AHEAD is seeking a Principal Consultant, AI Services to help enterprise clients move from AI ambition and experimentation to measurable business impact.In this role, you will lead high-impact client engagements with senior business and technology executives. You will help clients identify where AI can create value, prioritize use cases, build business cases and roadmaps, design operating models and governance, and mobilize implementation with AHEAD’s broader teams of consultants, architects, engineers, and specialists.This is a leadership role for a consulting professional who can operate at the intersection of strategy, technology, business transformation, and execution. The ideal candidate brings top-tier consulting discipline, strong executive communication, structured problem solving, and enough AI / technology fluency to guide multidisciplinary teams — without needing to be a hands-on ML engineer.What You’ll Do Lead client engagements from strategy through executionLead complex AI and digital transformation engagements from initial diagnostic through roadmap design, implementation planning, and execution support.Structure ambiguous client problems into clear hypotheses, workplans, analyses, decision points, and executive-ready deliverables.Manage day-to-day engagement delivery, including workstream planning, team leadership, synthesis, quality control, issue resolution, timelines, and client communication.Facilitate executive workshops and align senior stakeholders across business, technology, data, risk, and operations.Serve as a trusted advisor to client leaders on where AI can create measurable value and what is required to scale it responsibly.2. Shape AI strategy, transformation roadmaps, and business casesIdentify and prioritize AI opportunities across productivity, growth, customer experience, decision-making, software delivery, and operational efficiency.Conduct AI maturity and readiness assessments across strategy, data, platforms, governance, talent, process, and change management.Build practical AI roadmaps that sequence pilots, platform enablers, governance actions, operating model changes, and value realization milestones.Develop business cases and value-tracking approaches that connect AI initiatives to measurable client outcomes.Help clients redesign workflows and operating processes to capture value from AI, automation, and agent-assisted ways of working.3. Partner with technical teams to move ideas into implementationTranslate business priorities into implementation-ready initiatives in partnership with architects, engineers, data specialists, and security/governance experts.Help define pilot scope, success metrics, adoption plans, governance requirements, and scale-up pathways.Ensure AI recommendations are practical, credible, and grounded in enterprise technology realities.Bridge communication between executive stakeholders and technical delivery teams.4. Lead and develop teamsLead multidisciplinary teams across one or more client workstreams.Coach consultants and specialists through structured problem solving, client communication, synthesis, and executive-ready output.Create a high-performance team environment with clear ownership, strong feedback, and a consistent quality bar.Help build reusable methods, tools, templates, and delivery approaches for AHEAD’s AI Services practice.5. Support business and practice growthIdentify follow-on opportunities within client engagements and help shape the path from initial advisory work to broader transformation programs.Contribute to proposals, solution design, client presentations, and account growth efforts.Help develop AHEAD’s AI offerings, points of view, go-to-market materials, and thought leadership.Stay current on enterprise AI trends, including generative AI, agentic AI, AI governance, responsible AI, AI-enabled software delivery, data platforms, and cloud ecosystems.What You’ll Bring Required qualifications Typically 7–12+ years of experience in management consulting, technology advisory, digital transformation, enterprise technology, AI strategy, or related client-facing roles.Proven experience leading client engagements, workstreams, or project teams with senior business and technology stakeholders.Strong structured problem-solving skills, including the ability to break down ambiguous problems, develop hypotheses, conduct analysis, synthesize insights, and communicate recommendations.Excellent executive communication and facilitation skills, including experience creating and presenting senior-leadership-ready materials.Experience in one or more of the following areas: AI strategy, digital transformation, use case prioritization, business case development, process redesign, automation, operating model design, AI governance, or technology-enabled transformation.Sufficient AI and technology fluency to work credibly with business leaders, CIO / CTO organizations, architects, engineers, data teams, and risk/governance stakeholders.Demonstrated ability to lead teams, coach talent, manage timelines, and maintain a high bar for client-ready work.Preferred qualifications Background in top-tier management consulting, Big 4 advisory, technology consulting, enterprise transformation, or a similar high-performing professional services environment.MBA or other advanced degree preferred.Experience working with AI, data, cloud, software delivery, MLOps, responsible AI, or enterprise technology platforms.Experience helping clients move from strategy and roadmap development into pilot delivery, implementation, adoption, and value realization.Prior experience supporting business development, proposal development, account growth, or practice-building activities.What is not required You do not need to be a hands-on machine learning engineer.You do not need to have deep coding experience.You do need to be comfortable leading business and technology conversations, asking the right questions, and translating between executive priorities and technical delivery realities.Why AHEAD:Through our daily work and internal groups like Moving Women AHEAD and RISE AHEAD, we value and benefit from diversity of people, ideas, experience, and everything in between.We fuel growth by stacking our office with top-notch technologies in a multi-million-dollar lab, by encouraging cross department training and development, sponsoring certifications and credentials for continued learning.USA Employment Benefits include: Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance401(k)Paid company holidaysPaid time offPaid parental and caregiver leavePlus more! See benefits https://www.aheadbenefits.com/ for additional details.Use of AI:We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, assessing responses, or to capture recordings and create transcriptions or summaries during interviews. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans.
17 days ago