Account Executive – Higher Education in Multiple Locations, United Kingdom

A career in the Education Team at Microsoft will give you the opportunity to join a talented and passionate team in pursuit of helping higher education institutions drive impactful, meaningful change for their organisations, as well as helping teach the workforce of tomorrow, improve student outcomes and increase innovation and impact from academic research. You will be given the freedom and inspiration to utilise your skills, drive and, most importantly, your imagination – to make a difference to your customers and have a lasting impact in your role.

We are currently looking for an Account Executive for our Higher Education customers across our Midlands and South / South West Region. The successful candidate will orchestrate and lead their virtual teams and close opportunities with customers that will produce transformative business outcomes. The ambitions and challenges for the Higher Education sector are significant and the opportunity to transform and make an impact, especially in leveraging technologies such as AI, has never been greater.

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realise our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond. In doing so, we create life-changing innovations that impact billions of lives around the world. You can help us to achieve our mission.

Responsibilities

Strategic Customer Engagement : You will proactively build and maintain a full understanding of the customers, their industry, associated business strategy, and key industry partners and solutions. You will proactively elevate customer relationships through different business functions and multiple senior levels of the customer’s organisation to secure alignment and joint execution on priorities, striving for transformational outcomes.

Team Mobiliser and Orchestrator : You will need to navigate Microsoft; work across functions, and the eco-system, understand the systems – all to maximise the value to your customer. From exec sponsors to product experts & commercial leaders you will need to advocate on behalf of the customer internally, ensuring the requests and needs of assigned accounts are being addressed.

Sales Leader and Operational Excellence : Achieving results by understanding transformation drivers and customer priorities. Identifying new opportunities, ensuring these are correctly reflected and updated on our internal systems and deliver consistent, repeatable achievement of revenue and consumption targets.

Sales Challenger : Continuously building industry and technical knowledge. Bringing innovative industry solutions, benchmarks and references to C-level executives that drive greater efficiencies, optimisation and increase customer satisfaction.

Strong Communicator: You will be able to articulate and present complex problems and solutions in a simple, logical, and impactful manner both internally and within the customer organisation.

Inclusive Leader: With strong interpersonal skills you will create an inclusive culture within your team that embraces diversity and reflects our mission to empower every person and organisation on the planet to achieve more. You will have the ability to easily establish trust-based relationships and gain valuable insights through collaboration and communication with your customers and your team.

We would love to hear from you if you:

• Have a passion for working in technology-led business transformation that delivers both near and long term impact

• Can articulate complex problems and solutions with clarity & challenge the status quo productively when needed to create new opportunities for growth for the client

• Assemble multifunctional teams and create a culture of inclusivity and ambition to deliver against the right business opportunities

• Are experienced in building and maintaining relationships with diverse stakeholders at different levels of an organisation with the right level of provocation to be seen as a trusted partner

• Have a can-do and tenacious attitude and are self-motivated, results-driven, accountable, curious with the ability to work in a fast-paced and dynamic environment

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Several years (ideally 5+) of experience working in an industry (e.g., Financial Services, Retail, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Energy, Government, Education) and/or driving digital transformation

• OR Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Technology, or related field AND several years (ideally 3+) of experience working in a relevant industry (e.g., Financial Services, Retail, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Energy, Government, Education) and/or driving digital transformation

• OR Master’s Degree in Business Administration AND several years (ideally 2+) of experience working in an industry (e.g., Financial Services, Retail, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Energy, Government, Education) and/or driving digital transformation

• OR equivalent experience

• OR several years (ideally 5+) of experience in working in a relevant industry (e.g., Education, Government), driving AI transformation, and/or other relevant work experience (e.g., consulting, technology)

• Extensive years of sales experience, consultative selling, business consulting, or related sales experience

• Proven experience of establishing and nurturing a range of senior stakeholder relationship AND ability and willingness to travel 2-3 days per week.

• You must be legally authorised to work in “United Kingdom” to be eligible for this role. (Legally authorised = Has citizenship or has been granted a valid visa or work permit). Relocation expenses are not provided as part of this role.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, 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 and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html) .