Services Account Executive (SAE) role is designed to represent Microsoft's AI adoption and transformation services portfolio across all stages of the sales framework. The SAE acts as a trusted advisor, partnering with Account Executives (AE), Solution Area Specialists (SSP), and Customer Success Account Managers (CSAM) to accelerate cloud growth, AI transformation, and customer value realization, while owning renewal strategy planning and risk mitigation to ensure continued Services business growth and customer success.
Responsibilities
Accelerate Growth
- Identify, qualify, lead, manage, and close strategic industry cloud opportunities prioritizing customer business value and outcomes.
- Engage customers early for on-time contract renewals, draft proposals, coordinate discounts, and up-sell enhanced support options.
- Proactively build and maintain deep knowledge of customer business, trends, and industry challenges.
- Leverage Microsoft Services Sales go-to-market scenarios to drive meaningful customer conversations and position AI, cloud, and security solutions.
Account Team Orchestration
- Orchestrate consulting-sales relationships with core account teams, aligning efforts to successfully create, execute, and maintain Services Sales account plans.
- Collaborate effectively across account and customer success teams, including partners, pursuit, and delivery teams to ensure a seamless “One Microsoft” customer experience.
- Champion Microsoft’s common sales and delivery methodologies in all engagement activities.
Deal Excellence
- Confirm budget, authority, need, and timeline (BANT) information to advance leads through the sales process and ensure pre-sales consulting resources are appropriately engaged.
- Manage negotiations on terms and conditions with executive-level customer stakeholders, collaborating closely with internal teams and Deal & Contract Assist experts.
- Lead close plan creation, update, and execution with active participation from the entire account team, anticipating and mitigating risks to maintain deal velocity.
- Maintain accurate sales forecasting and collaborate with deal support and architects to align contracts with customer needs and business metrics.
Relationship Management
- Own and maintain trusted relationships with customers and partners, influencing key decision makers and leading regular engagement rhythms.
- Advise customers on appropriate Microsoft Services catalog offerings to meet business needs and ensure aligned expectations throughout delivery.
- Facilitate executive-level connections and maintain ongoing dialogues with customers to monitor satisfaction, manage risks, and create recovery plans as needed.
Strategy and Planning
- Lead One Services Portfolio (Advisory, FDE co-engineering, Architect/Design/Build, Unified Support) aspect of account planning and define sales priorities within the wider Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions (MCAPS) account team.
- Drive strategic account planning, aligning services sales with Microsoft’s overall cloud and field revenue objectives.
- Provide insights and recommendations addressing immediate and long-term customer business priorities and competitive positioning.
- Anticipate account needs, invest resources wisely, and engage decision makers to develop strategic accounts.
Qualifications
The SAE role is designed for high-impact consultative sellers who can drive AI transformation, cloud growth, and customer success across Microsoft's Strategic and Upper Majors accounts.
Required/Minimum Qualifications:
*Bachelor's Degree in Business, Information Technology, or related field
*6-10+ years Consultative Sales experience in commercial or public sector or equivalent experience
Recommended Qualifications:
Strategic Sales Expertise
*Proven ability to co-create transformation plans with AEs, CSAMs, and SSPs.
*Experience in quota retirement through AE-led Account Plans and CSAM-led Customer Success Plans.
*Familiarity with large/complex cloud deal planning, consumption forecasting, and milestone execution.
Consulting Services & Support Sales Knowledge
*Ability to land consulting engagements, secure renewals, and grow services deals.
Customer Engagement & Planning
*Skilled in account planning orchestration, including long-term visioning and 3-horizon roadmaps.
*Ability to lead Quarterly Business Reviews, executive sponsor engagement, and customer governance.
Technical & AI Fluency
*Comfortable engaging across all sales stages.
*Capable of aligning services to AI transformation goals and technical strategy.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
*Strong partnership with AE, CSAM and SSP roles.
*Ability to embed services insights into planning and execution.
Language - Japanese (Fluent) / English (Business).
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, read more about requesting accommodations.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Technology, or a related field
- 6-10+ years of consultative sales experience in commercial or public sector environments, or equivalent experience
- Fluent Japanese language skills
- Business-level English language skills
- Ability to co-create transformation plans with account executives, customer success account managers, and solution area specialists
- Experience with quota retirement through account plans and customer success plans
- Experience with large or complex cloud deal planning, consumption forecasting, and milestone execution
- Ability to land consulting engagements, secure renewals, and grow services deals
- Experience with account planning orchestration, long-term visioning, and three-horizon roadmaps
- Ability to lead Quarterly Business Reviews, executive sponsor engagement, and customer governance
- Ability to align services with AI transformation goals and technical strategy
- Strong cross-functional partnership with account executives, customer success account managers, and solution area specialists
Microsoft Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Microsoft and has not been reviewed or approved by Microsoft.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is presented as broadly competitive overall, with clear role/level/location variation and an emphasis on using posted ranges and band information for apples-to-apples comparisons.
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Retirement Support — Retirement benefits are described as a standout, highlighted by a strong 401(k) match structure and immediate vesting, plus additional plan features for tax-advantaged saving.
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Parental & Family Support — Family-oriented benefits are portrayed as a meaningful strength, with substantial paid parental leave and added supports like back-up care and adoption/surrogacy assistance.
Microsoft Insights
What We Do
At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Our mission is grounded in both the world in which we live and the future we strive to create. Today, we live in a mobile-first, cloud-first world, and the transformation we are driving across our businesses is designed to enable Microsoft and our customers to thrive in this world.
