POSITION DETAILS: Position Title: Microsoft Azure Specialist Reports to (POSITION): Azure Sales Team Lead Team: Cloud Sales Department: Vendor Solutions BYTES: Established in 1982, Bytes has grown rapidly and now employs over 600+ people across 5 locations in the UK and Ireland. Our turnover in Financial Year 2019 was in excess of £520M. We work with SME’s, corporates and public sector organisations to modernise and digitally transform their IT infrastructures. We invest in our employees through on-going support, training and advice to help them achieve their career aspirations, rewarding success both financially and personally. There is opportunity to grow and move internally which can be seen through our long-standing employees who have developed existing and new skills to move into senior positions in the organisation leaving space for new team members to begin their journey. Your Future Starts Here Why Bytes? Over 600 staff (plans to double in size over the next 5 years) Operating from modern, hybrid working environments with offices in Leatherhead, Reading, London or Manchester Winners of an array of industry awards Sunday Times Top 100 Best Places to Work Excellent training and career prospects offered Fantastic office with gym, canteen, open plan, smart casual dress code, regular incentives and company events Supporters of 85+ charities with strong commitment to diversity and sustainability PURPOSE OF JOB: The Microsoft Azure Specialist is a sales overlay role within the Bytes Cloud Sales proposition, acting as a trusted advisor and subject matter expert to accelerate Azure growth. The role is focused on driving profitable growth for the Microsoft practice by winning net new customers, increasing Azure consumption within existing accounts, and maximising the attachment of high-value Azure services, including managed, professional, and support offerings. Working in close partnership with Account Managers, Pre-Sales, and Microsoft stakeholders, the Azure Specialist identifies, shapes, and progresses cloud opportunities across the full customer lifecycle, from initial engagement through to adoption and optimisation. The role also plays a key part in uncovering and positioning complementary solutions, including non-Microsoft technologies where appropriate, to deliver holistic customer outcomes and maximise commercial value. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES: Proactively work with suspects, prospects and existing customers to generate profitable sales of solution assessments, Cloud Consumption, FinOps, professional services and managed services. Identification of new opportunities and activities to drive migration to Microsoft cloud Identify opportunities to move on-prem workloads to Azure to increase Azure consumed revenue (ACR) Proactively obtain customer approval and consent to develop case studies post-delivery, capturing measurable outcomes, value realised, and success stories to support customer advocacy and wider marketing initiatives. Work closely with Microsoft’s Azure specialists and propensity data to uncover opportunities for Microsoft cloud and upsell Driving and facilitating the engagement of internal pre-sales and/or external partner resources to achieve cloud growth targets. Maximise funding available from Microsoft to support Azure adoption. Support the drive to migrate customers to modern agreement frameworks and platforms such as CSP/NCE Assist with the creation of sales/pre-sales collateral, as well as maintaining content and knowledge. Represent Bytes at customer events such as conferences, discussion forums, training events, webinars, and live customer-facing sessions, while also building the Azure Specialist team’s brand both internally and externally through blogs, podcasts, and other content creation. Demonstrate capability and knowledge across Microsoft cloud through knowledge-share via internal sales training, internal presentations, and marketing contributions such as whitepapers. Engages in conversations with customers to introduce how other workloads could enable digital transformation areas that is aligned with the customer's industry and turns opportunities into deals Proactively builds external stakeholders' mapping. Engages with internal and external stakeholders on business planning, rhythm-of-business (ROB) meetings to review and plan for accounts in the assigned territory. INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITIES: Provide support throughout the sales cycle from initial qualification through to close, nurturing opportunities alongside the Account Manager to achieve a positive customer outcome. Review available data (e.g. Microsoft Insights, CRM, marketing campaign data, Quantum) to identify customer gaps (white space) and drive new Azure adoption and/or consumption opportunities. Build and execute targeted account plans with Account Managers to drive net new Azure wins for Bytes. Support the progression of Marketing & Microsoft Qualified Leads (MQLs) to Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs), working closely with Account Managers and the BDE team. Support and contribute to funding programmes (e.g. ECIF/Azure Accelerate/Frontier Partner Offer) and the associated Microsoft Cloud processes, primarily Azure. Support and contribute to RFI/RFP responses and the wider bid process relating to Microsoft Cloud opportunities. Drive the positioning of services that enable Bytes to attain PAL across customers. Introduce and position relevant Bytes services to customers to maximise value and outcomes. JOB EXPECTATIONS: Hold relevant accreditations and attend training courses (internal and external) as defined by Manager Deep understanding of Microsoft Azure and related Bytes services Demonstrable knowledge of Bytes managed services & complementary vendors An understanding of the Bytes Partner Eco-system Working with Microsoft specialists and the Microsoft Practice to identify new opportunities through relevant data Qualifying new sales opportunities brought to you by Account managers Proactivity with sales teams, ensuring they are aware of you and your role/responsibilities Regular touch with Sales Teams to ensure awareness of relevant programs and offerings Engagement with Bytes wider propositions to help identify further opportunities in our customer base. QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE, & SKILLS: (DELETE AS REQUIRED IF ESSENTIAL OR DESIRABLE, REMOVE UNNECESSARY REQUIRENENTs) Educational Qualifications: Educated to A Level standard, equivalent or higher ESSENTIAL Professional Qualifications Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals (AI-901) ESSENTIAL ESSENTIAL Microsoft Azure Data Fundamentals (DP-900) DESIRABLE Microsoft AI Transformation Leader (AB-731) DESIRABLE Years of Experience Minimum 3 years working with Microsoft Cloud technologies ESSENTIAL Other Requirements Understanding and awareness of multiple Microsoft cloud offerings across Azure, Modern Work and Security, and/or Dynamics. Understanding of Microsoft software licensing agreements, models and cloud consumption cost optimisation strategies. Understanding of Microsoft UK structure and established contacts across technical and sales specialists. Ability to navigate and utilise Microsoft cloud tools/platforms to demonstrate capabilities to customers. DESIRABLE CORE Competencies & SKILLS – BASED ON POSITION AND GRADE Good technical and commercial knowledge of Microsoft Azure Understanding of, and ability to articulate to customers, options pertaining to cloud adoption A self-motivated individual with excellent organisational and time management skills Comfortable presenting to customers, being able to understand business needs and aligning these to business solutions.
