Principal Solution Engineer

Overview

Work with multinational enterprise customers to achieve their business goals using Azure as their platform of choice. Open doors, become a trusted technical adviser, uncover opportunities and turn their ambitions into practical solutions that deliver business value.

Combine an enterprise-architecture mindset and broad cloud understanding with hands-on Apps and Artificial Intelligence (AI) expertise. You'll know how a complete solution fits together and when to involve specialists along the way.

The Principal Solution Engineer role offers autonomy and influence across customer organizations. Own the technical direction of complex opportunities, align teams when priorities are unclear and take responsibility for achieving agreed technical outcomes. Work from executive conversations to practical demonstrations drawing on account teams, specialists and partners.

At Microsoft, our mission “to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more” guides how we partner with customers to deliver trusted, impactful solutions. With a growth‑mindset culture, we innovate responsibly and measure success by shared progress, people, teams, and customers. Join us to do meaningful work that changes the world and helps shape what’s next for everyone.

Responsibilities

Technical Sales Leadership

• Proactively build customer access, discover unmet needs across Azure and create new technical opportunities that deliver business value.

• Independently lead complex engagements spanning multiple technologies, teams and customer locations. Align stakeholders, resolve competing priorities and drive technical decisions through discovery, workshops and demonstrations.

Application Modernization

• Help customers modernise applications using Azure and cloud-native approaches, balancing existing investments with future business needs.

• Guide modern software delivery and developer productivity, including GitHub and GitHub Copilot, to accelerate innovation.

AI & Intelligent Applications

• Shape intelligent applications and agent solutions using Microsoft Foundry, Copilot technologies and enterprise data, including Microsoft Fabric where relevant.

• Build focused prototypes and demonstrations to test customer ideas, show value and guide secure, responsible AI adoption.

Solution Design & Architecture

• Take an end-to-end view across Azure infrastructure, networking, identity, security, data, applications and AI, including hybrid environments.

• Adapt and extend architecture patterns for complex customer requirements. Make clear recommendations on trade-offs between business value, security, reliability and cost, and develop practical roadmaps rather than isolated product designs.

• Work with specialists, customer success and partners to help customers progress from architecture to adoption.

Customer & Market Engagement

• Build trusted relationships from developers and architects to Heads of Development and Vice Presidents (VPs); listen, challenge constructively and build consensus across technical and business stakeholders.

• Understand customer priorities, programmes and decision-makers, aligning technical engagement with their wider business and transformation strategy.

Sales & Business Impact

• Use business and commercial judgement to connect technical choices to customer outcomes and differentiated Microsoft value, building a clear case for investment.

• Qualify technical opportunities around clear customer needs and business value, and agree meaningful next steps.

• Shape the strategy for growing opportunities with account teams, using data and insights to guide investment decisions and overcome technical barriers.

Team & Community Contribution

• Lead collaboration across teams and coach technical colleagues and account teams. Create reusable architectures and approaches from customer engagements, and help others apply them to improve outcomes beyond your own opportunities.

• Maintain hands-on learning, relevant skills and certifications, and demonstrate inclusion, integrity and customer focus.

Qualifications

Required/minimum qualifications

• Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 4+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 6+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience OR 7+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience OR equivalent experience.

Other Requirements

• Microsoft is unable to sponsor a work visa for this role due to the nature of the role's job duties.

Additional or preferred qualifications

• 8+ years technical pre-sales, technical consulting, or technology delivery, or related experience OR equivalent experience.

• 6+ years experience with cloud and hybrid, or on premises infrastructures, architecture designs, migrations, industry standards, and/or technology management.

• Certification in relevant technologies or disciplines (e.g., Office 365, Power BI, Azure Architect and Development exams, Cloud Platform Technologies, Information Security, Architecture).

Solution Engineering 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. (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html)