Overview
The Defense Industrial Base (DIB) Operating Unit (OU) is a newly formed team with a bold mission: to consolidate, simplify, and accelerate Microsoft’s presence across the DIB landscape. This expansive network includes over 100,000 organizations specializing in manufacturing, aviation, cybersecurity, and more—all united in their support of all Federal Agencies, including the U.S. Department of Defense and other mission-based 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 solutions that drive mission outcomes, elevate customer experience, and fuel Microsoft’s growth.
The DIB OU will directly manage and accelerate strategic and major DIB accounts across MCAPS Americas, while also enabling growth across other OUs and SME&C. We’re building new relationships, transforming legacy operations, and helping our customers modernize with confidence.
We are looking for a Cloud Solution Architect – Infrastructure / Cross Solutions with deep expertise in cloud modernization and a passion for enabling mission success across the Defense Industrial Base. In this role, you’ll lead the design and deployment of secure, scalable, and resilient infrastructure solutions that empower customers to transform their environments and accelerate innovation.
As a trusted technical advisor, you’ll collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver impactful outcomes using Microsoft Cloud and AI technologies. You’ll be at the forefront of strategic engagements—driving cloud adoption, enhancing operational agility, and ensuring compliance with defense-grade security standards.
This role is part of a newly established team focused on supporting the Defense Industrial Base, a $400B+ sector that includes Tier 1–3 defense partners. As an Infrastructure CSA, you will deliver deep technical expertise in cloud architecture, security, and platform modernization—accelerating adoption of Microsoft’s Cloud solutions across classified and sovereign environments. You’ll drive usage excellence by designing and deploying resilient, scalable, and compliant cloud foundations that enable mission-critical workloads.
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—embracing challenges, learning continuously, and striving to make a meaningful impact. In this role, you’ll join a team that values curiosity, collaboration, and customer obsession, working together to deliver secure, innovative solutions that support our nation’s most critical missions.
Responsibilities
Business Impact
- Operates with disciplined operational excellence across all sales and delivery stages, adhering to Microsoft tools of record, governance models, and compliance requirements while executing in disconnected, classified, and sovereign environments. Collaborates across Microsoft, customers, systems integrators, and partners to deliver resilient‑by‑design Azure infrastructure solutions aligned to mission platforms and national security objectives.
- Leads the technical delivery and orchestration of Azure services—including compute, networking, storage, hybrid cloud, and Azure Government capabilities—ensuring solutions are secure, resilient, compliant, and optimized for cost, performance, and mission continuity. Proactively identifies and mitigates business, technical, and cybersecurity risks, including those posed by nation‑state threats.
- Aligns technical engagements to measurable mission and business outcomes such as legacy modernization, secure migration strategies, and operational readiness. Guides customers toward well‑architected, Zero Trust–aligned solutions that accelerate value realization while meeting ITAR, DFARS, and FedRAMP High requirements.
- Proactively identifies and drives Azure Consumption, Unified Azure ES Offers, MACC agreements, and Azure Consumption Plans across accounts by recommending next‑best workloads and Enhanced Solutions that unlock incremental mission value. Captures and executes opportunities through Microsoft’s Customer Engagement Model in close partnership with account teams.
- Identifies, escalates, and removes blockers to accelerate deployment, consumption, and value realization, applying deep industry, regulatory, and technical expertise to resolve constraints in complex, high‑assurance environments.
Customer Centricity
- Acts as a trusted advisor and the voice of the customer, translating complex mission, security, and compliance requirements into Azure‑aligned industry solutions. Shares customer insights, feedback, and patterns with Engineering, Product, and internal communities to influence roadmaps, prioritization, and solution design.
- Partners closely with customer technical and business leaders—including CIOs, CISOs, and mission owners—to bridge understanding across security, compliance, operational risk, and transformation goals. Independently engages executive stakeholders to align Azure Gov and Secret‑level solutions with strategic mission outcomes and ROI.
- Facilitates technical workshops, planning sessions, and solution assessments that support secure cloud migration, modernization, and hybrid operations across the Defense Industrial Base. Defines clear conditions of success and proactively addresses unmet needs to improve customer experience, adoption, and long‑term satisfaction.
- Works cross‑functionally with account teams, engineering, and support organizations to ensure seamless delivery, rapid issue resolution, and sustained customer trust in high‑stakes, regulated environments.
Partner Specialization
- Collaborates with defense industry partners and systems integrators to understand unique mission, operational, and technical requirements, jointly architecting compliant and repeatable Azure Gov solutions. Orchestrates partner engagement to support proof‑of‑concepts, technical pre‑sales, and early deployments.
