Embark on a transformative journey as the **Technical Sales Leader** for the newly established **AI Partner Catalyst Team** —a groundbreaking initiative at the forefront of our company’s vision. This strategic role invites you to help shape and drive the next wave of innovation, forging new paths in AI-powered customer engagement and partnership. As a key architect of our evolving sales strategy, you will have the unique opportunity to influence decision makers at the highest levels, build and elevate technical credibility, and empower teams to deliver exceptional value. If you are ready to be part of something bold and significant, where your expertise fuels the future and your leadership makes a lasting impact, we invite you to join us and champion the possibilities ahead. In this role, you will be the leader who will execute the following responsibilities, as well as those that will evolve as the AI market takes shape. **Responsibilities** **Build Strategy** + Coach the team to support the voice of the customer (VOC) through escalation, acceleration, and emphasis on feedback, blockers, insights, and resources (e.g., unified action tracker [UAT], technical feedback platform). Leverage architectural design patterns and reference models to identify scalable opportunities across customers and consolidate priorities that drive business impact. + Build and apply customer compete knowledge by enabling competitive learning and sharing expertise. Drive change by equipping teams to highlight Microsoft’s technical advantages—particularly in AI, advanced analytics, and cloud infrastructure—during architecture and capability discussions. + Establish standards for communications with internal partners on high-value customer opportunities. Pre-align technical resources based on account planning and priorities, with flexibility to realign as needed. Sponsor and coach managers to recognize SME contributions in unblocking complex opportunities, especially those involving cloud security and multi-geography deployment strategies. + Oversee teams in developing and implementing complex action plans to drive customer usage of prioritized Microsoft solutions. Promote product usage through innovative approaches that incorporate pilots, proof-of-concepts (POCs), and modern business intelligence frameworks. + Collaborate with account and marketing teams to guide long-term strategy and develop innovative customer win strategies for global markets. Ensure cross-functional groups are equipped to execute compete strategy with technical rigor. + Proactively support teams in defining and executing strategy. Engage customers to identify global and cross-area opportunities, aligning strategy with industry insights and ensuring internal capability to execute. **Scale Customer Engagements** + Use deep technical, domain, and market knowledge—including AI, big data, and hybrid cloud—to build credibility with customers (up to C-level) individually and at scale. + Coach and empower teams to influence customer decisions and drive technical buy-in. Streamline processes and manage the flow of wins using tools and programs (e.g., FastTrack, MSP, co-sell partners). Provide strategic guidance across solution areas and facilitate cross-selling across workloads (Apps, Data, Infrastructure). + Leverage investments such as Microsoft Technology Center (MTC), executive briefing centers, and partner workshops to resolve complex blockers. Anticipate future blockers and implement innovative resolutions using architectural and cloud security expertise. + Orchestrate team resources to maximize engagement impact. Drive long-term strategy through cross-workload capacity planning, prioritization, and resource utilization. Establish standards for selling time optimization aligned to scorecard objectives. + Shape and lead engagement strategy with senior technical and business decision makers. Provide strategic direction to craft solutions and unblock complex technical obstacles, including those involving cloud platform identity and deployment. + Drive consistency and quality of engagements by evolving best practices and aligning cross-functional initiatives. Champion a unified sales and delivery methodology across Microsoft’s sales organization. **Scale Through Partners** + Ensure teams maximize capacity and capabilities by scaling through partners. Coach teams to grow the partner network, identify gaps, and promote Microsoft’s value within the ecosystem. Use technical expertise to alleviate blockers through collaboration with cross-functional leadership. **Solution Design and Proof** + Coach teams to leverage Microsoft technology in innovative ways that meet customer needs. Coordinate with stakeholders to develop solutions for complex sales scenarios, integrating AI, IoT, and data platform modernization. + Oversee high-impact demonstrations (e.g., architectural design sessions, POCs, pilots, hackathons) and ensure they resolve technical issues with clear deployment paths. Guide teams on Microsoft standards and feedback loops to partners. Identify patterns and align feedback with strategy to improve solution design. + Anticipate emerging trends in AI and agentic systems. Define and align innovative ideas into customer-centric solutions, serving as the voice of the customer (VOC) to Microsoft and influencing global solution development. **Technical Leadership** + Enable teams to develop technical expertise and provide insights to internal stakeholders. Act as a role model for continuous learning and development, identifying future capability needs based on market trends. + Identify opportunities for one-to-many engagements (e.g., webinars, workshops) to educate customers, partners, and colleagues across Microsoft solution areas. + Ensure team participation in technical communities and drive feedback to improve team experience and effectiveness globally. Contribute to Customer Executive Briefing Center sessions and share best practices internally to elevate Microsoft’s technical brand **Qualifications** **Required/minimum qualifications** + Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering or related field AND 8+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience OR equivalent experience. + 5+ years experience architecting and deploying AI solutions—including machine learning, generative AI, and agentic AI—across enterprise-grade environments. Translating technical depth into business impact and lead technical sales motions that span proof-of-concept, pilot, and production deployment. + 5+ years of experience driving technical strategy and partner engagement across AI-native organizations (ISVs, startups, or digital-first enterprises), influencing product adoption, co-innovation, and go-to-market execution across cloud infrastructure, hybrid networks, and AI platforms. **Additional** **or preferred qualifications** + Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering or related field AND 15+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience OR equivalent experience. + 8+ years experience with cloud and hybrid, or on premises infrastructures, architecture designs, migrations, industry standards, and/or technology management. + 7+ years people management experience (including leading virtual teams). Digital Solution Engineering M6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $155,800 - $277,200 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $202,400 - $303,600 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: US corporate pay information | Microsoft Careers (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/us-corporate-pay.html) Microsoft will accept applications for the role until 9/22/2025 Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html) .