Sr Cloud Solution Architecture-CTJ-Top Secret/SCI

Microsoft • Arlington, VA

4d • $106,400 - $203,600

About The Position

Microsoft is seeking a highly experienced Sr. Cloud Solution Architect to join its Federal organization. The role requires deep technical expertise across Azure workloads, including AI, data, applications, and infrastructure, and a passion for helping enterprise customers solve complex challenges and accelerate digital transformation. In this customer-facing role, the architect leads strategic technical engagements and serves as a trusted advisor to technical and executive stakeholders. The position combines deep technical competency, technical program management of complex, multi-workstream initiatives, and executive-level communication.

The architect ensures cloud solutions are deployed effectively, partners with Customer Success leaders and account teams to shape and execute cloud strategies, and drives projects from strategy through implementation and operationalization. The role orchestrates multiple technical teams, aligns architecture to business outcomes, and translates complex technical concepts into clear executive messaging. It supports government customers modernizing mission-critical systems, adopting AI responsibly, and building secure, scalable cloud platforms.

Responsibilities span business impact, customer centricity, partner specialization, and technical leadership. The role contributes to customer and partner outcomes, solution adoption and consumption, risk management, technical enablement, market and customer insight, and improvements to Microsoft offerings and practices. The successful candidate must hold an active U.S. Government Top Secret/SCI clearance, satisfy Microsoft and customer screening requirements, and verify U.S. citizenship. The position also requires passing the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire or transfer and every two years thereafter.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, Liberal Arts, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 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, and/or consulting, or equivalent experience.
• Active U.S. Government Top Secret/SCI Security Clearance.
• Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements; failure to maintain or obtain required clearance or screening may result in employment action up to and including termination.
• Successful verification of the stated security clearance before an offer of employment.
• Ability to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire or transfer and every two years thereafter.
• U.S. citizenship, subject to verification through a valid passport, other approved documents, or verified U.S. government clearance.
• Additional or preferred experience: Bachelor's degree in a listed or related field and at least 8 years of relevant experience; or a Master's degree in a listed or related field and at least 6 years of relevant experience; or equivalent experience.
• At least 4 years of experience in a customer-facing role, internal and/or external.
• At least 4 years of experience working on technical projects.
• Technical cloud certification, such as Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google, or a security certification.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor's degree in a listed or related field and at least 8 years of relevant experience, or a Master's degree in a listed or related field and at least 6 years of relevant experience, or equivalent experience.
• At least 4 years of customer-facing experience.
• At least 4 years of experience working on technical projects.
• Technical cloud certification, such as Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google, or a security certification.

Responsibilities

• Operate according to operational excellence standards and proven practices throughout sales stages, activities, and tools of record.
• Collaborate across Microsoft, customer, and partner teams to deliver on-strategy outcomes and improve customer and partner satisfaction.
• Contribute to business and technical risk management, applying governance principles to identify, communicate, and minimize risks.
• Prioritize competing demands and align work with customer impact, business priorities, and goals.
• Identify, escalate, and mitigate blockers to accelerate solution deployment, value realization, and usage or consumption.
• Apply business, technical, industry, and enterprise knowledge to architecture and support projects and resolve constraints.
• Deliver solutions using Microsoft methodologies and proven practices, preparing customers for operational readiness and business-goal achievement.
• Support change management and long-term organizational adoption to increase customer satisfaction and drive consumption and usage.
• Guide customers and partners toward secure, resilient, AI-enabled, cost- and performance-optimized solutions.
• Provide feedback on value-based deliverables to help refine and develop content.
• Identify opportunities for consumption, usage, and Unified expansion based on customer value and Microsoft’s value proposition.
• Listen to and respectfully challenge customers and partners, advocating for alternative architectures, solutions, or approaches when appropriate.
• Identify industry trends, gather customer and partner insights, and connect architecture and digital transformation solutions to business outcomes.
• Capture opportunities in appropriate systems and collaborate across the organization to execute them in alignment with Microsoft's Customer Engagement Model.
• Focus on customer and partner experience through efficient delivery and a seamless, connected engagement.
• Develop understanding of customer goals and contribute to defining customer and partner conditions of success.
• Address customer and partner dissatisfaction and contribute to strategies that improve experience, value realization, and transformation acceleration.
• Translate customer and partner problems into industry solutions aligned with Microsoft product and platform strategy, explaining how solutions meet outcome and ROI goals.
• Help customers and partners adopt and use Microsoft-aligned cross-solution-area products and platforms.
• Build relationships with technical decision makers and help bridge technical and business decision makers.
• Support stakeholder discussions concerning security, compliance, operational, and risk requirements.
• Represent the customer and partner voice by sharing feedback, insights, success stories, and strategic or technical input with engineering, product, and internal communities.
• Identify patterns across customers, partners, territories, and industries and use them to develop strategic, actionable insights.
• Contribute business cases and initiatives that may influence product roadmaps, decisions, and bug-fix prioritization.
• Grow solution utilization pipelines with partners by unblocking technical issues in customer deals.
• Support partner and sales teams in clarifying opportunities through proof of concept and technical pre-sales support.
• Assess solution-area market opportunities and initiate actions to address them with peer and leadership support.
• Guide partners in developing offerings, practices, products, and solutions; assist with initial customer implementations and deliver technical enablement.
• Focus on opportunities aligned with revenue goals.
• Use market insights and demand signals to help identify upskilling and accreditation needs.
• Maintain technical readiness across solution-area priorities and broader Customer Success Unit and corporate initiatives, and encourage readiness among less experienced team members.
• Mentor colleagues and lead readiness and upskilling activities as appropriate.
• Identify delivery gaps, communicate them to stakeholders, and connect patterns across business and technology areas to drive improvements to products, intellectual property, technologies, and practices.
• Contribute to the development and modification of Microsoft frameworks and methodologies.
• Contribute to virtual teams by sharing technical insights and input based on knowledge of Microsoft architectures and the competitive landscape.
• Contribute to presentations and engagements that demonstrate industry knowledge and promote Microsoft solutions.
• Support colleagues in contributing intellectual property and identifying areas where scalable, repeatable models are needed.
• Participate in external technical and non-technical community events and share learnings with internal teams.

Benefits

• Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation; specific benefits are not detailed in the posting.

What This Job Offers

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