- Identifies and prioritizes partner‑led opportunities aligned with revenue, consumption, and mission outcomes, guiding partners in building repeatable offerings, Enhanced Solutions, and industry‑specific practices for defense workloads.
- Works with Global Partner Solutions (GPS) and field stakeholders to translate market insights, competitive intelligence, and customer demand into actionable partner motions, advising partners through initial strategic implementations in classified and sovereign environments.
Technical Leadership
- Serves as a player/coach, leading by example in technical depth across Azure infrastructure, networking, identity, security, data, AI and governance, with a strong emphasis on compliance and mission assurance. Mentors junior CSAs, drives team‑wide readiness, and supports upskilling aligned to defense, security, resilience, and Azure Government priorities.
- Leads technical engagements involving secure enclave deployments, cyber incident response, Zero Trust architectures, and threat‑informed design, applying deep knowledge of FedRAMP High, ITAR, DFARS, and classified cloud requirements.
- Proactively identifies delivery gaps and recurring patterns, communicating insights that drive improvements to Microsoft frameworks, methodologies, IP, and scalable solution models. Contributes thought leadership and innovation across internal and external technical communities.
- Leads and contributes to virtual teams (v‑teams), sharing strategic and technical guidance across Microsoft and partner ecosystems. Elevates Microsoft’s defense cloud leadership through presentations, workshops, and community participation, while staying current on emerging technologies and best practices relevant to mission‑critical cloud infrastructure.
- Demonstrates inclusive leadership by fostering diverse perspectives, mentoring broadly, and actively participating in ERG and D&I initiatives. Operates with high proactivity, anticipating challenges and contributing to a culture of collaboration, resilience, and continuous improvement.
Qualifications
Required qualifications
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, Liberal Arts, or related field AND 4+ years experience in cloud/infrastructure technologies, information technology (IT) consulting/support, systems administration, network operations, software development/support, technology solutions, practice development, architecture, and/or consulting 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
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, Liberal Arts, or related field AND 8+ years experience in cloud/infrastructure technologies, information technology (IT) consulting/support, systems administration, network operations, software development/support, technology solutions, practice development, architecture, and/or consulting OR Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, Liberal Arts, or related field AND 6+ years experience in cloud/infrastructure technologies, technology solutions, practice development, architecture, and/or consulting OR equivalent experience.
- 4+ years experience working in a customer‑facing role (internal and/or external).
- 4+ years experience working on technical projects.
- Technical certification in Cloud technologies (e.g., Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, or security certifications).
Additional Preferred Qualifications
- Experience designing or supporting Microsoft Azure infrastructure solutions, including compute, networking, storage, identity, and hybrid cloud architectures.
- Hands‑on experience with infrastructure architecture or cloud computing in enterprise or mission‑critical environments.
- Familiarity with U.S. Government and defense compliance frameworks, including FedRAMP, ITAR, DFARS, and the DoD Zero Trust Strategy.
- Experience supporting or guiding customers through Zero Trust architecture and compliance‑driven cloud designs.
- Working knowledge of Microsoft security solutions, including Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Microsoft Sentinel, and Microsoft XDR.
- Understanding of Microsoft Data, Application, and AI services, and how they integrate into secure cloud architectures.
- Experience with Azure Government, including FedRAMP High environments.
- Familiarity with disconnected, classified, or sovereign environments, including high‑consequence or mission‑critical workloads.
- Prior experience supporting defense sector customers, including systems integrators or mission platforms.
- Demonstrated success delivering secure, scalable, and resilient infrastructure solutions.
- Background in hybrid or multi‑cloud architectures, particularly in regulated environments.
- Experience with DevOps practices, automation, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC).
- Proven ability to lead technical initiatives, influence across organizational boundaries, and collaborate with cross‑functional teams.
- Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and problem‑solving skills.
- Commitment to continuous learning and professional development.
- Experience with Special Access Programs (SAPs) is a plus, including exposure to Microsoft Isolated Secret Region (MS‑ISR) and Microsoft Classified Platform Experience (PLx / “Platform** X”)**.
Preferred Certifications
- Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ‑305)
- Azure Security Engineer Associate (AZ‑500)
- Azure Network Engineer Associate (AZ‑700)
- Azure Administrator Associate (AZ‑104)
- Azure Fundamentals (AZ‑900)
- AI Fundamentals (AI‑900)
- Additional highly regarded certifications include CISSP, CCSP, CompTIA Security+, and DoD 8570/8140 (IAT Level II or higher)
Cloud Solution Architecture IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $106,400 - $203,600 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 $137,600 - $222,600 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.**