Overview
Join Microsoft's U.S. Public Sector Industries Defense Industrial Base (DIB) Team, where mission meets innovation. The DIB Operating Unit (OU) is a newly formed team with a bold mandate: to consolidate, simplify, and accelerate Microsoft's presence across the DIB landscape.
The DIB ecosystem includes more than 100,000 organizations across manufacturing, aviation, cybersecurity, and mission services that support U.S. Federal Agencies, including the Department of Defense and other intelligence and civilian organizations. Our team is dedicated to empowering these commercial contractors throughout their digital transformation journey-from envisioning new possibilities to delivering secure, scalable Microsoft solutions that drive mission outcomes, elevate customer experience, and fuel Microsoft's growth.
As a Cloud & AI Platforms Sales Specialist aligned to the Azure Specialist Team Unit (STU), you will support and advance solution sales motions across Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions (MCAPS) Americas. You will work closely with account teams, partners, and internal specialists to discover and qualify new opportunities, drive solution adoption and consumption, and help customers modernize legacy environments with confidence.
In this role, you will engage customer stakeholders to understand business and mission priorities, identify market and customer needs, and collaborate with internal teams to develop solutions that align to customer outcomes. You will contribute to pipeline development, territory planning, and forecasting rhythms, while building trusted relationships and learning how to orchestrate deals across multiple stakeholder groups.
By applying to this role, you may be considered for multiple, similar career stages within the organization.
Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We bring a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to achieve shared goals-grounded in our values of respect, integrity, and accountability, and a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive.
Responsibilities
Sales Execution & Opportunity Advancement
Engage in customer conversations to introduce Azure workloads and digital transformation scenarios aligned to customer mission and business priorities.
Discover, qualify, and advance new sales opportunities in collaboration with account teams, partners, and services.
Support deal progression by coordinating demos, proposals, quotes, licensing transactions, and project engagements.
Drive solution adoption and consumption through customer engagement, usage insights, and solution alignment.
Apply Microsoft Sales Process (MSP) and opportunity quality standards to manage and progress opportunities effectively.
Customer Engagement & Value Articulation
Assess customer business needs, technical readiness, and transformation goals to align Microsoft solutions to desired outcomes.
Articulate the business value of Azure solutions to technical and business stakeholders.
Collaborate with account teams to identify and engage senior decision makers and influencers.
Participate in customer briefings, workshops, webinars, and events to showcase Microsoft solutions and capabilities.
Incorporate security, compliance, and trust principles into all customer interactions.
Pipeline Development & Forecasting
Contribute to pipeline development, maintenance, and hygiene across assigned territory or accounts.
Participate in forecasting rhythms and pipeline reviews to improve forecast accuracy and sales execution.
Leverage whitespace analysis, market insights, and AI-powered sales tools to prioritize opportunities.
Monitor usage and adoption trends to identify opportunities for expansion and customer value realization.
Partner & Internal Collaboration
Collaborate with Microsoft partners through co-sell and cross-sell motions to extend solution reach and address customer needs.
Support joint solution proposals and execution with partners and internal teams.
Orchestrate across internal stakeholders including Account Teams, Global Partner Solutions (GPS), Customer Success, Industry Solutions Delivery, and technical specialists.
Ensure smooth handoffs between sales, delivery, and customer success teams.
Solution & Industry Expertise
Build and maintain working knowledge of Azure solutions, including AI, Workforce, Infrastructure, and related workloads.
Support competitive analysis and positioning in collaboration with Global Black Belts and specialist teams.
Contribute ideas, best practices, and insights to improve solution positioning and sales execution.
Participate in required training and obtain role-aligned product and industry certifications.
Sales Excellence & Continuous Improvement
Participate in Rhythm of Business meetings and territory planning activities.
Review customer feedback and contribute to recovery or improvement action plans as needed.
Utilize AI-driven analytics, automation, and sales tools to improve efficiency and decision making.
Demonstrate Microsoft values of integrity, accountability, respect, and inclusion while working collaboratively across teams.
Qualifications
Required Qualifications
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Administration, Information Security, Information Security, or related field AND 4+ years experience in technology-related sales or account management OR equivalent experience.
Other Requirements Security Clearance Requirements:
Candidates must be able to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include, but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings: - The successful candidate must have an active U.S. Government Top Secret Security Clearance. Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. Failure to maintain or obtain the appropriate clearance and/or customer screening requirements may result in employment action up to and including termination.
Clearance Verification: This position requires successful verification of the stated security clearance to meet federal government customer requirements. You will be asked to provide clearance verification information prior to an offer of employment.
Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.
Citizenship & Citizenship Verification: This position requires verification of U.S citizenship due to citizenship-based legal restrictions. Specifically, this position supports United States federal, state, and/or local United States government agency customers and is subject to certain citizenship-based restrictions where required or permitted by applicable law. To meet this legal requirement, citizenship will be verified via a valid passport, or other approved documents, or verified US government clearance.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience supporting customers in regulated industries such as government, defense, aerospace, or national security
Exposure to security, compliance, or regulatory frameworks relevant to U.S. Public Sector customers (e.g., NIST, DFARS, FedRAMP, or CMMC concepts)
Experience collaborating with partners and internal technical teams to develop and position cloud-based solutions
Ability to learn and apply industry, workload, and product knowledge to customer scenarios
Interest in obtaining and maintaining a U.S. Security Clearance (where required)
Master's Degree in Business Administration, Information Technology, Information Security, or related field
Solution Area Specialists IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $107,600 - $187,500 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $145,600 - $205,600 per year.
Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:
https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay
This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.
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 requesting accommodations. (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html)
