Cloud & AI Solution Engineer – Data Platform

Microsoft; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 600,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology company based in Johannesburg seeks an experienced technical consultant to drive cloud platform adoption through technical sales engagements and workshops. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience with Azure Databases and Analytics, along with a strong background in pre-sales activities. This role offers a chance to collaborate closely with clients and engineer teams to deliver impactful solutions.

Benefits

Flexible work hours

Health and wellness benefits

Professional development opportunities

Qualifications

• 5+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience.
• Expertise in Azure Databases and Analytics including migration and AI applications.
• Proven ability to lead technical engagements.

Responsibilities

• Drive technical sales with decision makers using demos and PoCs.
• Lead hands-on engagements such as hackathons and workshops.
• Build trusted relationships with platform leads.

Skills

Technical pre-sales or consulting

Azure Databases expertise

Azure Analytics knowledge

Relationship building

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related

Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related

Tools

Azure Databases

Azure Analytics Tools

Hadoop

Job description

Responsibilities

• Drive technical sales with decision makers using demos and PoCs to influence solution design and enable production deployments.
• Lead hands-on engagements—hackathons and architecture workshops—to accelerate adoption of Microsoft’s cloud platforms.
• Build trusted relationships with platform leads, co-designing secure, scalable architectures and solutions.
• Resolve technical blockers and objections, collaborating with engineering to share insights and improve products.
• Maintain deep expertise in Analytics Portfolio: Microsoft Fabric (OneLake, DW, real-time intelligence, BI, Copilot), Azure Databricks, Purview Data Governance, and Azure Databases: SQL DB, Cosmos DB, PostgreSQL.
• Maintain and grow expertise in on-prem EDW (Teradata, Netezza, Exadata), Hadoop & BI solutions.
• Represent Microsoft through thought leadership in cloud Database & Analytics communities and customer forums.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience
• OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 4+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience
• OR Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 3+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience
• OR equivalent experience
• Expertise in Azure Databases (SQL DB, Cosmos DB, PostgreSQL), including migration, modernization, and AI application development
• Expertise in Azure Analytics (Fabric, Azure Databricks, Purview) and competitors (BigQuery, Redshift, Snowflake) in data warehousing, data lakes, big data, analytics, real-time intelligence, and reporting with integrated Data Security & Governance
• Proven ability to lead technical engagements (e.g., hackathons, PoCs, MVPs) that drive production-scale outcomes

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• 6+ years of technical pre-sales, consulting, or technology delivery experience
• 4+ years experience with cloud and hybrid or on-premises infrastructure, architecture design, migrations, industry standards, and technology management
• Proficiency in data warehouse & big data migration including on-premises appliances (Teradata, Netezza, Oracle), Hadoop (Cloudera, Hortonworks), and Azure Synapse Gen2

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations, and ordinances.

If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.