About this role

Overview Shape the Future of AI. Transform Partners into Frontier Leaders. Scale Business Impact.Join Microsoft's high-performing Cloud & AI Partner Architects team in DACH and play a pivotal role in accelerating AI innovation and business transformation across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland through our strategic partner ecosystem.As a Senior Cloud Solution Architect - Data & AI, you will combine deep technical expertise, architectural leadership, and strategic business acumen to help our most influential partners design, build, and scale innovative AI-powered solutions. You will act as a trusted technical advisor, guiding partners through complex architectural decisions, solution development, and the adoption of Microsoft's latest cloud, data, and AI technologies.A key part of your mission is to accelerate the evolution of our partners into Frontier Partners-helping them move beyond traditional technology services and isolated AI experiments toward AI-first business models, intelligent agent-based solutions, differentiated intellectual property (IP), and scalable, repeatable offerings that deliver measurable customer outcomes.You will work closely with partner executives, technical leaders, engineering teams, and Microsoft sales organizations to shape AI transformation strategies, lead architectural design sessions, accelerate production-ready solutions, and unlock new market opportunities. By combining technical leadership with a strong understanding of partner business models, you will help partners turn innovation into sustainable growth and scale successful solutions across customers and markets.Leveraging technologies such as Microsoft Foundry, Microsoft Fabric, Azure AI Services, Azure SQL, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure App Service, Azure Functions, Azure API Management, and GitHub, you will drive the development of scalable, secure, and enterprise-ready AI and data architectures.We are looking for a senior technical leader who can connect technology with business impact-someone who challenges conventional thinking, influences strategic decisions, inspires technical teams, and helps shape the next generation of AI-powered partner businesses.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, 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. Responsibilities Business Impact<ul style="margin-top:0.0cm;margin-bottom:0.0cm" type="disc"><li style="margin-top:0.0cm;margin-right:0.0cm;margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Aptos, sans-serif">Drive Frontier AI Transformation: Act as a strategic technical advisor to senior partner stakeholders, helping partners evolve into Frontier Partners by adopting AI-first strategies, agentic AI solutions, and new business models. Connect technology innovation with measurable business outcomes, accelerating partner growth and customer transformation.</li><li style="margin-top:0.0cm;margin-right:0.0cm;margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Aptos, sans-serif">Accelerate Data & AI Business Growth: Proactively identify and shape opportunities to increase Azure Data & AI consumption, drive adoption of Microsoft Fabric and Foundry, and expand partner-led customer reach. Collaborate across Microsoft sales, engineering, and partner organizations to accelerate pipeline creation, solution adoption, and sustainable business impact at scale.</li><li style="margin-top:0.0cm;margin-right:0.0cm;margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Aptos, sans-serif">Influence Strategic Technology Decisions: Challenge conventional approaches, guide partners through complex architectural and business decisions, and translate emerging technology trends into actionable transformation strategies. Proactively address technical and business risks, including security, data governance, privacy, responsible AI, and operational resilience.</li></ul>Partner Specialization<ul style="margin-top:0.0cm;margin-bottom:0.0cm" type="disc"><li style="margin-top:0.0cm;margin-right:0.0cm;margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Aptos, sans-serif">Build Frontier Partner Capabilities: Lead the technical transformation of strategic partners by developing their Data & AI practices, architectural capabilities, and technical readiness. Help partners establish differentiated AI offerings, agentic solutions, and scalable delivery models that enable them to compete and grow in the evolving AI market.</li><li style="margin-top:0.0cm;margin-right:0.0cm;margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Aptos, sans-serif">Accelerate Solution Innovation & Specialization: Guide partners in designing and delivering secure, scalable, production-ready Data & AI solutions, leveraging Microsoft Foundry, Fabric, Azure AI Services, and modern cloud architectures. Lead architectural design sessions, technical workshops, and strategic customer engagements while accelerating relevant Microsoft Solutions Partner designations and specializations, including Frontier AI.</li><li style="margin-top:0.0cm;margin-right:0.0cm;margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Aptos, sans-serif">Scale Repeatable Partner Solutions: Enable partners to move beyond individual projects and proofs of concept by developing differentiated IP, reusable architectures, industry solutions, and repeatable offerings. Collaborate with partner and Microsoft go-to-market teams to accelerate commercialization, customer adoption, and scalable revenue opportunities.</li></ul>Technical Leadership<ul style="margin-top:0.0cm;margin-bottom:0.0cm" type="disc"><li style="margin-top:0.0cm;margin-right:0.0cm;margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Aptos, sans-serif">Lead with Technical Excellence: Serve as a senior technical authority and trusted advisor across Data & AI, combining deep architectural expertise with a broad understanding of cloud-native applications, security, and agentic AI. Influence complex solution architectures, challenge technical assumptions, and guide partners toward scalable, secure, and enterprise-ready implementations.</li><li style="margin-top:0.0cm;margin-right:0.0cm;margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Aptos, sans-serif">Shape Technical Strategy & Innovation: Leverage market insights, partner feedback, and emerging technology trends to influence technical priorities, solution investments, and partner transformation strategies. Contribute to Microsoft's technical communities by developing reference architectures, accelerators, best practices, and innovative solution patterns that can be scaled across the partner ecosystem.</li><li style="margin-top:0.0cm;margin-right:0.0cm;margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Aptos, sans-serif">Inspire, Mentor & Scale Expertise: Act as a technical thought leader and mentor, driving knowledge sharing, coaching, and technical readiness across Microsoft and partner teams. Lead cross-functional initiatives, engage with senior technical stakeholders, and represent Microsoft's technology vision through strategic partner engagements, industry events, technical communities, and thought leadership.