Business Development Manager – Communications, Media and Technology

In support of our continued growth journey, we need to capitalize our capabilities and have identified the need to further expand our sales team as priority area for growth. Our aim is to grow our net new customer acquisition and core business through increased sales focus, driving the growth strategy and delivering sales and revenue targets. As a Sales Lead, you will be instrumental in ensuring we achieve these objectives.

Within CMT the role will be focused on the across all sectors for origination of new logos into the business.  This is an important role with wide-ranging and often complex responsibilities, which call for a depth and breadth of business knowledge beyond the business development discipline. You will be capable of developing long-lasting customer relationships at a senior level and gaining referrals with new accounts. As a Sales Lead, you will have a deep understanding of the needs of the various sales channels and will leverage your experience to maximize return and drive value.

You will be responsible for working in our direct to market channel (working with Microsoft and our other partners) and have a demonstrable and proven track record in new business experience, in acquisition of white space accounts for the industry. With previous, solid consulting services sales experience and a flair for closing deals, you will thrive working with colleagues in a wider team using innovation and exciting customers with your enthusiasm. Your strong connections and your tenacity to be an assertive partner, along with your background in high value solutions across the full Microsoft stack services (from advisory services, system integration, to managed services) will attest to your credibility with senior partners and clients.

You will have the opportunity to be able to support, shape and grow our CMT business within a global business; one who is also the Microsoft® #1 Partner globally.

Day to day, you will:

• Identify and engage with new clients to expand our client portfolio.
• Identify new sales opportunities across key channels to increase sales volume.
• Assist management in devising sales plans and strategies.
• Sell a portfolio of Avanade and/or third-party software products directly to end-user organizations.
• Specialize in the sale of one or more key technologies in the Microsoft stack including Apps & Infra; Modern Workplace; Data & AI and Security.
• Generate sales and drive revenue, typically in low-to-medium risk and return sales activities.
• Lead customer relationships for new accounts.
• Prospect, acquire, develop and expand business leads.
• Support the wider Account Leadership team when required and Leadership on specific opportunities.
• Achieve short- and long-term sales growth by increasing cross selling activities within existing and new accounts.
• Be accountable for an individual sales target.
• Be accountable and have solid experience managing the full sales life cycle from origination of opportunities through to contracting and closure.

About You:

As an M365 Consultant/Senior Consultant, you will help transform clients’ cybersecurity posture by designing and implementing advanced Microsoft Threat Protection technologies. You will work directly with clients in a consulting capacity, supporting medium to large enterprise environments and contributing to robust Cyber Defence strategies across endpoints, identities, cloud, and collaboration platforms.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and implement AV/EDR solutions (e.g., Microsoft Defender for Endpoint) to detect and respond to cyber threats across major operating systems.

• Protect email, messaging, and collaboration platforms from phishing, spear phishing, BEC, and identity-related attacks.

• Develop and maintain cyber defence use cases, correlation rules, and attack chain detections across disparate systems.

• Design, implement, and integrate SIEM solutions—particularly Microsoft Sentinel—into Security Operations.

• Perform threat hunting across endpoints, identities, networking, cloud, and collaboration platforms in the Microsoft ecosystem.

• Handle L2-level incidents leveraging Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender tools.

• Support incident response, triage, threat modelling, and vulnerability remediation within Azure-hosted environments.

• Create, run, and troubleshoot Azure Logic Apps, playbooks, and Sentinel automation components.

• Collaborate with business and security stakeholders to define and enhance security standards and improve security posture.

Microsoft Security Operations Centre (SOC) Analyst – T2 & T3

(Security Clearance Required)

Preferred Location - Newcastle

Job Description

The SOC Analyst Team operates as a next‑generation, intelligence‑led Security Operations function, designed to deliver high‑quality, scalable 24×7 security monitoring and response.

All SOC analysts participate in a 24×7 shift model, ensuring uninterrupted service coverage, while also contributing to detection improvement, automation feedback, and service optimisation when operational demand allows.

Tier 2 – SOC Analyst

Technology Primary – Microsoft Sentinel & Service Now.

Role Purpose

Tier 2 SOC Analysts represent the primary human analysis function, responsible for investigating escalated alerts and incidents that require human judgement, contextual understanding, and analytical depth.

Key Responsibilities

• Perform deep investigation of escalated alerts and incidents from automated Tier 1 workflows

• Validate threats, scope impact, and determine severity using contextual analysis

• Investigate across multiple data sources, including:

  • SIEM

  • EDR / XDR

  • Identity and authentication telemetry

  • Cloud and SaaS platforms

• Coordinate and execute response actions in line with:

  • Defined playbooks

  • Client‑specific requirements

  • Incident response procedures

• Maintain clear, high‑quality investigation documentation and handover notes

Operational Expectations

• Operate as part of a 24×7 shift rota

• Maintain accountability for investigation accuracy and quality

• Escalate complex or ambiguous cases to Tier 3 appropriately

• Provide structured feedback into:

  • Detection tuning

  • Alert quality improvements

  • Automation optimisation

Continuous Improvement Contributions

When operational demand allows, Tier 2 analysts are expected to contribute insight time to platform improvement activities, supporting the Platform Automation Lead through:

• Identification of repeatable investigation patterns

• Feedback on automation opportunities

• Playbook refinement and improvement

• Detection logic tuning recommendations

Unlock the potential of Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents as a visionary architect, transforming challenges into cutting-edge solutions. Embrace continuous learning and collaborate with global teams to shape the future of technology-driven excellence. Join us at Avanade, where creativity, innovation, and career growth thrive.

Key Responsibilities:

• Helping clients realize meaningful business growth through workplace transformation through Copilot and agents, you will work with account teams to shape, sell and coordinate the delivery of propositions that address client challenges
• Develop pragmatic, deliverable and sustainable Copilot solutions and roadmaps that allows clients to address their business needs and leverage the best value out of their Microsoft investments.
• Contribute to the development and evolution of future focused workplace and organization transformation propositions and solutions.
• Support the selling and implementation of Copilot propositions in response to market demand and digital trends.
• Assist senior team members with sales efforts including development of client proposals and pitch mechanics.
• Delivering sales presentations to clients and responding to RFPs.
• Use experience of client facing engagements to build a positive project relationship, run workshops and lead clients to success.
• Design and develop Power Platform, Microsoft Copilot Studio agents, Teams Toolkit Agents to meet client requirements.
• Lead a team of experts to work together to drive success in delivering solutions.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams under challenging circumstances to deliver high-quality solutions.
• Translate business requirements into technical solutions using Microsoft 365 products.
• Share practices for Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio and extensibility knowledge with global Avanade team members.