Senior Data Consultant - AI Readiness

The Senior Data Consultant is an experienced consulting professional responsible for leading the successful delivery of complex data, analytics, AI, and cloud transformation engagements while serving as a trusted advisor to clients. The role combines consulting excellence, business acumen, technical expertise, delivery leadership, and people development to deliver measurable business outcomes and strengthen long-term client partnerships.

Senior Data Consultants independently lead projects and multiple workstreams, guide cross-functional delivery teams, manage client relationships, solve complex business and technical challenges, and ensure delivery excellence with minimal oversight. They are expected to demonstrate structured thinking, sound judgment, accountability, and proactive leadership while consistently delivering high-quality solutions aligned with client objectives and AHEAD delivery standards.

Beyond client delivery, Senior Data Consultants contribute to the continued growth of the Data Practice through mentoring, business development, innovation, and continuous improvement.

Responsibilities

Client Delivery

• Lead one or more client engagements or multiple workstreams, ensuring successful delivery aligned to scope, schedule, budget, quality, and business objectives.
• Lead project teams by establishing clear priorities, deliverables, accountability, and execution plans.
• Facilitate strategy, roadmap, planning, solution design, and executive decision-making workshops.
• Apply structured thinking and consultative problem solving to analyze business challenges, develop recommendations, and guide client decisions.
• Translate business requirements into practical, scalable, and value-driven technical solutions.
• Manage project scope, financials, milestones, risks, issues, dependencies, and delivery quality throughout the engagement.
• Communicate status, risks, recommendations, and executive updates with transparency and professionalism.
• Review and approve client deliverables to ensure quality and alignment with AHEAD standards.

Business Development

• Participate in discovery sessions, opportunity qualification, solution development, proposal creation, and client presentations.
• Identify opportunities to expand existing client engagements and support account growth.
• Build trusted advisor relationships with business, technology, and executive stakeholders.
• Collaborate with account teams and practice leadership to shape strategic opportunities.

Practice Development and Thought Leadership

• Contribute to consulting methodologies, delivery frameworks, reusable assets, and best practices.
• Maintain expertise in modern data, AI, cloud, governance, analytics, and emerging technologies.
• Mentor and coach team members through regular feedback and professional development.
• Support recruiting, interviewing, onboarding, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement initiatives.

Expectations

Senior Data Consultants are expected to consistently demonstrate leadership, accountability, consulting excellence, technical expertise, and business acumen while delivering exceptional client outcomes.

Leadership and Ownership

• Take ownership of delivery outcomes and remain accountable for quality, financial performance, and client success.
• Lead teams with integrity, professionalism, and a collaborative leadership style.
• Demonstrate initiative by proactively identifying risks, resolving issues, and driving execution.
• Coach and develop team members through mentoring and constructive feedback.

Consulting and Business Acumen

• Understand client business priorities and connect recommendations to measurable business outcomes.
• Apply structured thinking, sound judgment, and consultative problem solving when making decisions.
• Balance business priorities, scope, schedule, cost, quality, and technical considerations.
• Build trusted advisor relationships through credibility, proactive communication, and executive presence.

Technical Excellence and Practice Leadership

• Design practical, scalable, and business-aligned solutions that meet client objectives.
• Produce high-quality, executive-ready deliverables that reflect AHEAD consulting standards.
• Contribute to practice growth through mentoring, innovation, reusable assets, business development, and continuous learning.
• Represent AHEAD with professionalism while fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Mathematics, Data Science, or a related technical discipline.
• Typically 8-10+ years of experience delivering enterprise data, analytics, AI, cloud, or digital transformation initiatives.
• Minimum five years of consulting or professional services experience leading complex client engagements.
• Experience leading project teams, multiple workstreams, or enterprise initiatives with minimal oversight.
• Experience delivering modern data platform solutions, including data engineering, cloud platforms, governance, analytics, AI, or enterprise architecture.
• Experience managing project scope, financials, delivery governance, stakeholder communications, and executive presentations.
• Strong leadership, consulting, communication, facilitation, analytical, and relationship management skills.
• Demonstrated ownership, business acumen, executive presence, and the ability to mentor and develop others.

Preferred

• Master’s degree or MBA.
• Professional certifications in cloud platforms, AI, data management, Agile, project management, or enterprise architecture.
• Experience with Snowflake, Databricks, Microsoft Fabric, Azure, AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or similar technologies.
• Experience leading enterprise data strategy, modernization, governance, analytics, AI, or digital transformation initiatives.