Subject Matter Expert (SME) Team Lead / Principal

Role Summary

The SME Team Lead is a hybrid leadership and technical-business role designed to transition our Subject Matter Expert (SME) team from an informal specialist group into a high-performing, quota-carrying Business Development and Enablement engine. The fundamental mandate of the SME team is to drive revenue by enabling partners, both technically and commercially, to build, sell, deliver and grow sustainable managed service provider (MSP) businesses, primarily centred on Microsoft solutions, products and services. You will establish operational structure, enforce team accountability, and drive accountability across individual workload targets (including cloud solutions like Azure, security, and Copilot offerings).

In addition to direct team management, you will act as a "player-coach" in maintaining broad generalist expertise across our technology portfolio, leading partner enablement, orchestrating go-to-market (GTM) content, and expanding key third-party vendor relationships and strategic partner-to-partner (P2P) networks. The role combines broad technical expertise with practical commercial guidance, helping partners translate Microsoft capabilities into compelling value propositions, packaged managed services, successful delivery and sustainable recurring revenue.

Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Operational Governance

• Establish Structure & Performance Standards: Set clear operational expectations, benchmarks, and individual performance targets for the SME team.

• Quota & Business Development Management: Drive the team to treat their workloads as active business development portfolios, carrying individual targets aligned with overall revenue goals.

• Cross-Functional Cohesion: Build strong alignment with the Partner Success (Account Management) team to ensure clear coordination, shared priorities, and seamless execution.

• Resource Management: Balance workload distribution among SMEs to ensure full coverage across core solutions pillars.

Partner Enablement & Training Delivery

• Partners technical and business expertise enablement: Leading structured, regular monthly enablement sessions for partners both 1:many and 1:1 running joint success plans with our PSM team.

• Certification Planning: Drive partner certification goals (e.g., maintaining target certified partner counts, etc.

• Enablement Ownership: Own the delivery metrics and structured learning pathways through internal learning platforms and partner-facing hubs.

Go-to-Market (GTM) Content & Event Execution

• Content Authority: Lead the technical content strategy for marketing initiatives, campaigns, and event series (e.g., Security Series).

• Program ownership and deliver: Own our key partner engagement programs, evolve these as required and work with the specialists on your team to develop new partner facing programs to continue growth with our parners.

Vendor Management & Partner-to-Partner (P2P) Ecosystem

• Third-Party Vendor Ownership: Take direct ownership of a limited number strategic vendor relationships alongside our product team.

• Microsoft Alignment: Maintain tactical collaboration and strategic alignment with local technical vendor representatives.

• P2P Network Facilitation: Active broker and facilitator for partner-to-partner relationships, connecting specialised partners to expand ecosystem capacity.

Qualifications & Key Requirements

• Leadership Experience: Proven track record leading or managing technical specialists or presales engineers.

• Broad Technical Depth (Generalist): Strong understanding of modern cloud ecosystems (e.g., Microsoft Azure, Security, AI/Co-pilot, 365) without needing to be a single-domain specialist.

• Commercial & Quota Mindset: Comfortable managing team metrics, performance targets, and business growth objectives.

• Presentation & Facilitation: Outstanding public speaking, workshop delivery, and technical presentation skills.

• Relationship Brokerage: Ability to build strong executive-level relationships across vendor partners and channel partners.