Group Manager, Advisory & Experiences Pre-Sales

Come join us

Are you the one who isn't afraid to break the mold and who gets passionate about the power of digital to transform organizations and ways of working? We are building teams of people to help our clients unlock the power they need now and own what is next. You'll cultivate meaningful relationships, drive business growth, and lead with a forward-thinking approach to client satisfaction and success. Together we do what matters.

What you'll do

* Strategic Client Engagement & Discovery: Lead and facilitate discovery workshops and consultative sessions with clients to deeply understand their business objectives, challenges, and aspirations. Employ design thinking principles to uncover unarticulated needs and user pain points, translating these into strategic opportunities for Avanade.
* Experience-Led Solution Visioning & Storytelling: Develop and articulate compelling, high-level strategic solutions and transformation roadmaps that align with client goals and leverage Avanade's extensive capabilities across the Microsoft ecosystem (e.g., Azure, Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, Power Platform, AI). Emphasize how these solutions will create impactful user experiences and drive measurable business outcomes.
* Innovative Problem Solving with AI: Drive innovative problem-solving by identifying opportunities to embed AI solutions into strategic recommendations, demonstrating how intelligent technologies can address client challenges, optimize processes, and unlock new revenue streams or efficiencies. This includes understanding the practical applications of generative AI, machine learning, and cognitive services.
* Value Proposition & Business Case Development: Collaborate with sales and pursuit teams to define clear value propositions, quantify potential business benefits, and contribute to the development of robust business cases and ROI analyses, often starting with the human-centered impact of proposed solutions and the value of AI integration.
* Market, Industry & Experience Insight: Maintain a deep understanding of industry trends, competitive landscapes, customer behavior, and emerging technologies within the Microsoft ecosystem, with a particular focus on the rapid advancements and applications of AI. Leverage this knowledge to provide strategic guidance to clients and internal teams, focusing on how these trends will shape future experiences.
* Thought Leadership: Act as a thought leader in relevant strategic areas, sharing insights with clients and contributing to Avanade's intellectual capital, particularly around experience design, strategic innovation, and the transformative power of AI.
* Proposal Development & Presentation: Partner with solution architects and delivery teams to ensure strategic alignment within proposals. Lead and deliver impactful presentations to prospective clients, effectively communicating the strategic vision, the intended user experience, the role of AI, and the overall value.
* Relationship Building: Build strong, trusted advisor relationships with key client stakeholders, including C-level executives, heads of business units, and IT leadership, by demonstrating empathy and understanding of their strategic, experiential, and technological challenges, including those related to AI adoption.
* Collaboration & Teamwork: Work seamlessly with sales, account management, solution architecture, and delivery teams to ensure a cohesive and impactful pre-sales motion, integrating experience design considerations and AI-driven solutions throughout the process.
* Sales Enablement: Contribute to the development of pre-sales collateral, frameworks, and best practices that enhance the effectiveness of our sales organization, often incorporating design thinking workshops and experience mapping techniques, and showcasing the art of the possible with AI.

Skills & Experience

Required:

* 10+ years of experience in a pre-sales, strategic consulting, or enterprise architecture role within a leading consulting firm or technology services provider.
* Demonstrated experience in leading complex, strategic discussions with C-level executives and senior business stakeholders, with a strong focus on understanding business and user needs.
* Proven ability to translate abstract business challenges into concrete, technology-enabled strategic solutions that prioritize exceptional user experiences and leverage innovative approaches, including AI.
* Deep understanding and practical application of Design Thinking methodologies (e.g., Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test) and other human-centered design approaches.
* Knowledge of user experience (UX) principles, customer journey mapping, and service design.
* Experience in identifying opportunities for AI solutions and articulating their business value, including a foundational understanding of generative AI, machine learning concepts, and cognitive services.
* Deep understanding of business strategy, digital transformation, and industry-specific challenges, with an eye towards improving customer and employee experiences.
* Strong knowledge of the Microsoft ecosystem (Azure, Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, Power Platform, AI) and its application to solving complex business problems, particularly in shaping user interactions and driving innovation.
* Exceptional communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to articulate complex concepts clearly and persuasively, often through compelling storytelling.
* Experience in developing compelling business cases and quantifying the value of strategic initiatives, including the ROI of improved experiences and AI investments.
* Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and manage multiple priorities.
* Ability to travel as needed to client sites.

About you

Characteristics that demonstrate success for this role:

* Strategic, visionary, relationship builder
* Influential, innovative, collaborative
* Intellectually curious and passionate about tech
* Convincing storyteller and engaging content creator

Enjoy your career

Some of the best things about working at Avanade:

* Opportunity to work for Microsoft's Global Alliance Partner of the Year (14 years in a row), with exceptional development and training (minimum 80 hours per year for training and paid certifications)
* Real-time access to technical and skilled resources globally
* Dedicated career advisor to encourage your growth
* Engaged and helpful coworkers genuinely interested in you

Find out more about some of our benefits
[1] Employee Benefits at Avanade | Avanade

A great place to work

As you bring your skills and abilities to Avanade, you'll get distinctive experiences, limitless learning, and ambitious growth in return. As we continue to build our diverse and inclusive culture, we become even more innovative and creative, helping us better serve our clients and communities. You'll join a community of smart, supportive collaborators to lift, mentor, and guide you, and to lean on your expertise. You get a company purpose-built for business-critical, leading-edge technology solutions, committed to improving the way humans work, interact, and live. It's all here, so take a closer look!

We work hard to provide an inclusive, diverse culture with a deep sense of belonging for all our employees. Visit our [2] Inclusion & Diversity page.

Create a future for our people that focuses on:

* Expanding your thinking
* Experimenting courageously
* Learning and pivoting

Inspire greatness in our people by:

* Empowering every voice
* Encouraging boldness
* Celebrating progress

Accelerate the impact of our people by:

* Amazing the client
* Prioritizing what matters
* Acting as one

Learn more

To learn more about Avanade check out these links:

* [3] LinkedIn
* [4] Inside Avanade Blog
* [5] Avanade Careers

Compensation for roles at Avanade varies depending on a wide array of factors including but not limited to the specific office location, role, skill set and level of experience. As required by local law, Avanade provides a reasonable base salary range of compensation for roles across the United States as set forth below:

Base Salary Range: $128,000 - $152,000

References

Visible links
1. https://www.avanade.com/en-gb/career/benefits
2. https://www.avanade.com/en-us/about/responsible-business
3. https://www.linkedin.com/company/avanade
4. https://www.avanade.com/en/blogs/inside-avanade
5. https://www.avanade.com/en/career