Overview
Microsoft Industry Solutions – Global Center Innovation and Delivery Center (GCID) delivers end-to-end solutions by enabling accelerated adoption and productive use of Microsoft technologies. An organization of well over 1000+ exceptional people, GCID presents a compelling opportunity for senior technical leaders to drive enterprise scale transformation through consulting, architecture, and delivery leadership.
The Principal Architect is a senior technical and business leader accountable for shaping, influencing, and driving successful outcomes across large, complex, multiyear enterprise engagements. This role operates at the convergence of technology, business strategy, and executive decision making, acting as a trusted advisor to customer CEO, CIO, CTO, and CDO stakeholders.
In the AI first GCID organization, Principal Architects lead the adoption of AI native, cloud first, and platform driven execution models at enterprise scale—ensuring solutions are not only technically sound but strategically aligned with customer business transformation goals.
Responsibilities
AI First Enterprise Delivery Leadership
Own and drive enterprise scale architecture and delivery execution across highly complex customer portfolios, ensuring alignment to business strategy, transformation goals, and long term technology roadmaps.
Embed AI first and AI native principles across solution design, delivery models, and operating frameworks—driving intelligent automation, agentic workflows, and data driven execution at scale.
Serve as the primary executive technical interface for CIO / CTO / CDO leadership, translating business strategy into scalable architecture, delivery plans, and transformation milestones.
Set and enforce engineering excellence standards across organizations, ensuring architecture integrity, quality, security, resilience, and performance at enterprise scale.
Champion modern engineering practices including AI assisted development, DevSecOps, SRE, observability, and platform engineering.
Drive creation and reuse of enterprise grade reference architectures, accelerators, patterns, and paved road platforms.
Innovation & Thought Leadership
Client Engagement & Solutioning
Operate as a trusted advisor to CEO / CIO / CTO stakeholders, guiding executive level conversations on digital transformation, AI adoption, cloud strategy, platform modernization, and operating model changes.
Lead executive design sessions, architecture boards, and transformation roadmap reviews, providing clear tradeoff analysis across cost, risk, timetovalue, and strategic outcomes.
Own technical leadership during presales, deal shaping, and complex pursuits, including estimates, risk profiling, executive narratives, and differentiated solution design.
Team Leadership, Mentorship & Organizational Impact
Provide seniormost technical leadership across multiple architect teams, fostering a strong culture of accountability, rigor, and innovation.
Quality, Security & Compliance
Qualifications
Proven track record leading largescale transformation programs across cloud, data, AI, and modern application platforms.
(All areas below assume enterprise scale ownership and executive level influence)
Full Stack Application Engineering
AIDriven & AIEnabled Application Development
CloudNative Architecture (Azure)
DevOps, Platform & Developer Productivity
Solutioning, PreSales & Strategic Leadership
Frontier Engineering & Customer Enablement Skills
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.
