Cloud Solution Architect - Azure Data, Analytics & AI

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

With over 17,000 employees worldwide, the mission of the Customer Experience & Success (CE&S) organization is to empower customers to accelerate business value through differentiated customer experiences that leverage Microsoft’s products and services, ignited by our people and culture. Come join CE&S and help us build a future where customers achieve their business outcomes faster with technology that does more.

We are looking for an experienced individual to join our team as a Cloud and AI Solution Architect (CSA), specializing in Azure Data, Analytics & AI technologies to accelerate our customers’ transformation on Microsoft Azure. This is a customer-facing role, owning the technical relationship between the customer and Microsoft, helping customers to leverage their Microsoft investments through architecture, and operational health engagements. You will help our customers architect and deploy first class cloud infrastructure solutions in Azure and to be AI Ready by applying scalable best practices in the cloud leveraging principles from the Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) and Well-Architected Framework (WAF).

Azure is the most comprehensive, innovative, and flexible cloud platform today providing you with the technical platform and opportunity to work with Australia's largest and most important public sector and commercial companies to drive customer cloud adoption for AI innovation and influence transformational customer change. 

This role is flexible in that you can work up to 50% from home.

Responsibilities

Business Impact

• Operates with operational excellence and proven practices across all sales stages and tools (e.g., pipeline updates, time tracking).
• Collaborates across Microsoft and customer/partner teams to achieve objectives and improve satisfaction.
• Proactively manages business and technical risks, applying governance principles to minimise impact.
• Executes work in compliance with industry and Microsoft guidelines.
• Prioritises competing demands, ensuring alignment with business priorities and customer impact.
• Delivers solutions using company methodologies (e.g., Value Based Deliveries (VBD), advice, training, technical validation).
• Supports change management for long-term adoption and increased customer satisfaction.
• Guides customers towards secure, resilient, AI-enabled, cost-optimised solutions.
• Provides feedback to Unified Delivery Team to refine VBD content.
• Identifies opportunities for consumption, usage, and expansion at scale based on business value.
• Builds trust with customers/partners, advocating alternative architectures and solutions.
• Evaluates industry trends and gathers insights to map solutions to business outcomes.
• Captures opportunities in systems and collaborates to execute aligned with Microsoft’s Customer Engagement Model.
• Escalates and mitigates blockers to accelerate deployment and value realisation.
• Applies business and technical knowledge to meet IT requirements and resolve constraints.

Customer Centricity

• Acts as the voice of the customer, sharing insights and feedback with internal teams.
• Identifies feedback patterns to develop strategic, actionable insights.
• Influences product roadmaps and prioritisation through business cases.
• Translates customer problems into industry solutions aligned with Microsoft strategy.
• Helps customers adopt cross-solution area offerings aligned with Microsoft platforms.
• Builds relationships with TDMs and bridges gaps with BDMs and C-level roles (CIO, CISO).
• Focuses on seamless customer experience and defines conditions of success.
• Anticipates dissatisfaction and executes strategies to improve experience and accelerate transformation.

Partner Specialisation

• Identifies and prioritises opportunities aligned with revenue goals.
• Supports partner and sales teams with clarity through proof of concept and technical pre-sales.
• Understands market opportunities and collaborates with GPS stakeholders to execute initiatives.
• Guides partners in developing repeatable offerings and advises during initial implementations.

Technical Leadership

• Uses market insights to guide leadership on upskilling and accreditations.
• Role models technical readiness and mentors team members.
• Identifies gaps in delivery and connects patterns to drive improvements in products and processes.
• Contributes to Microsoft frameworks and methodologies.
• Provides thought leadership and innovation to customers and internal communities.
• Leads virtual teams and shares insights across Microsoft.
• Demonstrates industry knowledge and represents Microsoft in internal/external events.
• Contributes to IP development and identifies patterns for scalable models.
• Participates in technical and non-technical community events to elevate Microsoft’s brand.

Qualifications

Required / Minimum Qualifications

• Candidates with prior technical consulting experience in Databricks, Microsoft Fabric, Purview, or equivalent data warehousing technologies are highly preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, Liberal Arts, or a related fieldAND4+ years of experience in one or more of the following areas:
• Cloud/infrastructure technologies
• IT consulting or support
• Systems administration
• Network operations
• Software development or support
• Technology solutions
• Practice development
• Architecture
• ConsultingOR equivalent experience 

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field AND 8+ years of experience in the areas listed aboveORMaster’s degree in a relevant field AND 6+ years of experience in cloud/infrastructure technologies, technology solutions, practice development, architecture, and/or consultingOR equivalent experience
• 4+ years of experience in a customer-facing role (internal or external)
• 4+ years of experience working on technical projects
• Technical certification in cloud platforms (e.g., Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Cloud) or security