Director, Cloud Solution Architecture

Overview

The Retail & Consumer Goods organization brings together deep industry expertise, technical capabilities, and customer success leadership to help customers achieve meaningful business outcomes and realize value from their Microsoft investments. As part of this team, you will lead and develop Cloud Solution Architects who work across customers, partners, and Microsoft teams to address complex business and technical challenges, accelerate solution adoption, and deliver a seamless and connected customer experience.

As the Director, Cloud Solution Architecture, you will lead, coach, and develop a team responsible for translating complex customer and partner challenges into industry solutions and delivering successful customer outcomes. You will guide the team in removing blockers, preparing customers for operational readiness, identifying opportunities to increase consumption and usage, and delivering solutions in alignment with Microsoft methodologies and proven practices. This opportunity will allow you to deepen your people leadership and cloud architecture expertise, strengthen customer success execution, and scale solutions and best practices across Retail & Consumer Goods customers.

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

Business Impact

• Lead a team of Cloud Solution Architects to accelerate adoption of secure, resilient, AI-enabled cloud solutions that deliver measurable customer business outcomes.
• Partner across sales and technical teams to identify strategic opportunities, remove blockers, manage risk, and drive solution deployment, consumption, and growth.
• Establish clear priorities and execution standards that maximize customer impact and business results.

Customer Centricity

• Build a customer-first culture that translates complex business and technical challenges into actionable cloud strategies and solutions.
• Develop trusted relationships with senior technical and business decision makers, including CIOs and CISOs, connecting Microsoft technology to their business, security, and operational priorities.
• Champion the voice of the customer, using insights and patterns to influence Microsoft product strategy and improve the customer experience.

Partner Specialization

Identify and prioritize partner opportunities that accelerate customer outcomes and support strategic growth.

Collaborate across Microsoft sales and partner organizations to bring the right expertise and solutions to complex customer engagements.

People Management

Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team through clear priorities, accountability, inclusive leadership, and continuous learning.

Attract and retain great talent while supporting individual career growth and building the capabilities needed to meet evolving customer and business needs.

Technical Leadership

Provide technical leadership across complex cloud engagements, guiding teams toward secure, scalable, resilient, and AI-enabled architectures.

Build technical excellence and readiness across Microsoft Cloud, AI, security, and emerging technologies.

Turn customer insights and recurring technical patterns into scalable architectures, proven practices, and innovations that benefit customers and Microsoft more broadly.

Required/minimum qualifications

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, Liberal Arts, or related field AND 8+ years experience in cloud/infrastructure technologies, information technology (IT) consulting/support, systems administration, network operations, software development/support, technology solutions, practice development, architecture, and/or consulting OR equivalent experience.

3+ years people management experience, including managing consultant practice managers, technical sales managers, and/or technical architect managers.

Other Requirements

This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship. Candidates must have authorization to work in the United States that does not now or in the future require employer sponsorship.

Additional or preferred qualifications

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, Liberal Arts, or related field AND 12+ years experience in cloud/infrastructure technologies, information technology (IT) consulting/support, systems administration, network operations, software development/support, technology solutions, practice development, architecture, and/or consulting OR Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, Liberal Arts, or related field AND 8+ years experience in cloud/infrastructure technologies, technology solutions, practice development, architecture, and/or consulting OR equivalent experience.

6+ years experience working in a customer-facing role

6+ years experience leading technical projects, teams, or functions.

Technical Certification in Cloud (e.g., Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google, security certifications).

5+ years people management experience, including managing consultant practice managers, technical sales managers, and/or technical architect managers.

Demonstrated experience driving cloud consumption and revenue growth within complex enterprise accounts by translating customer priorities into technical solutions, proofs of concept (POCs), pilots, and production deployments that accelerate adoption and measurable business value.

Experience with Retail & Consumer Goods customers

Cloud Solution Architecture M5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $130,900 - $251,900 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 $165,600 - $272,300 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.

Insights from previous hires

Top skills: Communication, C++, Big Data, Automation, Architecture, Adoption, Accountability, Design-Build, Cross Functional Team Leadership, Critical Infrastructure

Common previous titles: Solution Architect Director, Cloud Solution Architect, Sales Architect, Tech, Data Center Technician, Data Center Manager, Senior, Tech Support Engineer, Senior Technical Program Manager, Senior Manager