Role overview:

• The Pursuit Lead (PL) is a presales delivery leader accountable for supporting the presales process by shaping and scoping deals to satisfy customer’s requirements.
• You will work closely with sales teams, account aligned delivery teams and the technical delivery team resources as required, to define and scope quality solutions that drive business outcomes, focusing where possible on digital transformation.
• You are responsible for leading a collaborative solution design process. 
• You will be accountable for providing deal scope, solution/approach, accurate cost estimates, pre-staffing plans, financial costs, risks and contingency / risk reserve requirements and budgetary estimations.
• Where appropriate you will reuse our existing Intellectual Property to scope end-to-end lifecycle solutions across your portfolio of pursuits that enable growth while ensuring that deal velocity and deal quality remain paramount.

Responsibilities

The Pursuit Leads primary responsibilities include:

• Provides leadership to all Microsoft Sales and Delivery resources to support opportunity qualification, scoping, estimating, costing, risk identification and mitigations, contract preparation, and handover of sold work to the delivery teams.
• Plays a leading role in aligning pursuits with the ISD offering strategy. PLs are expected to demonstrate expertise in the solution offerings and delivery playbooks, and to use this expertise to lead pursuits that result in deals with an appropriate resource mix and re-use of our extensive in-house intellectual property.
• Being accountable for deal quality. This includes the production of well-crafted Statements of Work (SOW’s) that lead to profitable engagements that meet customers’ expectations for scope, timelines, and deliverables, and include the reuse of IP as a deal shaping foundation.
• Achieving high quality pursuits by leading pursuit teams through technical, political and organizational complexity. PLs are expected to be stewards of the lead-to-order process, use your influence to improve deal velocity, prioritize pursuits aligned to area business plans, and communicate deal value to approval stakeholders through the deal review process. 
• Building trusted relationships with stakeholders that are critical to the success of deal pursuits. PLs are expected to drive profitable use of presales resources and develop relationships with area sales, proactively engage stakeholders to influence deal qualification, advise on deal readiness, and set domain pursuit expectations.  
• Ensures deal information provided to customers is compliant with Microsoft processes
• Works with the Area Leadership Team to define and execute demand generation activities in their defined territory, with the aim of increasing customer awareness of potential solutions and driving increased customer engagement and interest in new solutions/opportunities.

Relevant Characteristics and Experience for the Pursuit Lead Role:

• The role requires individuals that can collaborate effectively across teams, have excellent client-facing skills, and are able to lead multi-task across multiple opportunities running in parallel. Successful candidates will be resourceful, confident under pressure, and have proven experience and  knowledge in Services, Operational Support, and Business Development.

• Background in delivering and ideally selling complex technology solutions and services to a variety of enterprise clients
• Strong business acumen coupled with an affinity or appreciation for technology and the advancement of technology in thriving organizations
• Confident at building relationships, working and communicating with internal stakeholders and customers
• Knowledge and understanding of the financial and operational roles of a delivery organization, able to match this to best meet customer needs and drive customer outcomes
• Experience evaluating work breakdown structures, cost estimations and resource loading
• Able to develop strong, productive relationships with peers and management to meet targeted objectives
• Analytical mind set with the ability define metrics, reports, interpret results, and make recommendations on appropriate courses of action
• Willingness to travel with business.

Qualifications

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, national origin or ancestry, age, disability, marital status, pregnancy, protected veteran status, protected genetic information, political affiliation, or any other characteristics protected by local laws, regulations, or ordinances.

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.  We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the 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.