Presales Solutions Architect, Azure & Microsoft 365

Cloud People; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Cloud People is seeking a Presales Solutions Architect to bridge Sales and Delivery across Azure, Microsoft 365, security, Data & AI, Copilot and managed services. You will design solutions that are scoped honestly and handed to Delivery in a buildable state, serving as the senior technical voice in presales.

This office-first role in Central London requires 3–4 days in the office with travel to customers when needed.

Qualifications

• Shaping Microsoft cloud solutions across architecture and presales.
• Broad experience across Azure and Microsoft 365 with security focus.
• Microsoft certifications kept current to support ongoing learning.
• Strong collaboration with Sales and Delivery to bridge deals to delivery.

Responsibilities

• Lead discovery to uncover true customer needs and pathways.
• Design solutions across Azure, Microsoft 365, identity, security, and Data & AI.
• Own scope, work breakdown, and estimates with Delivery.
• Prepare technical portions of proposals and statements of work.
• Collaborate with Sales and Microsoft field teams on joint deals.
• Ensure smooth handover to Delivery with clear context and assumptions.
• Develop reference architectures and evaluation criteria to outlast deals.

Skills

Presales experience

Cloud architecture

Stakeholder management

Solution design

Education

Microsoft certifications

Tools

Azure

Microsoft 365

Defender

Sentinel

Purview

Entra

Job description

Presales Solutions Architect, Azure & Microsoft 365

Central London, 3/4 days a week in the office, with travel to customers when needed

Company & role

A fast growing Microsoft partner and Cloud Solution Provider, well known for licensing and support, is building out a proper services business in the UK. The sales side is already winning the conversations. What they need now is someone who can turn those conversations into solutions that are designed well, scoped honestly and handed to Delivery in a state they can actually build.

That is this role. You are the senior technical voice in presales, sitting between Sales and Delivery, across Azure, Microsoft 365, security, Data & AI, Copilot and managed services. Specialists exist to be pulled in, so this is about breadth and judgement rather than going deepest on any one workload.

It is also a chance to build the function rather than join one. There is no inherited playbook of estimation models and templates. You will write it.

One thing to be upfront about: this is office first by design. The presales and sales teams work in the same room, and you travel when the deal needs it. There is home working in the mix, but it will not suit anyone whose circumstances need them at home during the working day.

Why This Role Stands Out

• You are in the room when deals are being shaped, not dialled in after the direction is already set
• Breadth across the whole Microsoft stack, with specialists on tap, rather than being boxed into one tower
• The presales operating model is yours to design, and it will still be in use long after you have moved on from the deals
• Direct work with Microsoft field teams on joint and co sell deals
• A services business early enough in its scaling that what you build has an obvious effect on what it becomes
• Strong money for a presales seat, in a business that backs certifications instead of just mentioning them

Key Responsibilities

• Lead discovery on live opportunities, getting past the stated requirement to what the customer actually has, where they are trying to get to and what will get in the way
• Design the solution and defend it, across Azure platform and infrastructure, Microsoft 365, identity and security, with Data & AI, Copilot and managed services in the mix
• Own the numbers, building scope, work breakdown, resourcing and estimate with Delivery rather than throwing it over the fence at them
• Write the technical half of proposals and statements of work, then stand behind it in solution review and deal assurance when the risks and gaps get picked apart
• Work the deal alongside Sales, from early qualification through to executive presentations, and alongside Microsoft field teams on co sell
• Hand over properly at signature, so Delivery starts with the context, decisions and assumptions rather than rediscovering them
• Leave the function in better shape than you found it, through discovery frameworks, estimation models, reference architectures and qualification criteria that outlast any single deal

Ideal Experience

• Around seven years shaping Microsoft cloud solutions across architecture, consulting, engineering or presales, with at least three of those in presales or solutioning
• Real breadth, with Azure and Microsoft 365 as the core, a solid security layer across Defender, Sentinel, Purview and Entra, and enough on Fabric, Azure AI and Copilot to hold the conversation and know who to bring in
• Microsoft certifications that back the experience up and have been kept current. They care that you are still learning, not that you passed something in 2019
• Properly plugged into Microsoft, with a view on what is coming next and a habit of investing in your own development without being told to
• Able to go from a whiteboard with engineers to a value conversation with a CIO, and write it up clearly afterwards
• Commercially literate, with a working grasp of consumption economics, reservations, total cost of ownership and the way licensing shapes a design
• Comfortable carrying several live deals at once, and at your best working in a room with a sales team