Ecosystem: Awareness of Databricks and Snowflake lakehouse patterns, as well as business intelligence platforms such as Power BI, Looker, or QuickSight, as applicable.
The candidate should possess the ability to translate executive-level objectives—such as growth, margin, risk, and customer/employee experience—into a well-structured AI roadmap and adoption plan. They must be able to present a clear narrative connecting agents, data, and governance to desired business outcomes.
Proven capability in leading virtual pursuit teams and coordinating partner co-selling and funding efforts is essential.
The candidate should be familiar with agentic patterns, including Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), tool use, and orchestration, and understand how these patterns intersect with line-of-business applications and data estates.
Willingness and ability to travel frequently within a designated Sales District, up to 25% of the time.

Responsibilities

Co-Author the executive sales cycle end-to-end across Transformation, Security, Data & AI, Infrastructure Modernization, and Workplace—leading discovery, mapping business problems to service-led offers, orchestrating virtual teams (pre-sales architects, delivery, partners), shaping proposals and SOWs, and negotiating to signature.
Lead with value and measurable ROI, building compelling business cases tied to productivity gains, cost-to-serve reduction, risk and compliance outcomes, and adoption metrics that ensure impact beyond the close.
Facilitate C-level and boardroom conversations to demystify AI and modern technology, align stakeholders, and drive clarity on which initiatives to pursue, why they matter, and how they deliver business outcomes.
Architect and position integrated solutions spanning AI, data platforms, security, cloud, infrastructure, and modern workplace—ensuring designs are scalable, secure, and aligned to enterprise operating models.
Partner in co-sell and funding motions, working closely with OEM Partners, Microsoft and other hyperscalers to unlock workshops, AMMP/MDF, incentives, and proof-of-concept funding that accelerates pipeline and deal velocity.
Maintain pipeline discipline and forecasting rigor, ensuring strong Salesforce hygiene, weekly funnel cadence, sufficiency management, and effective use of Sales Ops dashboards.
Evangelize responsibly, positioning governance, identity, Zero Trust, Purview, DLP, and AI Centers of Excellence to help customers scale innovation while reducing risk.
Activate and lead High Performance Teams (HPTs), align account executives, CSLs, architects, and delivery leaders to execute complex, multi-domain initiatives with shared accountability.
Drive adoption and change, ensuring solutions translate into realized value through enablement, operating model alignment, and sustained customer engagement.