OverviewAzure is a $100B business growing at more than 40% year over year at Microsoft — and application modernization is one of the largest driver of that growth. Customers are no longer asking whether to move to the cloud; they are asking which Azure destination is right for each application, and how fast they can get there. That decision is where you come in.
Are you curious, passionate about infrastructure and applications, and ready to solve complex modernization challenges in the AI era? Join us as a Digital Solution Engineer – Azure Platform, supporting mid-market customers across the Azure application and data platform.
In this technical sales role, you will help customers move beyond lift-and-shift and re-platform their application estate onto the best-fit Azure destination — Azure App Service, Azure Container Apps, or Azure Kubernetes Service — backed by the right data platform, whether that is Azure SQL or an open-source engine such as PostgreSQL or MySQL. You will translate architectural choices into business outcomes: lower run cost, faster release cadence, stronger security posture, and an application estate that is ready for AI.
About SME&C
At Small, Medium Enterprises and Channel (SME&C), we are leading a high-growth, AI-powered global sales team — one that is deeply connected to our partners and driven by customer success. By uniting our Small Medium Business, Corporate, Strategy, and Partner teams, we are unlocking the largest customer opportunity, backed by the industry’s most significant investments. Leveraging the power of AI and our extensive partner ecosystem, we are redefining how businesses of all sizes adopt technology to drive growth and innovation.
SME&C is more than a sales organization — it’s a culture of innovation, opportunity, and inclusivity. Here, you’ll be part of a diverse, high-performing, and customer-obsessed team where collaboration, connection, and continuous learning fuel everything we do. If you thrive in a fast-paced, digital-first environment and are eager to make a meaningful impact, explore how SME&C can be the next step in your career.
The Core of the Role: Driving Application Modernization
The defining capability of this role is your ability to take a customer’s existing application portfolio and drive it to the most appropriate Azure destination — on both the application and the data tier. This is a judgment-led discipline, not a template. You are expected to assess each workload on its operational model, scale profile, cost envelope, compliance constraints, and the customer’s developer velocity, then recommend and defend the right landing zone.
Application platform destinations
You are fluent across the full Azure application platform and can articulate — with credibility, in front of architects — when to choose each:
- Azure App Service — for web apps and APIs that benefit from a fully managed PaaS runtime with minimal operational overhead; the fastest path off Windows/IIS and Java/Tomcat estates.
- Azure Container Apps — for containerized microservices, event-driven workloads, and scale-to-zero scenarios where teams want containers without owning a cluster.
- Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) — for complex, large-scale, or portability-driven estates that require full orchestration control, custom networking, and platform-engineering maturity.
- Azure Functions, Azure Arc, and Azure VMs — as complementary destinations for event-driven code, hybrid and edge estates, and workloads that are expected to remain IaaS in the near term.
Critically, you can explain the trade-offs between these destinations rather than defaulting to one — including the cost, operational, and skills implications of each choice, and the containerization and refactoring path required to get there.
Data platform destinations
Modernizing the application without modernizing the data tier leaves most of the value on the table. You bring equal depth across the Azure database estate:
- Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance — for modernizing SQL Server estates to PaaS, including compatibility assessment, Hyperscale, and Business Critical tiering.
- SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines — where full instance control or third-party dependencies require IaaS, with a defined path to PaaS over time.
- Azure Database for PostgreSQL (Flexible Server) — including Oracle-to-PostgreSQL modernization and PostgreSQL as the default open-source landing zone for new and refactored applications.
- Azure Database for MySQL (Flexible Server) — for LAMP-stack and ISV application estates moving off self-managed MySQL or MariaDB.
- Azure Cosmos DB — including the MongoDB (vCore) and PostgreSQL APIs, for globally distributed, high-throughput, and NoSQL workloads.
You are comfortable leading open-source database conversations on their own merits — licensing economics, extension compatibility, high availability, and migration tooling — and can run an Oracle, MongoDB, or self-managed PostgreSQL/MySQL modernization conversation end to end.
Modernization method
- Lead portfolio-level assessment and apply the 6R framework (rehost, replatform, refactor, rearchitect, rebuild, replace) to segment an estate and sequence the work.
- Apply containerization and refactoring leading practices, and use AI and intelligent agents to accelerate legacy code assessment, dependency mapping, and transformation.
- Design the surrounding architecture — hybrid and cloud-native networking, virtual networks, private connectivity, secure routing, identity, and landing-zone design — so modernized applications meet enterprise performance and compliance requirements.
- Complement Microsoft technology with trusted partner solutions such as NetApp, VMware, Red Hat, and SAP to deliver a secure, optimized, and scalable migration experience.
- Ground every recommendation in Azure security services and compliance frameworks, so customers meet regulatory requirements and build a cloud estate that is ready for what comes next.
This Opportunity Will Allow You To
- Accelerate your career growth by leading the modernization engagements that sit at the centre of a $100M, +40% YoY growth business.
- Deepen your technical proficiency through hands-on architecture design, application and database migration planning, and implementation of hybrid and cloud-native environments.
- Develop strategic influence by shaping the destination decisions — App Service, Container Apps, AKS, Azure SQL, or open-source databases — that determine a customer’s cost base and agility for years.
- Strengthen your collaboration skills by working closely with engineering teams, partners, and customer stakeholders to deliver successful outcomes.
- Build future-ready capabilities through continuous learning, industry-recognized certifications, and exposure to Microsoft’s evolving application, data, security, and AI platform.
Responsibilities- Drive technical sales using architecture design sessions, technical demos, proofs of concept, and modernization accelerators to influence solution design and unblock deployment.
- Own the destination recommendation — assess customer application portfolios and recommend the best-fit Azure application and data platform target, with a defensible rationale on cost, scale, operations, and developer velocity.
- Lead application modernization workshops and migration assessments spanning App Service, Container Apps, AKS, Azure SQL, and open-source database options.
- Build trusted relationships with platform leads, application owners, and data teams to co-design secure, scalable, and cost-efficient solutions.
- Resolve technical blockers by collaborating with engineering, partners, and product teams, and channel customer insight back into the product.
- Maintain deep expertise across cloud migration and modernization — Windows, Linux, .NET, Java, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and containerized workloads — alongside resiliency, security, and compliance.
- Deepen knowledge of enterprise applications (SAP, Oracle) and Azure VMware Solution (AVS) as adjacent modernization paths.
- Represent Microsoft in customer forums and technical communities through thought leadership on application and data modernization.
Qualifications• Extensive technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience
• OR Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND demonstrated technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience
• OR Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND demonstrated technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience
• OR equivalent experience
• Proven experience driving application modernization to cloud platforms, including migration and replatforming of workloads such as Windows, Linux, .NET, Java, SQL Server, and PostgreSQL.
• Hands-on experience with managed application platforms and container services — Azure App Service, Azure Container Apps, and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) — and with containerization strategy.
• Demonstrated database modernization experience across both commercial and open-source engines (SQL Server / Azure SQL, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and NoSQL options).
• Experience designing or selling solutions involving hybrid networking, secure connectivity, or network performance optimization in enterprise environments.
• Advanced understanding of Azure services, including security, compliance, and hybrid cloud scenarios.
• Ability to engage both technical and business stakeholders to design and deploy scalable, secure cloud solutions.
Digital Solution Engineering IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across Ireland is € 60,300.00 - € 102,600.00 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation.
Find additional benefits and pay information here:
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.