Cloud Solution Architect - Cloud & AI Platforms (CAIP) Factory
Microsoft · United States
- Hybrid
- Full-time
- $160,000 / year
- United States
Job highlights
- Drive Azure migrations and AI transformations for customers.
- Hands-on technical role, blending architecture and project management.
- Engage directly with customers to solve complex challenges.
- Influence Microsoft's core product development.
- Opportunity for continuous learning and skill development.
About the role
About the Role
Microsoft's Customer Experience and Success (CE&S) organization is seeking a hands-on Cloud Solution Architect (CSA) for the Cloud & AI Platforms (CAIP) Factory. This role focuses on driving Azure Infrastructure and Azure Application Migrations through the Cloud Acceleration Factory. You will work with a talented, diverse, and innovative team to empower customers in their AI transformation journeys. This is an exciting opportunity to solve unique and challenging technical problems, provide feedback into Microsoft's core product teams, and help customers succeed.
Responsibilities
Customer-Centric Approach:
- Play a pivotal role in the Azure Agentic Modernization Factory, providing technical enablement, operational support, and strategic engagement across customer projects.
- Ensure successful delivery of AI solutions, troubleshoot complex issues, and support innovation through pilot evaluations and advanced use case development.
- Understand customers' overall data estate, business priorities, and IT success measures to innovate with AI solutions that drive business value.
- Facilitate scalable delivery through strong technical program management utilizing a factory model/approach, driving program awareness and demand across regional operating units.
- Attend in-flight project status meetings to monitor progress and identify support needs.
- Engage directly with complex or non-standard customer use cases beyond existing accelerators and participate in intake reviews for milestone sizing, objection handling, and technical scoping.
Ensure Solution Excellence:
- Deliver solutions with high performance, security, scalability, maintainability, repeatability, reusability, and reliability upon deployment.
- Gather insights from customers and partners.
Business Impact:
- Drive Consumption Growth by developing opportunities to enhance Customer Success and help customers extract value from their Microsoft investments.
Operational Awareness:
- Understand consumption metrics and their reflection on program effectiveness.
- Collaborate with local teams for nominations and intake support.
Unblock Customer Challenges:
- Leverage subject matter expertise to identify resolutions for customer blockers.
- Follow best practices and utilize repeatable IP.
- Identify and contribute repeatable IP and assets that create velocity in deployment and drives customer value from their Unified investment.
- Continuously look to improve these assets utilizing the best of field inputs and evaluate pilot opportunities for potential integration into existing offerings.
- Architect Azure Infrastructure and Azure Application Migrations Solutions: Apply technical knowledge to design solutions aligned with business and IT needs. Create Innovate with Azure Infrastructure and Azure Application Migrations roadmaps, lead POCs and MVPs, and ensure long-term technical viability.
Technical Leadership:
- Advocate for Customers: Share insights and best practices, collaborate with the Factory team to address key blockers, and influence improvements, roadmap, and feature prioritization.
Resolve Technical Blockers:
- Debug technical issues and provide fixes for engagements encountering blockers.
Continuous Learning:
- Stay updated on market trends, collaborate with the Analytics & AI technical community, and educate customers about GitHub Copilot and the Azure AI platform.
Accelerate Outcomes:
- Engage with field teams, share expertise, drive factory pipeline, and promote the Factory to accelerate customer success.
- Collate feedback upon execution to drive improvement and leverage field teams inputs.
Qualifications
Required/minimum qualifications:
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, Liberal Arts, or related field AND 4+ years experience in cloud/infrastructure technologies, IT consulting/support, systems administration, network operations, software development/support, technology solutions, practice development, architecture, and/or consulting OR equivalent experience.
Other Requirements:
- This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship. Candidates must have authorization to work in the United States that does not now or in the future require employer sponsorship.
Additional Or Preferred Qualifications:
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, Liberal Arts, or related field AND 8+ years experience in cloud/infrastructure technologies, 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).
- Demonstrated proficiency in verbal and written communication, as well as analytical and presentation skills in Spanish and/or Portuguese.
- Breadth of technical experience and knowledge in foundational security, foundational AI, architecture design, with depth / Subject Matter Expertise in one or more of the following:
- Deep Domain Expertise in Azure Application Migrations Areas: Domain expertise in one of the Azure Infrastructure and Azure Application and Database Migrations specific areas OR hands-on experience working with the respective products at the expert level.
