Solution Area Specialist - Artificial Intelligence (AI) Workforce at Microsoft

, , United States -

Full Time

Start Date

Immediate

Expiry Date

11 Mar, 26

Salary

187500.0

Posted On

12 Dec, 25

Experience

2 year(s) or above

Remote Job

Yes

Telecommute

Yes

Sponsor Visa

Skills

Sales Execution, Digital Transformation, Customer Engagement, Collaboration, Technical Expertise, Cybersecurity, AI Workforce, Partner Management, Solution Development, Market Analysis, Forecasting, Account Management, Compliance, Coaching, Networking, Business Planning

Industry

Software Development

Description

Overview Join Microsoft’s US Public Sector Industries DIB Team—where mission meets innovation. The Defense Industrial Base (DIB) Operating Unit (OU) is a newly formed team with a bold mission: to consolidate, simplify, and accelerate Microsoft’s presence across the DIB landscape. This expansive network includes over 100,000 organizations specializing in manufacturing, aviation, cybersecurity, and more—all united in their support of all Federal Agencies, including the U.S. Department of Defense and other mission-based intelligence and civilian organizations. Our team is dedicated to empowering these commercial contractors throughout their digital transformation journey—from envisioning new possibilities to delivering secure, scalable solutions that drive mission outcomes, elevate customer experience, and fuel Microsoft’s growth. The DIB OU will directly manage and accelerate strategic and major DIB accounts across MCAPS Americas, while also enabling growth across other OUs and SME&C. We’re building new relationships, transforming legacy operations, and helping our customers modernize with confidence. The DIB OU is currently looking for a passionate Solution Area Specialist with a strong knowledge of AI workforce (formerly known as Modern Work in FY25), and deep industry and Microsoft solution understanding to drive and orchestrate deals across multiple stakeholder groups, including partners. The Solution Area Specialist will discover and qualify new leads, drive consumption with new and existing customers, identify market and customer needs and collaborate with internal teams to devise solutions and meet customer needs. In this role you will meet with customers to deepen relationships, solution developments, and will develop and manage pipeline for your territory and forecast resource needs. 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. Responsibilities Sales Execution Engages in conversations with customers aligned to their industry to introduce how other workloads could enable digital transformation areas that is aligned with the customer's industry and turns opportunities into deals. Initiates conversations with customers on digital transformation in one or more solution areas, in collaboration with partners and services. Creates guiding examples of digital transformation through seminars, workshops, webinars, and direct engagement. Collaborates with team members to discover new opportunities. Drives incremental revenue growth through personal campaigns (e.g., portfolio analysis) or internal sources (e.g., Marketing). Collaborates with account teams, partners, or services to track and qualify new opportunities. Collaborates with other teams (e.g., account teams) and services to build pipeline. Interfaces with customers and builds relationships via social selling. Applies Microsoft's sales process (MSP) to determine the quality of the opportunity and whether to proceed. Identifies opportunities to drive consumption and grow business with existing customers by initiating conversations, providing demos or quotes, and collaborating with partners or internal teams (e.g., Technical Sales Professionals, Global Black Belts. For licensing transactions and project engagements, ensures rapid and robust deployment plan at point of sale that is validated by services and partners. Identifies customer business needs and technology readiness. Contributes to the development of solutions in collaboration with internal teams, partners, and services. Proposes prioritized solutions that align with customers' needs. Articulates the business value of proposed solutions. Proactively builds external stakeholders' mapping. Collaborates with account teams (e.g., Account Executives) to identify and engage senior business subject matter decision makers at the customer's/partner's business. Implements strategies to accelerate the closing of deals. Contributes input on strategies to drive and close prioritized opportunities. Coaches less experienced team members in deal plan execution. Implements close plans (e.g., how to map timeline, engage the customer, get customer buy-in and commitment) to de-risk and drive predictable deal closure. Scaling and Collaboration Collaborates with One Commercial Partner (OCP) and with a network of partners to cross-sell and up-sell. Identifies new partners by researching and discussing with partners on customer scenarios. Develops joint proposal with partners. Contributes to developing partner strategies to address gaps in partner capabilities. Applies the orchestration model to leverage and expand relationships with internal stakeholders and partners (e.g., Enterprise Operating Unit). Navigates the MSFT organization to bring the best impact to the customer. Technical Expertise Leads conversations and sets up events within Microsoft. Mentors others and develops strategies for best practice sharing across subsidiaries. Contributes ideas that can be instituted across Microsoft. Initiates conversations with prospective customers/partners