</li></ul> Qualifications Required Qualifications<ul style="margin-top: 0.0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0cm;" type="disc"><li style="margin-top: 0.0cm; margin-right: 0.0cm; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">Extensive Technical Experience: Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related field and multiple years of experience in cloud technologies, Data & AI solutions, software development, solution architecture, technical consulting, or technical pre-sales or equivalent experience.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.0cm; margin-right: 0.0cm; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">Senior Technical Leadership: Proven experience in technical consulting, solution architecture, or technical pre-sales, with the ability to lead complex technical engagements, influence senior stakeholders, and translate business requirements into scalable technology solutions.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.0cm; margin-right: 0.0cm; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">Data & AI Expertise: Strong technical knowledge of modern data platforms, cloud-native architectures, AI services, and enterprise AI solution development, including experience designing and implementing scalable, secure, and production-ready solutions.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.0cm; margin-right: 0.0cm; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">Language Skills: Professional English proficiency and fluency in German, with the ability to communicate complex technical concepts effectively to both technical and business audiences.</li></ul>Preferred Qualifications<ul style="margin-top: 0.0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0cm;" type="disc"><li style="margin-top: 0.0cm; margin-right: 0.0cm; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">Deep Microsoft Data & AI Expertise: Advanced hands-on experience with Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Foundry, Azure AI Services, Azure SQL, Azure Cosmos DB, and related Azure data and application services. Strong understanding of modern data architectures, analytics, AI platforms, and cloud-native solution development.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.0cm; margin-right: 0.0cm; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">Agentic AI & Emerging Technologies: Experience designing and implementing generative AI and agentic AI solutions, including AI agents, orchestration frameworks, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), enterprise AI integration, and responsible AI principles. Ability to translate emerging AI capabilities into production-ready business solutions.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.0cm; margin-right: 0.0cm; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">Enterprise Architecture & Solution Development: Proven experience leading complex architectural design sessions, developing Proofs of Concept (PoCs) and Minimum Viable Products (MVPs), and transitioning innovative solutions into secure, scalable production environments.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.0cm; margin-right: 0.0cm; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">Partner Transformation & Business Acumen: Experience working with technology partners, system integrators, or enterprise customers to develop technical capabilities, solution practices, differentiated IP, and repeatable offerings. Strong understanding of how technology innovation translates into business value, customer adoption, and sustainable growth.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.0cm; margin-right: 0.0cm; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">Strategic Influence & Technical Leadership: Demonstrated ability to engage and influence senior technical and business stakeholders, challenge existing approaches, and drive technical decisions across complex organizations. Experience mentoring technical teams, leading cross-functional initiatives, and shaping technical strategies.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.0cm; margin-right: 0.0cm; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">Competitive Landscape & Industry Trends: Strong understanding of the evolving Data & AI ecosystem, including hyperscaler platforms, emerging AI technologies, open-source frameworks, and competitive offerings from AWS, Google Cloud, and other AI platform providers.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.0cm; margin-right: 0.0cm; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">Customer & Partner Engagement: 10+ years of experience in customer-facing or partner-facing technical roles, with a track record of driving complex technical projects, accelerating technology adoption, and delivering measurable business outcomes.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.0cm; margin-right: 0.0cm; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">Technical Certifications: Relevant advanced certifications such as Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305), Azure AI Engineer Associate (AI-102), Fabric Data Engineer Associate (DP-700), or equivalent certifications from AWS, Google Cloud, or other recognized technology providers.</li></ul> Cloud Solution Architecture IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across Germany is € 102,100.00 - € 176,200.00 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: <a href="https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/corporate-pay/germany-corporate-pay.html">https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/corporate-pay/germany-corporate-pay.html</a> Cloud Solution Architecture IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across Austria is € 91,000.00 - € 182,900.00 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: <a href="https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/corporate-pay/austria-corporate-pay.html">https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/corporate-pay/austria-corporate-pay.html</a> Cloud Solution Architecture IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across Switzerland is CHF 154,000.00 - CHF 300,200.00 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: <a href="https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/corporate-pay/switzerland-corporate-pay.html">https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/corporate-pay/switzerland-corporate-pay.html</a> This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled. <hr> 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 <a href="https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html">requesting accommodations.</a>