Are you ready to seize an opportunity to work with Microsoft's most established and innovative enterprises and advising Line of Business and IT Executives? Have you got a track record of helping enterprise leaders transform their business by executing against long-term strategies and roadmaps for pragmatic technology adoption? Interested in employing strong business and architectural skills and leveraging your abstract thinking to create innovative solutions for the largest organizations in the world?
Microsoft Services helps customers realize their full potential through accelerated adoption and productive use of Microsoft technologies. We are a global team of exceptional people who deliver world-class services with partners, earning customer confidence, trust, and loyalty by improving the overall customer and partner experience, serving as the customer advocate within Microsoft, and driving customer-centric product improvement.
In this strategic role within Enterprise Strategy Services, you will deliver advisory and planning services to Microsoft’s top enterprise customers. The Associate Architect enables our customers to achieve their most challenging business and organizational goals while leveraging value from their current and future investment in the Microsoft Platform. Through a programmatic approach and objective assessment of the customer’s existing business imperatives, organizational capabilities and IT investments, the Associate Architect systematically plans, orchestrates, and contributes to the development and execution of their strategic technology initiatives. This provides alignment to our customers’ broader business goals and promotes innovative solutions.
With IT sponsorship, you’ll develop relationships with key line-of-business executives, putting the customer in a position to translate early business needs and insights into actionable IT strategy, and assist IT in driving these initiatives to early results and business value. This work encompasses a solid understanding of business and IT strategy, a principled approach to broader architectural challenges and opportunities, and a strong grasp of business, technology and solutions.
You will also share industry-proven architectural and planning practices and promote successful integration of Microsoft technologies in a heterogeneous environment. You’ll be provided an extensive network of professional colleagues with complementary competencies and whose expertise you can draw upon to enhance the overall service provided by Microsoft to customers.
The sections below identify the key areas of focus and offer insight into the more common activities:
Relationship-driven differentiation: As the primary delivery resource for the Enterprise Strategy business, what you provide is unique and available only from Microsoft. You’ll advocate on behalf of the customer back into the Microsoft organization and maximize the value delivered from the relationship. Core activities include:
• Orchestrating Executive Briefing Center visits and bi-directional connection with Microsoft Product Development Groups as well as many other teams and communities.
• Facilitating the Customer’s uptake of Technology Adoption Programs for early advantage from pre-released Microsoft Products.
• Harnessing insights from groups like Microsoft Research, one of the largest sponsored technology research organizations worldwide. You’ll also have access to ‘the Library’, a catalogue of reference architectures, industry insights and field-driven Intellectual Property (IP) examples that all provide unique value.
• Partnering with your CTO/CIO and facilitating IT staff development amongst their reports.
Business-driven portfolio value management: A disciplined approach is followed in this role - first to understand the customer’s needs and then to develop roadmaps that result in an increase in realized value from their Microsoft investment across a heterogeneous IT environment. Activities include:
• Creating business case development and benefits management programs that define, track and report accrued value through the optimal application of IT to business challenges.
• Orchestrating and/or designing and architecting solutions that leverage both the investment made in the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement and the customer’s current heterogeneous IT environment in the best interests of the customer, driven through a formal program of change and drawing from the collective know-how of Microsoft.
• Providing portfolio governance and oversight to drive lifecycle optimization and alignment across all Microsoft-related initiatives.
Teaming to accelerate value: When a customer invests in an Enterprise Agreement license with Microsoft, the Associate Architect accelerates the time-to-value by aligning the technology deployment and business adoption plans with the customer’s broader organizational objectives. Activities to support this objective include:
• Creating architectural and technology roadmaps that result in stronger business/IT alignment and that drive adoption and value from the Enterprise Agreement.
• Orchestrating the use of the Microsoft network of resources formally from within the Architect’s individual engagement. This can range from formal architectural systems design through to general technology consulting and beyond. Likewise an Architect may be called on by colleagues to contribute from their area of specialization in other large engagements or to work jointly with the Microsoft support team around specific customer initiatives.
Practice development: In this role, you’ll contribute to the growth and maturity of the local and international communities by providing mentorship, fostering IP development / knowledge transfer, and thought-leading by example. In addition, opportunities exist to contribute to IP development and reuse initiatives and drive proven practices in architecture, planning, and customer relationships.
Business development: You will also have the opportunity to bring your years of experience and expertise to influence continued business development opportunities for Microsoft.
In addition to the above activities, it is expected that the successful candidate will have significant experience in at least one specialization from the three categories below:
Industry: Experience in one or more of the following Sectors/Industries: Government; Healthcare; Financial Services; Telecommunications, Retail; Manufacturing; Energy
Microsoft Strategic priorities: Cloud/S+S; Enterprise level / Mission Critical Applications; Optimized Desktop; Unified Communications and Collaboration
Associate Architect Specializations:
• Business Value Analysis and Benefits Management
• IT Portfolio Lifecycle Optimization
• Organizational Change Management
• IT Governance
• Enterprise Architecture
• IT-Led Business Innovation
• Business Insight
• Information Management
• Organizational Design
Qualifications and Experience:
§ Must have a degree in Computer Science or Engineering, or equivalent work experience.
§ At least 5 - 8 years related IT experience.
§ Work experience should involve technical consulting, solution design, project envisioning, planning, development, deployment, and management.
§ Must have a proven record of delivering business value.
§ Must have a deep understanding of markets, customers, and technology; have the background to provide leadership in the practice and a demonstrated effectiveness in consulting and client management.
§ Must have deep understanding of customer and partner business and IT environment, and have demonstrated skills creating architecture and deploying technology to solve business problems.
§ U.S. Citizen and current security clearance or ability to pass security clearance background checks
Travel is an integral expectation of this position as the needs of our customers and our business demand.
If you find this opportunity to be compelling and can demonstrate your ability to excel as an Associate Architect for Enterprise Strategy Services, we are eager to explore the possibilities with you!
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Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, national origin, marital status, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other protected status.
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