at events to expand external network. Acts as a subject matter expert in AI Workforce Collaborates with the 'compete' global black belts (GBB) to analyze competitor products, solutions, and/or services and implements strategies to position Microsoft against competitors in customer communication. Proactively provides analysis of the competitive landscape in supported solution area. Evaluates opportunities and makes recommendations on pursuit or withdrawal. Holistic value of MSFT platform versus single-point solution that positions MSFT favorably against competitors. Sales Excellence Collaborates with partners and resources and leverages customer insights or industry knowledge. Contributes to exploring business and emerging opportunities to optimize the portfolio and support customer innovation. Reviews feedback report and coaches others on ensuring customer/partner satisfaction and decreasing dissatisfaction by establishing recovery action plans to improve clients' overall experience. Manages and/or orchestrates sales and delivery success through the account team and pursuit team. Engages with internal and external stakeholders on business planning, Rhythm of Business (ROB) meetings to review and plan for accounts in the assigned territory. Collaborates with extended sales team, partners, and marketing to conduct business analysis (e.g., whitespace analysis, identify industry trends) to pursue high-potential customers and develop a target list of potential business. Manages the end-to-end business of the assigned territory. Conducts forecasting for accounts and develops a portfolio and territory plan to drive intentional selling aligned with strategic priorities. Completes required training and obtains relevant product and role certifications aligned to the role and workload/industry. Other Embody our culture and values Qualifications Required Qualifications: Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology (IT), Business Administration, Information Security, or related field AND 2+ years experience in technology-related sales or account management OR equivalent experience. Other Requirements: Microsoft is unable to sponsor a work visa for this role due to the nature of the role’s job duties. Cloud Screening: Candidates must be able to successfully complete and pass a Microsoft Cloud background screening. Required Cloud Screenings will be administered on a recurring bi-annual basis. Citizenship & Citizenship Verification: This position requires verification of U.S citizenship due to citizenship-based legal restrictions. Specifically, this position supports United States federal, state, and/or local United States government agency customers and is subject to certain citizenship-based restrictions where required or permitted by applicable law. To meet this legal requirement, citizenship will be verified via a valid passport, or other approved documents, or verified US government clearance. Preferred Qualifications: The ability to obtain and maintain a United States Security Clearance. 2 years of experience in IT/business decision making sales and/or consulting in the Enterprise segment, insight across Enterprise & SMC (Small Mid-Market Commercial) sales, Marketing, Partner and/or IT services functions, and be familiar with field needs to successfully drive a new program. Master's Degree in Business Administration (i.e., MBA), Information Technology, Information Security, or related field AND 3+ years experience in technology-related sales or account management OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Administration, Information Security, or related field AND 5+ years experience in technology-related sales or account management OR equivalent experience. Ability to drive conversations with Aerospace & Commercial Defense customers concerning.DFARS 252.204-7012, NIST 800-171, NIST 800-53r4, NIST 800-88 Coach customers to properly vet which environments are best suited for their compliance requirements by comparing and contrasting FedRAMP Moderate with FedRAMP HIGH, as well as DISA SRG L2, L4, L5, L6 for placement of controlled material. Experience leading multi-million-dollar deals requiring orchestration of large, dispersed, virtual teams composed of industry, solution, technical, licensing and legal team members. Depth of competitive knowledge and a thorough understanding of the development of winning sales strategies and deal structure.Demonstrated leadership through effective coaching of field sales teams across management and Individual contributors. Experience selling solutions to global or multinational defense contractors, including across Australia, Canada, UK, US, New Zealand and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) partner countries. Ability to engage back towards corporate functions to resolve either internal or external blockers to drive sales and market growth. Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) 2.0. Solution Area Specialists IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $107,600 - $187,500 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 $145,600 - $205,600 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled. Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. 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 with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.

Responsibilities

The Solution Area Specialist will engage with customers to drive digital transformation and orchestrate deals across multiple stakeholders. They will also collaborate with internal teams to develop solutions that meet customer needs and manage the sales pipeline.