Partner Technology Strategist

Summary

Microsoft is a technology company focused on empowering people and organizations through technology. The Partner Technology Strategist serves as a trusted technical advisor and strategist for strategic ISV partners, aligning their business and product strategies with Microsoft technologies. The role drives cloud and AI transformation, solution development, technical orchestration, partner enablement, and joint business outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Generates business insights based on engagement experience and proactive collaboration with the partner, internal teams, and industry, to conduct forecasting and develop recommendations for managing accounts and subsidiary planning. Challenges partners to consider alternative business models to meet business and market needs, and adapts plans to insights
• Orchestrates teams to gather information, collaborate on performance markers, and identify potential risks in partner accounts. Brings in business and industry insights to address the broader business challenges for the partner and deliver solutions
• Acts as the voice of the partner and internal advocate by providing insights, feedback, and challenges from the partner to internal teams (e.g., product groups, engineers)
• Supplements existing technical decision maker (TDM) and/or business decision maker (BDM) relationships with additional ones at the C- and direct-report level by researching organization charts, identifying and contacting TDMs/BDMs, and beginning to advise on solutions and position Microsoft offerings
• Provides analysis of overall partner needs and advises on gaps that would benefit from Microsoft solutions, using an understanding of the business strategies and outcomes that technology can support; advises internal teams on how to identify and address gaps in order to drive end solutions
• Ensures execution of technology strategy and/or digital transformation by identifying and resolving technical blockers that arise during strategy planning and implementation and driving technology adoption
• Creates mid-term to long-term (e.g., 12 months plus) technical and business roadmaps for one or more accounts, outlining the digital transformation journey and core wins; drives and articulates business changes in the roadmaps around foundational, traditional capabilities. Builds technical engagement or enablement plan, captures baseline, and drives envisioning to support mid-term to long-term business plans
• Orchestrates internal teams to ensure sufficient technical resources for demands, from a limited pool of resources, when appropriate
• Creates and maintains a vision with business and technology solution scenarios and services that helps partners meet their business goals, achieve their long-term corporate vision, and maximize commercial success
• Drives conversations that present the strategic relationship between Microsoft technologies, solutions/offers, products, and services compared with the competitor's solution and the partner's overall business goals and objectives
• Uses existing and new readiness resources to support enablement plans for partner technology adoption at the national and regional level. Contributes to innovations to accelerate meeting goals for partner capacity, maximize reach and impact and drive long-term engagement and thought leadership on the Microsoft platform
• Provides strategic input to virtual team members (e.g., Account Team) using a thorough knowledge of Microsoft technologies, partner accounts, and digital transformations and their context in the competitive landscape
• Plays a key role in helping the partner and their customers be successful with digital transformation and Microsoft technology adoption by helping them realize the value, meet their business objectives, achieve their consumption and business targets, and accelerate growth. Works with others (may leverage the partner solutions architect [PSA]) to guide the development of partner technology roadmaps that enable them to expand into new markets and provides them with a competitive edge
• Proactively orchestrates execution and monitoring of projects/programs in accordance with partner plan to develop solution offerings and value realization across a variety of solution areas. Sets timelines and milestones, and tracks progress toward objectives. Builds industry knowledge and establishes technical credibility with partners to drive the project agenda
• Secures commitment from critical or high-stakes partners to develop innovative and complex solutions using Microsoft technologies in collaboration with partner, and builds solutions into the partner ecosystem to enable partners to sell to end-customers
• Helps partners build practices or solutions and shares their experience and influence with partners through solution-sales guidance; provides guidance to immediate team to ensure that technical pre-sales, deployment, and consumption are part of solution development efforts; anticipates partners' technical blockers and executes a plan to divert blockers before they have the potential to occur

Skills

• Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business or related field AND 1+ year(s) technical consulting, technical consultative selling, product development, or related technical/sales experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, business or related field AND 2+ years technical consulting, technical consultative selling, product development, or related technical/sales experience OR equivalent experience
• Candidates must have authorization to work in the United States that does not now or in the future require employer sponsorship
• Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business or related field AND 3+ years technical consulting, technical consultative selling, product development, or related technical/sales experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business or related field AND 5+ years technical consulting, technical consultative selling, product development, or related technical/sales experience OR equivalent experience
• 5+ years experience with relevant technologies (e.g., cloud, infrastructure, Microsoft platform)
• 5+ years experience with relevant technologies (e.g., AI, data, cloud, infrastructure, Microsoft platform)
• 3+ years of industry channel pre-sales experience preferably within a SaaS organization
• 3+ years of product/program management experience preferably within a SaaS organization
• Knowledge of partner ISV/SI ecosystem in retail sector vertical

Qualifications

Must Haves

• Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business or related field AND 1+ year(s) technical consulting, technical consultative selling, product development, or related technical/sales experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, business or related field AND 2+ years technical consulting, technical consultative selling, product development, or related technical/sales experience OR equivalent experience
• Candidates must have authorization to work in the United States that does not now or in the future require employer sponsorship

Nice to Haves

• Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business or related field AND 3+ years technical consulting, technical consultative selling, product development, or related technical/sales experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business or related field AND 5+ years technical consulting, technical consultative selling, product development, or related technical/sales experience OR equivalent experience
• 5+ years experience with relevant technologies (e.g., cloud, infrastructure, Microsoft platform)
• 5+ years experience with relevant technologies (e.g., AI, data, cloud, infrastructure, Microsoft platform)
• 3+ years of industry channel pre-sales experience preferably within a SaaS organization
• 3+ years of product/program management experience preferably within a SaaS organization
• Knowledge of partner ISV/SI ecosystem in retail sector vertical

Benefits

• Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation.