Principal Solution Architect

AHEAD is seeking a Principal Solutions Architect to join our Data and Analytics practice. This role is a senior solutions architect and go-to-market sales leader position that balances client delivery leadership, pre-sales ownership, and practice development. The Principal Solutions Architect serves as a client-facing technical leader and trusted advisor who helps win clients define and deliver complex data, analytics, cloud, and AI engagements.

This individual serves as the Solutions Lead on sales campaigns, aligning AHEAD solutions, partner capabilities, and delivery execution to client outcomes. In delivery, they may act as Engagement Lead and/or Technical Lead with accountability for engagement success, quality, stakeholder alignment, and business impact. Within the practice, they are expected to build practice pillars, create reusable intellectual property and service offerings, and drive innovation across modern data platforms, analytics, and AI-enabled solutions.

AHEAD’s Data and Analytics practice helps clients accelerate the impact of data through consultative strategy, modern data platform architecture, data lifecycle management, analytics, and AI capabilities. This role is central to translating those capabilities into scalable client solutions and repeatable practice growth.

Key Responsibilities

Client Delivery

• Serve as the senior technical leader for large, complex, and strategic Data and Analytics engagements
• Lead strategy, roadmap, architecture, design, and planning workshops for enterprise clients
• Act as Engagement Lead and/or Technical Architecture Lead on customer-facing projects, when assigned
• Own delivery success by managing scope, objectives, requirements, milestones, dependencies, risks, timelines, and stakeholder expectations
• Guide cross-functional delivery teams through the successful execution of consulting engagements
• Ensure deliverables are high quality, aligned to client business outcomes, and presented effectively to technical and executive stakeholders
• Break down complex risks or issues into manageable parts, identify root causes, and drive practical resolution paths
• Support enterprise stakeholder management across business, data, analytics, cloud, and technology teams
• Apply knowledge of AHEAD’s project lifecycle management practices to support successful delivery from initiation through closure
• Lead clients through modern data and analytics transformations, including data strategy and governance, data lifecycle management, platform modernization, data engineering, reporting, analytics, and AI enablement

Pre-Sales and Business Development

• Serve as the Solutions Lead on sales pursuits for Data and Analytics opportunities
• Own the pre-sales process, including discovery, qualification, solution alignment, scoping, estimation, and proposal development
• Lead client discovery and visioning sessions to understand business drivers, current-state challenges, and desired outcomes
• Translate client needs into differentiated solution strategies that align practice offerings, partner capabilities, and delivery execution
• Represent AHEAD service offerings throughout the sales cycle, including presentations, workshops, and proposal reviews
• Develop statements of work, proposal packages, and engagement scope for strategic opportunities
• Partner with sales specialists, client directors, and other practice leaders to identify and shape cross-practice opportunities
• Support complex pursuits involving cloud platforms, data engineering, business intelligence, AI, platform engineering, and adjacent AHEAD capabilities

Practice Development and Thought Leadership

• Help define and mature the Data and Analytics practice strategy, service portfolio, and go-to-market offerings
• Build practice pillars that improve scale, quality, differentiation, and delivery consistency
• Create reusable intellectual property, accelerators, methodologies, frameworks, and delivery assets
• Drive innovation in modern data architecture, analytics platforms, AI, and emerging technologies
• Contribute to the development, enhancement, and standardization of in-practice offerings and capabilities
• Identify opportunities to improve how AHEAD delivers data platform architecture, pipelines, governance, semantic models, analytics, and AI solutions for clients
• Partner across AHEAD practices to develop integrated solutions that address broad client transformation goals
• Maintain a strong point of view on industry trends, partner ecosystems, and modern technology standards
• Contribute thought leadership internally and externally through mentorship, enablement, and practice visibility

Team Mentorship and Enablement

• Mentor consultants, architects, and engineers across delivery, solutioning, and client engagement leadership
• Coach teams on architecture quality, executive communication, consulting presence, and delivery excellence
• Support team capability development through peer reviews, solution reviews, knowledge sharing, and reusable enablement content
• Positively impact both individual growth and overall practice maturity through leadership and example

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Business, or a related field preferred, but not required
• Minimum of 15 years of consulting, architecture, engineering, and related experience, or commensurate work experience
• Prior experience in a senior leadership, principal architect, program leadership, or practice leadership role
• Demonstrated success leading large, complex, client-facing delivery engagements
• Demonstrated experience owning or leading pre-sales pursuits, including discovery, scoping, and proposal development
• Deep experience designing and delivering modern data and analytics solutions such as data platforms, data pipelines, cloud data architectures, reporting and analytics solutions, and AI-enabling data foundations
• Strong knowledge of enterprise data strategy, governance, platform architecture, engineering, and analytics operating models
• Experience working with modern data and analytics technologies such as cloud-native data platforms, data warehouses, lakehouse platforms, orchestration tools, business intelligence platforms, and AI or machine learning ecosystems
• Strong executive communication and presentation skills in virtual and in-person settings
• Demonstrated business acumen and the ability to connect technical strategy to business value
• Ability to solve complex, abstract problems and guide teams through ambiguity
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including listening, collaboration, and stakeholder influenceExecutive presence with the ability to build trust across client and internal leadership teams
• Demonstrated experience as a technology change agentProfessional and/or technical certifications aligned to cloud, data, analytics, or AI disciplines preferred

What Success Looks Like

• Wins and delivers complex Data and Analytics engagements with strong client outcomes
• Builds trusted advisor relationships with client stakeholders and AHEAD account teams
• Strengthens AHEAD’s market position through solution leadership and differentiated offerings
• Expands the practice through reusable IP, scalable service development, and innovation
• Elevates team capability through mentorship, enablement, and leadership