- Programming Languages and Integration: Knowledge with Java, .NET, JavaScript, Python or similar programming languages in the context of application development, and ability to integrate GitHub Copilot and Azure AI with other services (e.g., Azure Functions, Azure Container Apps, Docker, API Management). Also, enterprise-scale technical experience and depth with one or more areas of the Azure Infrastructure and Azure Application + Database Migrations (Azure core technologies including Apps, compute, networking, storage, and databases, along with identity, security, and monitoring services for cloud solutions.)
- Architecting Enterprise-Grade Solutions: The ability to create and explain 3-tier architecture diagrams, system context diagrams, system interaction diagrams, etc. Proven experience building enterprise-grade, Azure Infrastructure and Azure Application -focused solutions on the cloud (Azure, AWS, GCP) for customers, from Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) leading to production deployments.
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Deployment: Understanding of Bicep, Terraform, or Azure Resource Manager and familiarity with configuration and deployment of IaC templates in a secure environment.
- Competitive Landscape: Understanding the competitive landscape is valuable, candidates should be aware of key AI platforms beyond Azure, such as AWS and GCP.
Key skills/competency
- Cloud Solution Architecture
- Azure Infrastructure
- Azure Application Migrations
- Cloud & AI Platforms
- Technical Program Management
- Customer Success
- Solution Design
- Problem Solving
- Continuous Learning
- Customer Engagement
Skills & topics
- Cloud Solution Architect
- Azure
- AI
- Cloud Migration
- Infrastructure
- Application Migration
- Technical Architecture
- Customer Success
- Project Management
- Microsoft
How to get hired
- Tailor your resume: Highlight cloud architecture, Azure, AI, and migration project experience relevant to this Cloud Solution Architect role.
- Showcase customer impact: Quantify achievements in driving Azure adoption, migrations, and AI solutions for clients.
- Demonstrate technical depth: Emphasize expertise in Azure infrastructure, application migrations, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC).
- Prepare for technical interviews: Be ready to discuss complex architectural designs, troubleshooting scenarios, and cloud best practices.
- Understand Microsoft's culture: Align your application and interview responses with Microsoft's mission and values of growth mindset and accountability.
Technical preparation
Master Azure IaaS and PaaS services.,Practice designing enterprise-grade cloud architectures.,Get hands-on with IaC tools like Terraform/Bicep.,Understand AI/ML concepts and Azure AI services.
Behavioral questions
Describe a complex customer technical challenge you solved.,How do you handle conflicting priorities in projects?,Share an example of influencing product improvement.,How do you stay updated with cloud technology trends?
Frequently asked questions
- What are the primary responsibilities of a Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft's CAIP Factory?
- As a Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft's CAIP Factory, you will play a pivotal role in driving Azure Infrastructure and Azure Application Migrations. This involves providing technical enablement, operational support, and strategic engagement for customer projects, ensuring successful AI solution delivery, troubleshooting complex issues, and supporting innovation through pilot evaluations and advanced use case development. You'll also facilitate scalable delivery using a factory model and gather feedback to influence Microsoft's product roadmap.
- What technical skills are essential for the Cloud Solution Architect - Cloud & AI Platforms role?
- Essential technical skills include a strong understanding of Azure Infrastructure and Azure Application Migrations, expertise in cloud technologies (Azure, AWS, GCP), programming languages like Java, .NET, JavaScript, Python, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools such as Bicep or Terraform. Experience architecting enterprise-grade solutions, foundational AI and security knowledge, and familiarity with integrating services like GitHub Copilot and Azure AI are also crucial.
- Is this Cloud Solution Architect role customer-facing?
- Yes, this Cloud Solution Architect role is highly customer-facing. CSAs are senior individual contributors who operate globally and engage directly with customers. You will be responsible for understanding customer needs, architecting solutions, troubleshooting issues, and advocating for customer needs within Microsoft.
- What is the typical career progression for a Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft?
- As a senior individual contributor, career progression can involve deepening technical expertise to become a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in specific Azure or AI domains, moving into leadership roles within the CAIP Factory or other CE&S teams, or transitioning into strategic customer advisory roles. The continuous learning aspect of the role also supports professional growth and skill enhancement.
- Does Microsoft offer visa sponsorship for this Cloud Solution Architect position?
- No, this position is not eligible for visa sponsorship. Candidates must already have the authorization to work in the United States that does not require employer sponsorship now or in the future.
- What kind of impact can a Cloud Solution Architect have at Microsoft?
- Cloud Solution Architects at Microsoft have a significant impact by directly enabling customer success through AI and cloud transformations. You will help customers achieve more by leveraging Microsoft's technologies, contribute to improving Microsoft's core products through feedback, and play a key role in accelerating AI adoption globally.