Strategic Account Technology - Strategist

We are seeking an exceptional Global Account Technology Strategist (ATS) to serve as the senior technology leader for one of Microsoft’s largest and most complex global strategic customers in the diversified manufacturing industry.

This is not a traditional technical sales role. The Global ATS operates as the technology strategist and de facto Microsoft CTO for the account, connecting the customer’s business strategy, technology landscape, transformation priorities, and long-term ambitions with the full breadth of Microsoft’s technology, engineering, services, and partner ecosystem.

The successful candidate will combine deep technical credibility, enterprise architecture expertise, business acumen, executive presence, strategic thinking, and exceptional leadership. This individual must be equally comfortable discussing enterprise architecture with a CTO, AI strategy with a CEO, cyber risk with a CISO, data strategy with a CDO, operational transformation with business leaders, and investment priorities with senior executives.

The customer operates a highly distributed global technology environment spanning corporate functions, manufacturing operations, supply chain, engineering, field operations, data centers, cloud platforms, factories, operational technology, and a broad application and security landscape. The ATS must understand this complexity and create a cohesive technology strategy across the enterprise.

Core Mission

Own and lead the end-to-end Microsoft technology strategy for the global account.

The Global ATS will develop a deep understanding of the customer’s business, industry, technology estate, competitive environment, strategic priorities, and transformation agenda, translating that understanding into a multi-year Microsoft technology strategy and roadmap.

This person will connect technology decisions to business outcomes including:

• AI-enabled business transformation
• Revenue growth and innovation
• Employee productivity
• Manufacturing modernization
• Operational efficiency
• Supply-chain transformation
• Cybersecurity and enterprise resilience
• Application and infrastructure modernization
• Data modernization
• Cost optimization
• Improved employee and customer experiences

The ATS must look beyond individual products and workloads and approach the customer’s technology landscape as an integrated enterprise architecture.

Key Responsibilities

1. Global Technology Strategy and Enterprise Architecture

• Own and continuously evolve the customer’s multi-year technology strategy and architecture roadmap.
• Serve as Microsoft’s senior technology strategist for the account.
• Understand the customer’s complete technology environment across applications, infrastructure, networking, cloud, data, AI, cybersecurity, identity, end-user computing, developer platforms, manufacturing systems, and operational technology.
• Connect individual technology initiatives into a cohesive enterprise architecture.
• Identify architectural gaps, technical debt, security risks, modernization opportunities, and opportunities for platform simplification.
• Develop clear architectural points of view that help customer executives make significant technology decisions.
• Balance immediate business requirements with the customer’s long-term architectural direction.
• Anticipate technology disruption and proactively help the customer prepare for what is next.

2. AI Transformation

The ATS will help the customer define and execute an enterprise-wide AI strategy, not simply deploy individual AI products.

Responsibilities include:

• Establish an enterprise AI strategy connected directly to business priorities.
• Identify opportunities where AI can transform manufacturing, engineering, supply chain, operations, customer experience, employee productivity, and decision-making.
• Drive strategic conversations around Copilot, AI assistants, agents, agentic workflows, enterprise AI applications, and responsible AI.
• Help the customer move from experimentation and isolated pilots to AI at enterprise scale.
• Connect AI strategy to data, applications, cloud infrastructure, security, identity, governance, and organizational readiness.
• Partner with executives to prioritize AI investments based on business value.
• Bring together Microsoft engineering, product groups, specialists, partners, and customer teams around the customer’s highest-value AI scenarios.

3. Data and Analytics

Lead the strategic conversation around the customer’s data estate as the foundation for AI and digital transformation.

Areas of responsibility include:

• Enterprise data architecture
• Modern data platforms
• Data engineering
• Analytics and business intelligence
• Data integration
• Real-time data
• Manufacturing and operational data
• Data governance
• Data security and privacy
• AI-ready data
• Structured and unstructured data
• Data modernization and consolidation

The ATS must connect the customer’s data strategy to AI, applications, security, cloud, and business processes.

4. Cloud, Infrastructure and Application Modernization

Develop and guide the customer’s long-term cloud and modernization strategy across:

• Azure and cloud infrastructure
• Hybrid and multi-cloud environments
• Cloud migration and modernization
• Application modernization
• Cloud-native architecture
• Containers and Kubernetes
• APIs and integration
• Developer platforms and DevOps
• Infrastructure modernization
• AI infrastructure and computing
• Edge computing
• Business continuity and resiliency
• Cloud economics and FinOps
• Enterprise platform simplification

The ATS must have enough technical depth to earn the trust of CTOs, architects and engineers while being capable of translating those conversations into clear business implications for senior executives.

