Solution Architect Manager - Consulting Services

Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

12/12/2024

The Architect Manager role in Microsoft’s Industry Consulting Services team (ISD) - leads a team of consulting Architects responsible for the deployment of complex customer solutions operating at the leading edge of Microsoft technologies. Focussed on UK based multinational accounts, the role will lead a team in establishing a deep understanding of customer strategies, needs and outcomes, enabling the best possible time to value during the Lead to Order, and Order to Cash phases of project delivery. Representing UK Industry Solutions Delivery, Microsoft’s consulting organisation for complex delivery, you will engage regularly at director and CxO level to ensure our contractual commitments are met in alignment to our company vision and values, such that our customers are enabled to achieve more.

This exciting role will place you in a leadership role at the heart of helping shape the newest, most impactful and complex Microsoft solutions across a wide portfolio of customers, covering the entire Microsoft cloud including areas such as AI, Machine Learning, Azure and Modern Work.

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.

Please note that we can only consider candidates who currently live and and a tax resident in the United Kingdom in excess of 5 years.

Responsibilities

People Management

• Managers deliver success through empowerment and accountability by modelling, coaching, and caring.
• Model - Live our culture. Embody our values. Practice our leadership principles.
• Coach - Define team objectives and outcomes. Enable success across boundaries. Help the team adapt and learn.
• Care - Attract and retain great people. Know each individual’s capabilities and aspirations. Invest in the growth of others.
  
  

Understanding Customer/Partner Technical Environment

• Provides support for their team in gathering and propagating customer/partner insights to help shape and form both the definition and ongoing execution of the project. Holds teams accountable for mapping architecture and digital transformation solutions to customer/partner business goals. Leverages prior work, customer/partner insights, and industry trends, and shares insights with team to apply.
• Supports their team in working with customer/partner stakeholders (e.g., Enterprise Architects, Security Team, Development Team, Operations Team) and business sponsor to socialize both the business solution and the project approach. Advises team on managing changes and facilitating feedback. Contributes to Microsoft-centric operations and cadences to align with customer feedback.
• Drives internal advocacy by facilitating insight sharing with Product Engineering teams, and providing guidance through escalation, acceleration, and prioritization. Looks across multiple customers/partners for opportunities to consolidate and prioritize items across the business.
  
  

Architecture Design and Deployment

• Holds teams accountable for leveraging existing architecture approaches to achieve Microsoft's agreed commitments to the customer/partner and developing new solutions to scale across multiple customers/partners and markets.
• Guides team in defining and documenting the architecture through an architecture description document, an architecture decisions log, and a requirements/constraints traceability matrix. Ensures team is equipped to communicate the value proposition of the business solution along with the project approach. Guides team in cost-based and technology-based discussions to explain the architecture in terms of its build, deployment, and ongoing operational use to determine customer appetite for the business solution. Promotes a business-value approach that values return on investment (ROI) and customer costs-savings over technical ease of execution. Provides coaching to allow architects to scale solutions.
• Collaborates with the other managers to jointly drive project/technical governance of the design, build, and deployment into use of proof of concepts (POCs) and pilots. Provides guidance to team in understanding and demonstrating business value (e.g., release of revenue, cost savings) that the business solution realizes.
• Guides team in working with the business sponsor and customer/partner stakeholders (e.g., Business users, Enterprise Architects, Security Team, Operations Team) to gather and ratify requirements and constraints. Supports team in managing and resolving complex ambiguity in the requirements and constraints and documents assumptions and implications where it cannot be resolved. Ensures maintenance of the requirements/constraints traceability matrix to prove that solution components have a rationale/justification for inclusion in the Architecture of the business solution. Oversees development and execution of test plans to prove that each requirement/constraint has been implemented as expected by the customer.
• Leads team in collaborating to understand the business solution/problem. Drives agreement, based on the customer’s priorities, requirements/constraints, approach, principles, concepts, and expectations. Ensures team builds and documents a realistically costed, advanced/complex solution approach. Provides thought leadership on oversight and governance sets expectations for quality practices and standards to realize the business solution. Promotes a cohesive build methodology so the solution can be transitioned to live operations, leveraging solution expertise. Ensures communication of and adherence to the pre-sales value proposition.
• Creates a culture and clarity around technical insights and escalations and ensures broad sets of projects move forward. Provides support and guidance to team in identifying scenarios that could slow or impede pre-sales/delivery. Resolves escalations as needed and coaches' team on best practices for handling escalations. Ensures that issues and blockers and addressed by the appropriate groups. Identifies patterns in blockers across business areas or a territory.
• Works in close collaboration with the Project Manager and Account Team to identify, categorize, and communicate business and technical risks. Defines risk mitigation activities that are foundational to the project plan. Defines risk contingency plans for invocation should the risk occur.
  
  

Practice Development

• Generates new and/or improvements to existing intellectual property. Connects gaps and patterns across business and technology areas to drive changes. Identifies which ideas should be culled, with consideration for scale across customers. Drives the re-use of intellectual property and recommends practices in both pre-sales and delivery. Participates and contributes to internal/external communities.
  
  

Trusted Advisor

• Develops a network of internal/external relationships with senior-level decision makers to build influence in addressing problems/blockers and facilitating additional views on the matter of interest. Acts as an advisor to external stakeholders. Provides direction to facilitate relationships between others. Stays up to date on Microsoft’s technologies, products, and services in order to communicate Microsoft's mission, strategy, and capabilities.
• Coaches team to use evidence-based arguments that articulate complex concepts in a simple manner to respectfully challenge Microsoft and customers/partners when a decision or course of action will not produce optimal results. Leverages strategic expertise to encourage alternative approaches where applicable. Serves as the "technical conscience" to challenge the status quo and unrealistic expectations. Proactively resolves conflicts and seeks resolution to balance the overall outcome. Drives consensus where possible and leads decisions to resolve conflict when needed and guides team in doing so.
• Provides their team with a holistic perspective of customer/partner challenges, industry trends, and competitor architectures to allow team members to engage with customers/partners, demonstrate Microsoft's value, and develop counter strategy.
  
  

Thought Leadership

• Fosters community sharing of stories and leveraging of pre-existing resources by encouraging and empowering team to share learnings and by establishing a cadence (e.g., internal technical brainstorming calls, presenting latest challenges in staff meetings) to calibrate on challenges and trends that impact the team across the subsidiary level. Holds teams accountable for sharing insights with v-team members to inform the direction they take with customers/partners.
• Participates in external architect community events (e.g., conferences, seminars, technical meetups, Webcasts, blogs, hackathons) and shares learnings with internal team. Acts a mentor to junior colleagues by educating them on technical and non-technical concepts and sharing best practices. Demonstrates deep industry knowledge and drives recognition for Microsoft solutions through presentations and engagements with external audiences.
  
  

Other

• Embody our culture and values
  
  

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related field AND proven experience in technology solutions, practice development, architecture, consulting, and/or technology domain (e.g., Security)
• OR master's degree in computer science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related field AND proven experience in technology solutions, practice development, architecture, consulting, and/or technology domain (e.g., Security)
• OR equivalent experience.
  

Additional Or Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related field AND Strong and proven experience in technology solutions, practice development, architecture, consulting, and/or technology domain (e.g., Security)
• OR master's degree in computer science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related field AND proven experience in technology solutions, practice development, architecture, consulting, and/or technology domain (e.g., Security)
• OR equivalent experience.
• Strong technical sales experience.
• Proven project management experience.
• People management experience, including managing consultant practice managers, technical sales managers, and/or technical architect managers.
• Technical or Professional Certification in Domain (e.g., Security).
  

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, 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 and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.