Principal Consultant - Azure AI

Microsoft Industry Solutions – Global Delivery Center (GDC) is a 1000+ strong engineering organization delivering complex, high-impact solutions that accelerate customer adoption of Microsoft Cloud and AI.

The Principal Consultant (PCON) is a senior technical leader responsible for architecting, engineering, and driving end-to-end delivery across Applications, Data, and AI solution areas.

The ideal candidate brings deep hands-on experience, broad architectural judgment, and strong customer-facing leadership across cloud apps, data platforms, and modern AI workloads.

AI-First Technical Leadership

• Champion AI-native delivery models across Apps and Data engagements.
• Architect and lead delivery of large, multi-disciplinary programs involving application modernization, data engineering, and Azure AI/ML solutions.
• Design AI-enabled architectures using Azure OpenAI, AI Search, Cognitive Services, RAG pipelines, and Azure ML.
• Establish reusable accelerators, frameworks, and design patterns that scale across regions and customers.

Architecture & Engineering Excellence

• Lead architectural direction across cloud-native Apps, enterprise Data platforms, and advanced AI workloads.
• Enforce engineering excellence including secure coding, DevSecOps, observability, and performance engineering.
• Guide engineering teams across .NET, JavaScript, Python, Data Engineering, and AI/ML technologies.
• Promote adoption of Agile, DevOps, CI/CD, automated testing, and modern engineering standards.

Customer Engagement & Solutioning

• Act as the senior technical authority for customers, shaping solution vision, architecture, and roadmap.
• Lead pre-sales, envisioning, estimation, PoCs, and proposal development.
• Engage C-level stakeholders and ensure alignment between technology decisions and business goals.
• Drive consistent, high-quality customer experience and value realization.

Strategic Delivery Governance

• Provide thought leadership on solution architecture, risk management, and delivery governance.
• Drive modernization across delivery models aligned to Microsoft AI-first principles.
• Partner with Delivery Managers, PMs, and Architects for seamless execution.

People Leadership & Capability Building

• Mentor consultants across Apps, Data, and AI tracks, driving capability uplift.
• Guide teams through complex technical decisions and foster a culture of innovation.
• Support readiness, certification, and capability-building initiatives.

Core Expertise Required

• Applications Engineering: .NET, C#, microservices, serverless, React/Angular, distributed systems.
• Data Engineering: Data Warehouses, Lakehouses, Synapse, Fabric, Databricks, Spark, Kafka, SQL/NoSQL databases, ETL/ELT.
• Artificial Intelligence: Azure OpenAI, AI Search, Cognitive Services, RAG, embeddings, MLOps, Prompt Engineering.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
• 15–20+ years of experience across Applications, Data, and AI engineering.
• Proven track record delivering complex, multi-SA cloud programs.
• Preferred certifications: Azure Solution Architect, Azure Data Engineer, Azure AI Engineer, DevOps/Scrum certifications.

Personal Attributes

• Strong problem-solving skills and consultative mindset.
• Executive presence and ability to influence senior stakeholders.
• Adaptability to fast-paced and ambiguous environments.
• Commitment to continuous learning and innovation.

Culture

Embody Microsoft’s values — growth mindset, inclusion, customer obsession, and engineering excellence.

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.