AI Implementation & Solutions Associate Director

Protiviti • Chicago, IL

1d • $162,000 - $276,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

Protiviti is looking for a Technology Consulting Associate Director to join our growing Enterprise Data Analytics and AI team. The Factory Associate Director will lead the client and engagement lifecycle for AI Factory opportunities, from initial qualification and solution shaping through contracting, delivery, and follow-on planning. This person will work closely with clients, account teams, AI architects, engineers, and other specialists to define achievable project scopes, prepare proposals and statements of work, manage delivery, and maintain strong client relationships. The role requires a combination of consulting, sales, project management, and technical leadership. Although programming will not be the primary day-to-day responsibility, the Factory Associate Director must be well versed in AI solution development and capable of contributing directly to architecture, prototyping, programming, troubleshooting, and solution refinement when needed.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Data Science, Business, or a related discipline; equivalent professional experience will also be considered.
• 9+ years of experience designing, delivering, or managing technology, data, automation, software, or AI solutions.
• Demonstrated experience managing client engagements and multidisciplinary delivery teams.
• Experience supporting sales pursuits and developing proposals, estimates, and statements of work.
• Experience managing project scope, schedules, budgets, resources, risks, and engagement financials.
• Hands-on experience with generative AI experimentation, prototyping, or AI-enabled application development.
• Track record of owning client relationships and managing multi-workstream engagements from kickoff through delivery.
• Working proficiency in Python and/or JavaScript or TypeScript, with the ability to understand, review, and contribute to application code.
• Experience with at least one major cloud platform, such as Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud.
• Strong executive communication, facilitation, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in consulting or another client-service environment is strongly preferred.
• Experience managing rapid prototypes, proofs of concept, pilots, or agile software delivery is preferred.
• Relevant cloud, AI, agile, or project management certifications are preferred.

Responsibilities

• Successfully pursuing business development opportunities and identifying and implementing strategies to obtain new work or clientele.
• Partnering with account teams to qualify AI opportunities and determine their fit for the Factory delivery model.
• Leading discovery conversations to understand client objectives, users, workflows, data, systems, constraints, and expected value.
• Helping clients define a focused initial use case that can be demonstrated and evaluated through a prototype or pilot.
• Preparing proposals, statements of work, estimates, presentations, and other pursuit materials.
• Defining project scope, deliverables, milestones, responsibilities, assumptions, exclusions, and acceptance criteria.
• Presenting the Factory’s capabilities and delivery approach to client executives and technical stakeholders.
• Identifying opportunities to transition successful Factory engagements into pilots, production implementations, or broader transformation initiatives.
• Serving as a primary client contact throughout the engagement.
• Establishing project governance, communication expectations, delivery cadence, and decision-making processes.
• Managing scope, schedule, budget, resources, risks, dependencies, issues, and stakeholder expectations.
• Facilitating project kickoffs, working sessions, status meetings, demonstrations, feedback reviews, and executive updates.
• Coordinating cross-functional teams that may include AI engineers, solution architects, designers, data specialists, industry SMEs, risk professionals, and change specialists.
• Translating client feedback into clear, prioritized direction for the delivery team.
• Identifying and addressing scope changes before they affect project commitments.
• Managing engagement financials and supporting forecasting, invoicing, and other project administration.
• Ensuring that projects conclude with documented outcomes, recommendations, and an agreed path forward.
• Understanding how AI-enabled applications are designed, developed, tested, deployed, and integrated into client environments.
• Guiding the development of prototypes and pilots that address real-world business problems and demonstrate measurable value.
• Evaluating technical feasibility, delivery complexity, data readiness, integration needs, and implementation risks.
• Working with cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud to support AI solution delivery.
• Applying knowledge of generative AI, machine learning, agentic systems, retrieval-augmented generation, APIs, data integration, and modern application architectures.
• Using programming languages and frameworks relevant to AI application development, including Python, JavaScript or TypeScript, and Node.js.
• Understanding backend services, APIs, application logic, data pipelines, and frontend application development.
• Reviewing solution architectures, implementation approaches, and technical deliverables.
• Contributing hands-on to architecture, programming, prototyping, troubleshooting, or solution refinement when needed.
• Supporting the transition of prototypes into integrated pilots or scalable operational solutions.
• Applying Responsible AI, security, data privacy, access control, and governance considerations throughout delivery.
• Maintaining visibility into the Factory opportunity pipeline, active engagements, upcoming demand, and team capacity.
• Coordinating staffing and project assignments with Factory leadership and technical leads.
• Helping prioritize engagements based on client need, strategic value, readiness, and available resources.
• Establishing consistent delivery practices, templates, quality standards, and project checkpoints.
• Coaching engineers and other team members on client communication, delivery expectations, and consulting practices.
• Capturing reusable assets, delivery patterns, lessons learned, and estimates that improve future engagements.
• Monitoring client satisfaction, delivery performance, and the progression of Factory work into follow-on opportunities.

Benefits

• medical
• dental
• vision
• FSA and HSA healthcare accounts
• life and accident insurance
• adoption and fertility assistance
• paid parental leave up to 10 weeks
• short/long term disability
• company 401(k) savings and investment plan with an employer match of 50% on the first 6% of your contributions
• Choice Time Off (CTO) for vacation, personal needs, and sick time
• 11 paid holidays

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager