As an Sales Solution Specialist - Data & AI you will be a solution sales expert within our enterprise sales organization working with our most important customers on their Data Strategy and the modernization of their Data Estate across Analytics, AI Platforms and Data Governance. You will lead a virtual team of technical, partner and consulting resources to advance the sales process and achieve/exceed quarterly Data & AI revenue and usage/consumption targets in your assigned accounts. 

We work with customers to leverage data to help them achieve their business priorities and help guide customer’s journey through Analytics-led Azure Data transformation. We also support customers in evaluating their applications and business requirements, recommend solutions that meet their requirements, and demonstrate these solutions to win the technical decision.​

Brings impactful Data/AI industry insights into customer engagements and closes deals with customers. Explores and assesses the needs of strategic/high-potential customers. Articulates business value and long-term implications for customer business. Develops Data/AI strategies for driving and closing strategic and/or prioritized opportunities. Leverages and shares competitor knowledge across solution areas as a subject matter expert to inform decisions on pursuit or withdrawal.

Microsoft is on a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.  Our culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day.  In doing so, we create life-changing innovations that impact billions of livers around the world.  You can help us to achieve our mission.

Responsibilities

Sales Excellence

• Engages with internal and external stakeholders on business planning, Rhythm of Business (ROB) meetings to review and plan for strategic accounts across territories
• Builds and transforms new markets by leveraging technical and industry expertise, partners, and resources. Leads a team to explore business and emerging opportunities to optimize the portfolio and facilitate customer innovation.
• Collaborates with extended sales team, partners, and marketing to lead business analysis (e.g., whitespace analysis, identify industry trends) to pursue high-potential customers and develop a target list of potential business. Acts as a thought leader and clears opinions and perspectives from business analysis.
• Completes required training and obtains relevant product and role certifications aligned to the role and workload/industry. Proactively seeks training, including information that adds to the understanding of customers' business, and shares it with team members.
• Reviews feedback report and sets long-term strategies aimed at maintaining levels of client satisfaction. 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.
• Manages the end-to-end business for strategic accounts across the organization. Leads forecasting for accounts and develops a portfolio and territory plan to drive intentional selling with on-strategy engagements in high propensity accounts.

Sales Execution

• Orchestrates with team members on conducting personal campaigns to discover new opportunities and generate new leads. Leads Data/AI conversations with strategic/high-potential customers (e.g., high budget, global account, highly competitive) along with account teams or partners. Facilitates the account team unit (ATU) and/or Specialist Team Unit (STU) to build pipeline in collaboration with Customer Success Unit (CSU), partners and services. Guides others on social selling.
• Drives consumption and grow business with existing strategic customers by initiating conversations, guiding others on demos or quotes, and the collaboration with partners or internal teams.
• Proactively builds and governs external stakeholder network and leverages internal partners to engage external stakeholders. Acts as a thought leader and subject matter advisor to the executive-level business decision makers at the customer's/partner's business. Guides others on identifying and engaging decision makers and stakeholders to expand the relationship with customers/partners.
• Explores and assesses the needs of strategic/high-potential customers. Articulates business value and long-term implications for customer business. Collaborates with internal teams, partners, and services to lead the proposal or development of solutions that align with customer and Microsoft priorities. Analyzes market trends to identify opportunities for new solutions.
• Brings impactful industry insights into customer engagements and closes deals with customers. Acts as a thought leader across solution areas to advise customers across business functions on digital transformation. Leads virtual transformational shifts to drive deployment and create business value for customers. May lead partner integration into account/territory planning and customer engagements. Provides thought leadership.
• Develops strategies for driving and closing strategic and/or prioritized opportunities. Collaborates with account teams to ensure alignment with the account strategy and plan. Leads deal execution with the deal teams across the organization. Coaches others on the implementation of 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.

Technical Expertise

• Analytics, BDs, Data Strategies and Artificial Intelligence are key for this position.
• 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.
• Leverages and shares competitor knowledge across solution areas as a subject matter expert to inform decisions on pursuit or withdrawal.
• Posts information or speaks at external events, drives conversations with prospective customers/partners as a thought leader across solution areas.

Scaling and Collaboration

• Leads the planning and execution on opportunities with resources and partners to cross-sell and up-sell. Identifies, leverages, and coordinates partners and resources across solution areas. Validates partner solution relevance for customers.

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• 5+ years technology-related sales or account management experience
  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Administration, or related field AND 4+ years technology-related sales or account management experience.
• Prior work experience in a Solutions Sales or Consulting position working with Data solutions ranging from structured/relational to semi/non structured data (examples: Cloud-based Data Warehouses, Hadoop, Spark, Data Lake), Data governance and Artificial Intelligence (Machine Learning, Generative AI, Multi-Agents).
• Fluent in reading, writing and speaking English, Portuguese and Spanish.

Additional or preferred qualifications:

• 7+ years technology-related sales or account management experience
  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology, or related field AND 6+ years technology-related sales or account management experience
  • OR Master's Degree in Business Administration (i.e., MBA), Information Technology, or related field AND 3+ years technology-related sales or account management experience.
• 4+ years solution or services sales experience.
• Expertise in two or more data estate workloads.
• Experience in Account Management. Effective territory/account management.
• Certifications with Azure Analytics, Azure AI or equivalent industry certifications preferred

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.