5. Cybersecurity, Identity and Resilience

Security must be integrated into the customer’s overall technology strategy rather than treated as an isolated workload.

The ATS will:

• Develop strong partnerships with the customer’s CISO and security leadership organization.
• Understand the customer’s cybersecurity architecture, risk posture, regulatory environment, and resiliency priorities.
• Integrate identity, security, compliance, data protection, cloud security, endpoint security, threat protection, and security operations into the broader technology strategy.
• Advocate for secure-by-design architecture across AI, data, applications, infrastructure, cloud, and manufacturing environments.
• Help executives understand how AI changes both the cyber threat landscape and the opportunity to transform cybersecurity.
• Connect cybersecurity modernization with operational resilience and enterprise risk.

6. Manufacturing and Industry Transformation

The successful candidate must understand or quickly develop expertise around the transformation priorities of a diversified global manufacturer.

Areas may include:

• Smart factories
• Industrial AI
• Operational technology
• IT/OT convergence
• Digital twins
• IoT and edge computing
• Manufacturing data
• Predictive maintenance
• Quality optimization
• Supply-chain transformation
• Engineering and product development
• Connected products
• Frontline workers
• Factory cybersecurity
• Sustainability
• ERP and enterprise application modernization

The ATS must connect these industry scenarios into the customer’s broader enterprise architecture and business strategy rather than treating them as isolated technology projects.

7. C-Suite Executive Relationships

This role requires exceptional executive presence.

The ATS is expected to establish trusted relationships across senior customer leadership, including the:

• CEO
• CIO
• CTO
• CISO
• CDO
• Chief AI Officer
• Chief Digital Officer
• COO
• Business unit presidents
• Engineering leaders
• Manufacturing leaders
• Enterprise architecture leadership

The ATS must earn the right to participate in the customer’s most important technology and transformation discussions.

This person should be able to challenge customer thinking constructively, introduce new perspectives, simplify difficult technical issues, and help executives navigate critical technology decisions.

Our aspiration is for customer executives to view the ATS not simply as a Microsoft representative, but as a trusted strategic technology advisor.

8. One Microsoft Orchestration

The Global ATS must be an exceptional orchestrator.

No single individual can personally possess deep expertise across every area of Microsoft technology. The ATS is therefore accountable for assembling, aligning, and leading the right Microsoft resources around the customer’s priorities.

This includes orchestrating across:

• Account leadership
• Solution specialists
• Cloud and solution architects
• Customer success teams
• Microsoft engineering
• Product groups
• Industry teams
• Security experts
• AI specialists
• Data and application specialists
• Services and delivery organizations
• Microsoft partners
• Global systems integrators
• Executive sponsors
• Research and emerging technology teams

The ATS establishes the overall architectural direction and ensures these resources operate as one coordinated Microsoft technology team around the customer.

9. Strategic Opportunity Leadership

The ATS will play a critical role in the technology and commercial growth strategy for the account.

Responsibilities include:

• Identify strategic opportunities based on a deep understanding of the customer’s business and architecture.
• Connect individual opportunities to the broader account technology strategy.
• Shape complex, multi-workload transformation opportunities.
• Establish the architectural strategy supporting major customer investments.
• Partner closely with account leadership throughout strategic pursuits.
• Engage technical and executive decision makers.
• Identify competitive threats and establish differentiated Microsoft architectural positions.
• Drive alignment from initial strategy through architecture, solution decisions, deployment, adoption, consumption, and realized customer value.

Executive Presence and Communication

The ideal candidate will be an exceptional communicator capable of making complex technology understandable, relevant, and actionable.

This person must be able to:

• Lead C-suite strategy discussions.
• Present complex architecture clearly and simply.
• Create compelling technology narratives.
• Facilitate executive strategy workshops.
• Communicate technical tradeoffs without unnecessary complexity.
• Challenge assumptions respectfully and confidently.
• Connect technology decisions to financial, operational, strategic, and risk outcomes.
• Build credibility with highly technical audiences and senior business executives.

The candidate should demonstrate confidence without arrogance, curiosity without losing strategic direction, and the ability to listen deeply before forming recommendations.

Strategic Account Technology IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $130,900 - $251,900 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 $165,600 - $272,300 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.