Cloud Solution Architect - Partner Practice Development

With more than 45,000 employees and partners worldwide, the Customer Experience and Success (CE&S) organization is on a mission to empower customers to accelerate business value through differentiated customer experiences that leverage Microsoft's products and services, ignited by our people and culture. We drive cross-company alignment and execution, ensuring that we consistently exceed customers' expectations in every interaction, whether in-product, digital, or human-centered. CE&S is responsible for all up services across the company, including consulting, customer success, and support across Microsoft's portfolio of solutions and products. Join CE&S and help us accelerate AI transformation for our customers and the world.

The Global Customer Success (GCS) organization, an organization within CE&S, is leading the effort to enable customer success on the Microsoft Cloud by harnessing leading, AI-powered capabilities and human expertise to deliver innovation solutions that accelerate business value, drive operational excellence and nurture long term loyalty.

The Cloud Solution Architect (CSA) - Partner Practice Development is responsible for building thriving Customer Success Practices (CSP) in CSP Partner organizations that deliver measurable outcomes across Support, Azure, ABS, and Security Practices. This role will include end-to-end development of 1-2 Practice Builders including Reporting, Capability and Maturity Assessments, Action Planning, and Execution through MBRs with Partner stakeholders and quarterly Roundtables with Partner executives. This role will develop requirements for standard reports, build capability and maturity assessment questionnaire, Customer Success Account Manager (CSAM) Action Planning Playbook, and approach for logging CSAM & Partner commitments in Partner Success Plans. Practice Lead will consolidate partner feedback on Practice Builder experience and share it with Global Solution Area and Support teams so they can develop IP & Skilling collateral where gaps exist. This role will also develop the CSAM playbook with clear mapping of enablement collateral (VBD, Webinar, Tech Talks, etc.) to attributes in Support Capability and Maturity Assessment

Practice Lead will work closely with GCS Global Solution Area and USG VAS teams to identify business and technical IP that is aligned with Solution Area priorities and Top Call Drivers. Once identified, the role will develop targeted skilling and solutions that can be delivered to partners to reduce Escalation Rate and Accelerate consumption and usage in the CSP business.

This role will develop a V-Team across CSS ICT, Supportability, NSDI, Product Groups, CSA, and GCS GSA teams and leverage IP, Knowledge Bases, & Best Practices to upskill partners. Practice Lead will develop 1: many and Agentic experiences to ensure optimal delivery cost structure. Practice Lead is Responsible for identifying and reporting ROI KPIs so leadership teams can consistently fine tune investment in practice building through UFP Proactive Credits.

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.

• Identify 4-5 beacon metrics to track Practice Building ROI monthly
• Design standard reports that will be provided to partners prior to conducting the Capability and Maturity assessment
• Develop the Capability & Maturity Assessment for Support, Azure, ABS, and Security Practice Builders
• Develop the CSAM playbook with clear mapping of enablement collateral (VBD, Webinar, Tech Talks, etc.) to attributes in Support Capability and Maturity Assessment
• Develop CSAM onboarding materials for UFP and Practice Builders
• Develop guidance to develop Practice Builder Partner Success Plan and Monthly Partner Success Delivery Reviews
• Identify gaps in existing IP based on Partner needs and work with GSA and CSS teams to develop content
• Maintain a comprehensive list of Practice Building IP across all modalities (Offline & Live VBDs, Labs, Tech Talks, Webinars, Learning Paths, etc.)
• Host Quarterly Advisory Board with Partner Operations & Delivery leaders for ongoing feedback on Practice Building impact and requirements for future
• Manage the end-to-end delivery of 1: many motion across all support offers (Live: Open Workshops, Accelerators, Webinars, Offline: ODA, Tech Talks, Learning Paths, Digital Learning)
• Actively participate in CSAM community rhythms and embed Partner & UFP collateral in existing rhythms
• Bias towards building Agentic delivery experiences to reduce Microsoft's delivery cost

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, Liberal Arts, or related field AND 4+ 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.

Other Requirements:

• Microsoft is unable to sponsor a work visa for this roledue to the nature of the role's job duties.

• 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 Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, Liberal Arts, or related field AND 6+ years experience in cloud/infrastructure technologies, technology solutions, practice development, architecture, and/or consulting
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 4+ years experience working in a customer-facing role (e.g., internal and/or external).
• 4+ years experience working on technical projects.
• Technical Certification in Cloud (e.g., Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google, security certifications).
• Experience building a product or program from 0 to 1 with 2k+ users
• 5+ years of experience working with Partners or within a Partner ecosystem
• 5+ years of experience working with a major cloud service provider
• Hands-on experience with developing learning, onboarding, training collateral and/or Intellectual Property (VBDs, Tech Talks, etc.) for field audiences
• Demonstrated project management, leadership, and cross-group collaboration skills
• Ability to work through ambiguous situations with a can-do attitude and proactively determine creative solutions
• Proven ability to secure sponsorship and support from senior executives
• Experience with developing Agentic and/or Digital experiences
• Experience with managing a large customer or partner program and/or benefit
• Experience delivering solutions and tools within Microsoft
• Desire to operate at the intersection of technology and business, spearheading organizational, operational, and technological change.
• Deep understanding of cloud technology markets, trends, and dynamics
• Demonstrated ability to excel in an innovative, startup-like, fast-paced environment, with rapid exploration and ability to execute
• Ability to manage multiple simultaneous high-priority projects (often including project management of cross-functional v-teams).
• Comfortable illustrating lessons learned and sharing subject-matter-expertise across a matrixed organization
• Proven track record or delivering complex projects with matrixed V-Teams within challenging deadlines

Cloud Solution Architecture IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $106,400.00 - $203,600.00 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 $137,600.00 - $222,600.00 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:

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.