Overview

Do you get excited about engaging with leaders within Microsoft product groups, strategic partners worldwide? Are you driven by accelerating the adoption and usage of advanced Microsoft Security workloads globally? Do you see yourself building consulting offerings, delivery assets, and providing practice development strategy and advisory services that will help Microsoft and the Microsoft Partner community build solutions for current and future Security challenges?

We’re looking for a Solution Architect – Security with experience working with enterprise customers and knowledge of the solution development lifecycle, from envisioning to design, and user experience through publishing. This candidate will have a drive for partner enablement and demonstrated operational security experience skills. You will join the Microsoft 365 Center of Excellence (COE) team that operates and travels globally.

This team works closely with the Microsoft product engineering and marketing teams for Modern Work and Security to develop assets that help Microsoft develop partner capacity and scale towards accelerating usage of Microsoft Solutions.

Responsibilities

Partner Program Support: COE Technical Pre-Sales and readiness

• Work directly with partners to help drive technical pre-sales motions with Microsoft Security Workshop Materials especially in the area of Microsoft Security products and Zero-trust framework.

• Support with partner technical onboarding of Workshops Go-to-Market GTM materials.

• Help develop and coordinate with Microsoft stakeholders to develop Technical Readiness roadmaps for partner solutions.

Understanding Customer/Partner Technical Environment

• Gathers and propagates customer/partner insights from a broad range of stakeholders as well as the main business sponsor that will help shape and form both the definition and ongoing execution of the project. Learns to Identify and evaluate industry trends (customer industry verticals, information technology [IT] industry).

• Work with our stakeholders and business sponsors to socialize both the business solution and the project approach to determine if changes are needed to workshop content.

• Uses evidence-based approach to function as customer advocate and share insights with Product Engineering teams and the business with a view to improving Microsoft technologies, products, services and offerings such that they can better meet customer/partner needs.

Architecture Design and Deployment

• Leverages a structured approach to architecture projects using existing methodologies (e.g., Waterfall, Agile, Iterative) that make use of existing reference architecture and established architectural styles and design patterns.

• Defines and documents the Architecture through an architecture description document to communicate the value proposition of the solution along with the project approach. Leads cost-based and technology-based discussions to explain the architecture in terms of its build, deployment, and ongoing operational use to determine customer appetite for the solution. Uses a business-value approach that values return on investment (ROI) and customer costs-savings over technical ease of execution.

• Work with our stakeholders to gather and ratify requirements and constraints.

• Identifies scenarios that could slow or impede pre-sales/delivery. Orchestrates the broader Microsoft team to address technical blockers and works with account/project team to resolve non-technical issues. Reports significant problems with Microsoft management and escalates when needed. Plans a way forward in complex situations with an innovative approach and durable design. Delegates and uses specialist skills of others to drive technical alignment across internal/external teams.

• Work in close collaboration with our stakeholders to identify, categorize, and communicate business and technical risks. Defines risk mitigation activities that are foundational to the project plan. Defines risk contingency plans for invocation should the risk occur.

Intellectual Property and Practice Development

• Generate new and/or improvements to existing intellectual property.

• Creates new intellectual property based on requirements from our stakeholders.

• Drives the re-use of intellectual property and recommends practices in both pre-sales and delivery.

• Participates and contributes to internal/external communities.

Trusted Advisor

• Develop a network of internal/external relationships to build influence in addressing problems/ blockers and facilitating additional views on the matter of interest. Stays up to date on Microsoft’s technologies, products, and services in order to communicate Microsoft's mission, strategy, and capabilities.

• Use evidence-based arguments that articulate complex concepts to Microsoft and customers/partners.

• Understands solutions and identifies how customer business value can be driven through Microsoft's offerings. Steers the customer/partner conversations to the benefits of the solution rather than the features and functionalities.

Thought Leadership

• Share ideas, insight, and strategic, technical input with technical teams, internal communities across the field, and the larger virtual team across Microsoft using a thorough knowledge of specific Microsoft products and their context in the landscape.

• Participate in external architect community events (e.g., conferences, seminars, technical meetups, Webcasts, blogs, hackathons) and shares learnings with internal team. Acts a mentor to colleagues to educate them on technical and non-technical concepts.