BCG X PA AI Strategy & Portfolio Director

Boston Consulting Group•Boston, MA

4d•$159,000 - $184,500•Hybrid

About The Position

The AI Strategy & Portfolio Director owns the vision, prioritization, and governance of a portfolio of agentic assets, primarily from a cross-PA perspective. This role brings together key stakeholders across PA offers/topics and ensures complementarity with PA offers powered by BCG X (moonshots), many of which include AI assets. The role translates business priorities into a differentiated and actionable AI product portfolio that creates value at both PA and firm level. The AI Strategy & Portfolio Director reports to the Global PA Product Strategy Lead (PSL), who is working directly with BCG Chief Product Officer and key stakeholders from the Practice Areas (PAs) and from X. The CPO and PSL will establish a team of multiple portfolio roles, with various seniority levels. All portfolio roles share the same governance framework and collaborate to drive consistency, modularity and reuse across the firm. This role is deliberately market driven. The role's scope and mandate will be reviewed annually to reflect potential shifts in the competitive landscape, firm strategy, and the evolving AI product needs —ensuring BCG's portfolio leadership remains relevant and ahead of the curve. The scope of the role will evolve as the organization matures. This position requires a startup mindset and the ability to continuously adapt and refine roles as needed.

Requirements

10+ years of relevant experience, ideally combining a consulting or professional services background with hands-on product management expertise
Relevant domain expertise for the portfolio
Proven track record of owning and managing a portfolio of products/AI-powered offers, with direct accountability for investment decisions and performance outcomes
Solid understanding of product lifecycle management - from ideation and build through scale, pivot, and sunset
Familiarity with BCG or a peer consulting firm: PA structures, offer management, and client economics
Experience with governance frameworks and stage-gate portfolio processes
Sufficient technical literacy to engage credibly on AI product architecture, scalability, and data governance
MBA or similar Master's degree preferred
Demonstrated ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive alignment in complex, matrixed, global organizations
Strong business acumen: able to assess commercial value, build investment cases, and navigate both billable and internal funding mechanisms
Good judgment and the ability to connect as a trusted peer across all levels - Managing Directors and Partners, consulting staff, and BST colleagues
Comfortable bringing structure, discipline, and clarity to fast-moving, ambiguous transformation efforts
Able to manage competing priorities and multiple workstreams without losing focus on strategic outcomes
Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English, with the ability to articulate complex trade-offs to senior audiences
Self-starting and proactive - able to operate with autonomy and drive initiatives forward without waiting for direction
Open to new ideas, evolving priorities, and iterative ways of working in a rapidly changing environment
High integrity, positive attitude, and sound discretion when handling sensitive information

Nice To Haves

MBA or similar Master's degree

Responsibilities

Define the portfolio vision and strategic guardrails for all agentic assets under your remit, maintaining constant alignment across portfolio roles and with PA key stakeholders (especially, PA AI leader and Product Managers – DPMs - managing assets in the portfolio)
Establish and enforce governance standards, including stage-gate criteria for build, scale, pivot, and sunset decisions – in alignment with other portfolio roles and AI Factory leadership
Identify and enable synergies and consolidation opportunities across products/offers/PAs
Balance the portfolio across maturity, innovation, and reuse potential
Advise on buy-or-build decisions and prepare funding and prioritization trade-offs
Maintain transparency & provide insights on portfolio performance, risks, and ROI with all relevant stakeholders
Own budget prioritization and annual planning for the portfolio, across build & maintenance needs
Evaluate commercial value, cost-to-build, differentiation, and client impact to guide investment decisions
Mediates trade-offs between go-to-market urgency, product innovation, tech feasibility/scalability and other guardrails eg. legal & RAI
Support governance boards and strategy boards sessions and decision-making
Together with the PSL and the relevant DPMs, design and maintain effective assets’ performance metrics and dashboards
Navigate billable economics (NCC growth) and internal investment mechanisms
Base prioritization on quantitative insights - adoption, usage, ROI, client pull, and reuse potential - and drive evidence-based portfolio refresh cycles
Align Offer, Topic, and Sector Managers, Product Managers, and Tech Leads around shared portfolio outcomes
Mediate trade-offs between GTM urgency, product innovation, and technical feasibility
Facilitate portfolio review forums and escalation pathways
Influence senior MDPs and stakeholders without direct authority, driving clarity of ownership and accountability
Support the CPO, PA AI Leaders, and Helix Boards with investment decisions, ensuring transparency across the PM community and other PA key stakeholders
Understand core elements of product/platform architecture and dependencies across systems
Understand scalability, integration, and technical debt at the portfolio level
Engage credibly on product architecture, system dependencies, scalability, and technical debt at the portfolio level
Ensure alignment with AI Factory and data governance standards
Promote reusability and modularity across PA agentic assets
Champion the shift toward truly agentic offers across PAs
Coach Product Managers and business stakeholders on governance discipline, investment case design, marketing and commercialization
Foster a culture of transparency, cross-topic reuse, and responsible innovation
Scan for emerging technologies and market shifts to enhance portfolio competitiveness

Benefits

Zero dollar ($0) health insurance premiums for BCG employees, spouses, and children
Low $10 (USD) copays for trips to the doctor, urgent care visits and prescriptions for generic drugs
Dental coverage, including up to $5,000 in orthodontia benefits
Vision insurance with coverage for both glasses and contact lenses annually
Reimbursement for gym memberships and other fitness activities
Fully vested Profit Sharing Retirement Fund contributions made annually, whether you contribute or not, plus the option for employees to make personal contributions to a 401(k) plan
Paid Parental Leave and other family benefits such as elective egg freezing, surrogacy, and adoption reimbursement
Generous paid time off including 12 holidays per year, an annual office closure between Christmas and New Years, and 15 vacation days per year (earned at 1.25 days per month)
Paid sick time on an as needed basis
Annual discretionary performance bonus
Retirement contribution
Market leading benefits package