Principal AI Solutions Advisor

The Principal AI Solutions Advisor serves as a customer-facing technical leader responsible for shaping solution direction, leading workshops, and guiding customers on AI, data, agent, and governance strategy across Microsoft and adjacent enterprise AI platforms. The Principal AI Solutions Advisor plays a key role in pre-sales advisory, customer discovery, executive and technical workshops, and solution development across modern AI productivity and platform ecosystems. This role helps customers evaluate and adopt technologies centered on Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, Power Platform, Microsoft Fabric, Azure, and related governance, security, and adoption capabilities, while also maintaining practical working knowledge of adjacent platforms such as Claude Enterprise, Claude Code, ChatGPT Enterprise, and Codex where relevant to customer needs.

The Principal Advisor partners with sellers, strategic partners, architects, and delivery teams to guide customers through technology selection, roadmap definition, architecture direction, and scoped next steps in a rapidly evolving market. This position is intended for a strong advisory and workshop leader with practical customer-facing experience.

• Leads customer-facing discovery sessions, executive briefings, and workshops ranging from approximately 2 to 16 hours in duration.
• Advises customers on Microsoft AI, automation, and data platforms, including Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, Power Platform, Microsoft Fabric, Azure AI, Azure data services, and related governance and security considerations.
• Helps customers understand and compare options for AI assistants, agent platforms, enterprise coding tools, and AI governance patterns, including practical exposure to Claude Enterprise, Claude Code, ChatGPT Enterprise, and Codex.
• Translates customer business goals, technical requirements, risk concerns, and operating constraints into practical recommendations, reference architectures, maturity assessments, and roadmap options.
• Supports pre-sales pursuits by partnering with Connection account teams, OEMs, hyperscalers, software partners, and internal delivery resources to shape opportunities and position CNXN Helix services.
• Develops workshop outputs and reusable assets including presentation materials, assessments, decision frameworks, use-case maps, demonstration narratives, and solution playbooks.
• Guides customers on topics such as agent strategy, Copilot readiness, data readiness, responsible AI, governance, compliance, environment strategy, identity and access, lifecycle management, and operational adoption.
• Provides practical direction on Power Platform architecture, Dataverse, environment planning, DLP, ALM, Center of Excellence concepts, and governance operating models.
• Supports customer conversations related to Microsoft Fabric, Azure analytics modernization, and data platform alignment for AI and agentic use cases.
• Maintains awareness of broader infrastructure and platform choices, including AWS, Google Cloud, Dell, HPE, and NVIDIA-based AI infrastructure, where those choices influence customer strategy and buying decisions.
• Operates across a broad customer base spanning multiple verticals including manufacturing, healthcare, retail, financial services, education, and other industries, as well as customers of varying size and maturity.
• Builds trusted-advisor relationships with customer stakeholders ranging from practitioners and architects to senior IT and business leaders.
• Contributes to CNXN Helix thought leadership and field readiness by staying current on platform capabilities, partner priorities, competitive positioning, and customer adoption trends.
• Mentors junior team members and helps scale field capability through repeatable assets, guidance, and best practices.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Business, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of experience in technical pre-sales, consulting, solution architecture, customer success engineering, advisory services, or related customer-facing roles.
• Demonstrated experience leading customer workshops, discovery sessions, strategy sessions, or executive presentations.
• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, Power Platform, Microsoft Fabric, and Azure services relevant to AI, data, automation, and governance.
• Understanding of AI governance, responsible AI, data governance, security, privacy, identity, compliance, and operational readiness considerations in enterprise environments.
• Practical understanding of Power Platform solution design including Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse, environment strategy, governance, ALM, DLP, and Center of Excellence concepts.
• Working knowledge of enterprise AI and developer productivity platforms such as Claude Enterprise, Claude Code, ChatGPT Enterprise, and Codex.
• Ability to translate business requirements into practical solution recommendations, roadmap options, and next-step engagement plans.
• Strong communication, presentation, facilitation, and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to engage both executives and technical teams.
• Ability to create compelling customer-facing content including workshop materials, recommendations, assessments, and solution positioning.
• Comfortable working across a broad range of industries, customer sizes, and levels of technical maturity.
• Able to balance strategic advisory conversations with practical platform guidance and light demonstration or prototype support where needed.
• Highly collaborative and able to work effectively with account teams, delivery resources, strategic partners, and vendors.
• Strong organizational discipline and ability to manage multiple customer opportunities and priorities simultaneously.

Additional preferred competencies or preferred qualifications:

• Experience with Microsoft-centric advisory, architecture, or solution consulting in enterprise or mid-market environments.
• Experience with Microsoft Fabric, Azure AI, Power BI, data platform modernization, or AI governance programs.
• Familiarity with Copilot adoption, agent strategy, enterprise change management, or productivity transformation initiatives.
• Exposure to Dell, HPE, NVIDIA, hybrid infrastructure, or multi-cloud conversations related to AI workloads.
• Familiarity with workshop-led selling, proposal shaping, statement-of-work support, or consultative solution selling motions.
• Experience in one or more target verticals such as manufacturing, healthcare, retail, financial services, or education.
• Relevant Microsoft certifications such as Azure, Power Platform, Fabric, security, or architecture certifications are preferred.
• Familiarity with enterprise coding assistant deployment and governance patterns is preferred.