Principal Customer Success Account Manager

Overview

Builds and coaches others on customer, partner, and internal stakeholder engagement strategy and models. Identifies, navigates, communicates, and influences key customer technical, business, and executive-level stakeholders (including partners).

Synthesizes and combines various insights from their team and customer industry regarding business and Information Technology objectives for customer organizations using partnership with other account team leaders. Understands, identifies, and aligns Microsoft solutions, cross-cloud and technical capabilities.

Drives conversations with customers to demonstrate alignment between customer objectives and the current Microsoft portfolio of work in the customer account.

In partnership with key stakeholders and executives, develops and delivers strategic roadmaps for executing program planning and customer-facing program review, prioritizing engagements, and influencing key stakeholder and executive expectations to address agreed-upon customer outcomes and account priorities to deliver ongoing customer success.

Leverages and improves upon methods for identifying, monitoring, and mitigating actual and potential blockers to consumption through data analysis and customer feedback.

This role sits in the Customer Success Account Management discipline, which maintains an understanding of customers’ industry and business processes — which may include an industry or vertical focus such as Banking, Healthcare or Manufacturing. It promotes adoption of technology by helping customers optimise the utilisation of products, demonstrating features beyond core functionality and ensuring best-practice adoption, and acts as primary point of contact for the customer in a post-sales production environment.

Responsibilities

Customer Relationship Management

• Synthesizes and combines various insights from their team and customer industry regarding business and Information Technology objectives for customer organizations using partnership with other account team leaders.
• Identifies customer priorities with shared accountability for the creation of shared customer account plans in support of customer security and resiliency needs and customer objectives specific to the customer's business transformation programs and common to the industry.
• Provides leadership to the team to execute support, security, and consumption delivery programs.
• Uses industry trends and program delivery progress to identify priority area to drive customer environmental health outcomes.
• Shares industry trends with customers in terms of Microsoft current practices for their industry.
• Builds and coaches others on customer, partner, and internal stakeholder engagement strategy and models.
• Creates, influences, and evolves healthy, strategic relationships with key customer stakeholders, partners, and technical professionals to lead quality and secure solution delivery and health using partnerships with other account team leaders and lead orchestration across internal/external stakeholders.
• Expands and holds accountability for executive customer and partner relationships with a focus on leading the definition of business outcomes and how to align Microsoft strategy to customer business priorities.
• Identifies, navigates, communicates, and influences key customer technical, business, and executive-level stakeholders (including partners).
• Guides and leads conversations to facilitate the achievement of customer business objectives by leveraging their investment in Microsoft.
• Maps internal roles to customer priorities to action the needs of customers and provides input into customer priorities.
• Holds, maintains, and nurtures internal stakeholder relationships.
• Influences and challenges senior/executive internal stakeholders.
• Leads business value conversations at customer executive levels and coaches others to communicate effectively in business value conversations and incorporates a focus on security and resiliency.

Customer Success Leadership

• In partnership with key stakeholders and executives, develops and delivers strategic roadmaps for executing program planning and customer-facing program review, prioritizing engagements, and influencing key stakeholder and executive expectations to address agreed-upon customer outcomes and account priorities to deliver ongoing customer success.
• Leverages, improves upon, and streamline Microsoft delivery management methodologies, processes, and tools to improve and mitigate risks to customer operational health.
• Proactively anticipates, identifies, and mitigates customer blockers (including security and compliance risks) and risks by leveraging Microsoft solutions and services, and develops deliverable programs of work.
• Orchestrates delivery resources to facilitate value realization with a focus on driving operational health.
• Leads delivery program reviews with internal stakeholders to ensure alignment on customer outcomes and account priorities.
• Leads escalation management and communications for delivery programs in the customer account.
• Drives conversations with customers to demonstrate alignment between customer objectives and the current Microsoft portfolio of work in the customer account.
• Embraces the organizational and customer success strategy to maximize customer's investments and value.
• Drives and agrees upon a long-term approach to fuel adoption of Microsoft technology and services in alignment with the customer's goals and objectives, and includes security as a core component.
• Drives account team planning, promoting business and technical needs for change to challenge customer thinking that drives transformation towards modern digital approaches.
• Aligns with the account team to link Customer Success Plans (CSPs) with account plan priorities and develop bookable programs of work.
• Challenges the customer and influences their strategic decision making, driving the case for change towards improved operational health and security.
• Leverages and improves upon methods for identifying, monitoring, and mitigating actual and potential blockers (including security and compliance concerns) to consumption through data analysis and customer feedback.
• Mobilizes resources to address actual and potential blockers to consumption, ensure delivery on and continuously refine Customer Success Plans (CSPs), and identify opportunities for consumption optimization.
• Holds accountability for identified consumption milestones and their completion.
• Partners with customers to understand their business objectives and priorities, identify cross-selling and add-on opportunities, optimize usage, drive adoption, prioritize Microsoft products and services delivery to meet the most critical agreed-upon customer outcomes and account priorities, and develop and execute CSPs to meet them in order to manage consumption holistically across the entire portfolio.
• Proactively drives business growth strategies.

Technical Relevance

• Understands, identifies, and aligns Microsoft solutions, cross-cloud and technical capabilities (e.g., Azure, Security, Modern Work, Dynamics) to expand upon and accelerate customer needs and priorities.
• Leverages deep foundational industry, technical expertise, and visionary mindset to enable customer success.
• Articulates cross-cloud technology, solutions, and services in a compelling way to internal and external stakeholders.
• Evangelizes Microsoft's position in the customers' cloud technology marketplace against competitors.
• Leverages understanding of the customer's technology platform and Microsoft's technology roadmap to enable customer digital transformation.

Required / minimum qualifications

• Bachelors or Master's Degree in Business, Sociology, Psychology, Computer Science, or related field AND 10+ years customer success, solution delivery, practice management, customer-facing consulting, or portfolio management experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Business, Sociology, Psychology, Computer Science or related field AND 6+ years customer success, solution delivery, practice management, customer-facing consulting, or portfolio management experience OR equivalent experience.

Additional or preferred qualifications

• Microsoft or competitor equivalent (e.g., AWS) certification in relevant technologies (e.g., Azure, 365).
• Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Foundation certification or equivalent service management certification.
• Project Management Institute (PMI) or equivalent Project Management certification.
• Prosci or equivalent certification.

Additional information

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.