Overview
Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and organisation to achieve more. As part of Microsoft Frontier Company, the Strategic Technical Lead helps our key strategic customers reinvent priority business processes with AI. The role combines industry insight, enterprise-scale engineering, change leadership and Microsoft's Intelligence + Trust platform to create differentiated outcomes that customers can own, operate and continuously improve.
This sales-aligned technical leadership role combines executive engagement, transformation strategy, architecture, commercial accountability and end-to-end deal orchestration. The Strategic Technical Lead acts as the trusted technical advisor and deal lead for Microsoft's largest strategic partnerships, shaping the opportunity from qualification and outside-in point of view through solution design, commercial commitment, execution planning and transition to the field.
This role brings well-rounded technical leadership across cloud infrastructure, applications, data, security and AI, with the knowledge to help shape enterprise-scale architectures and bring in specialists when needed. The Strategic Technical Lead connects customer priorities to a clear transformation roadmap, a realistic and optimised consumption plan, the right commercial approach, and a practical path to production and value realisation.
They demonstrate the Microsoft Frontier Company way of working by using Copilot, agents and agentic workflows in daily work. They apply these to research, discovery, solution shaping, consumption planning and decision-making, and help customers redesign work for effective collaboration between people and agents, with security, governance and observability built in from the start.
Responsibilities
Build trusted relationships with customer business and technical executives, gain sponsorship for priority outcomes, and lead strategic Cloud and AI opportunities from qualification and origination through commercial commitment, execution readiness, transition and early value realisation.
Help customers see the value of Microsoft by sharing an outside-in view of their industry and market, questioning assumptions, turning customer constraints into transformation opportunities, and positioning a differentiated Intelligence + Trust platform strategy.
Own the end-to-end technical strategy across cloud foundations, applications, data, databases, security and AI. Shape architectures for enterprise IQ, agentic systems and scaled AI adoption, with governance, Responsible AI, sovereignty, resiliency, observability, capacity and operational readiness designed in from the outset.
Identify priority business processes that can be reimagined through collaboration between people and agents, and decide when a more extensive Forward Deployed Engineering engagement is needed. Co-design production solutions with Engineering Studios, industry specialists, delivery teams and partners, making sure customer capability, ownership, operating model and continuous improvement are built into the engagement.
Develop the customer value case, technical narrative, transformation roadmap and consumption plan. Make sure each plan is clear, realistic and optimised; connects workloads, capacity, services, investments and milestones to measurable outcomes; and supports a sound commercial approach, forecast and path from commitment to consumption.
Bring together the Strategic Partnership Lead, account team, specialist and success organisations, Engineering Studios, Industry Advisory, delivery teams, partners, finance, deal desk and product engineering around one outcome-led plan. Set clear ownership, quality checkpoints, workback plans and decision cadences, then lead a structured handover that keeps customer context, delivery accountability and consumption progress intact.
Own the technical quality of strategic Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC) agreements and partnership structures by shaping Frontier workloads and embedded services, testing assumptions against customer readiness and alternative options, planning capacity and investments early, and supporting the path to Azure consumed revenue growth, renewal and realised customer value.
Be an early adopter of Microsoft's AI-enabled selling and consumption-planning practices. Use and improve agentic tools, standardise repeatable methods, share product and process feedback, publish reusable materials, and coach fellow Strategic Technical Leads so that learning from each strategic engagement scales across Microsoft.
Knowledge and skills
Experience leading consultative technical pursuits and enterprise transformation programmes from qualification and strategy through architecture, commercial commitment, execution planning and transition.
Ability to translate customer priorities and emerging technology into a measurable value case, a clear and optimised consumption plan, realistic growth and adoption forecasts, and a commercial approach that aligns workloads, services, capacity, investments and milestones.
Experience building trusted relationships with business and technical executives, aligning stakeholders across customer and Microsoft organisations, working through differing views and ambiguity, and reaching decisions on multifaceted transformation choices.
Sound judgement, structured problem-solving and executive communication, with the ability to bring clarity to ambiguous situations, set decision and delivery cadences, manage risks and dependencies, and follow through across a distributed virtual team.
Understanding of enterprise and public-sector transformation, industry value chains, product and platform business models, and the organisational change needed to move AI from experimentation into scaled operations.
Technical experience
Experience in enterprise AI transformation, including data foundations, machine learning, foundation models, agentic systems, AI application development, evaluation, observability, governance, security, Responsible AI and redesigning priority business processes for collaboration between people and agents.
Experience shaping resilient, secure and cost-effective cloud and AI platforms; modernising applications, data and operating practices; and planning capacity, sovereignty, reliability and delivery readiness for adoption at enterprise scale.
Knowledge of Microsoft's Intelligence + Trust platform, including Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI, Microsoft Fabric, databases, GitHub, Copilot and agents, security and governance capabilities, and the services and delivery approaches used to accelerate customer outcomes.
Understanding of cloud-native and hybrid architecture, Kubernetes, platform engineering, DevOps, infrastructure as code, reliability, observability, security, automation, capacity planning and operations at scale.
Ability to compare Microsoft and other cloud and AI platforms in a balanced, well-reasoned way from a technical and commercial perspective, explain key trade-offs in the customer's context, and turn market insight into an architecture, migration, investment and negotiation strategy.
Experience applying FinOps, cloud economics, pricing and licensing, workload optimisation and investment planning to create sustainable strategic commitments, manage consumption risk and improve customer value realisation over the life of the partnership.
Solution Sales Advisory IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across United Kingdom is £ 95,300.00 - £ 136,100.00 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation.
Find additional benefits and pay information here
https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/corporate-pay/united-kingdom-corporate-pay.html
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: AI Solutions, Customer Success, Change Management
Common previous titles: Digital Transformation Consultant, Technical Sales Lead, Enterprise Solutions Advisor, Digital Consultant, Strategy Consultant, Digital Transformation Manager, Digital Specialist, Manager Customer Success, Account Executive, Tech Support Engineer
Job description provided by Microsoft.
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