Principal Consultant - Advisory

Ahead

17h

About The Position

AHEAD is seeking a seasoned, client-facing Principal Consultant to lead advisory and delivery teams and serve as a credible, independent advisor to client executives and C-suite stakeholders. The role bridges business strategy and technology execution across areas including enterprise AI, data platforms, experience design, and digital transformation. It involves hands-on management of client engagements, guiding workstreams, reviewing team proposals, resolving problems, and making decisions in coordination with clients and delivery teams. The Principal Consultant maintains close client contact throughout projects and helps identify opportunities to address additional client needs.

The role leads multidisciplinary advisory, product, design, data, and engineering teams through strategy, roadmap, design, planning, and delivery. It includes leading end-to-end Experience Design engagements, shaping product and experience strategy, translating business needs into requirements and design direction, and guiding development of new products, platforms, and accelerators. The consultant also helps define AI-enabled and agentic solutions using human-centered and responsible-AI principles.

In addition to delivery, the Principal Consultant supports business development through client discovery, scoping and positioning services, developing client relationships, and identifying follow-on opportunities. The role also contributes to AHEAD Advisory offerings, builds Experience Design capabilities and repeatable offerings, develops team members, and maintains knowledge of technology trends and standards.

Requirements

• At least 8 years of relevant experience in experience design, product, or digital transformation consulting.
• At least 5 years leading client engagements, including design or multidisciplinary teams.
• Hands-on experience designing agentic and agent-to-UI interactions, context engines, and agent builder platforms.
• Experience taking products or platforms from concept to market, including early go-to-market, and replacing legacy systems or established incumbents.
• Hands-on comfort with enterprise data and emerging AI approaches, including agentic and human-centered AI, and translating business needs into designs and requirements.
• Graduate degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, or a related discipline.
• Ability to break down complex, ambiguous problems into structured, actionable workstreams.
• Familiarity with Agile methodologies and SDLC.
• Demonstrated experience leading Experience Design or UX teams and driving design quality, standards, and craft across multiple engagements.
• Client relationship management skills, including managing expectations and serving as a trusted advisor to executive and C-suite stakeholders.
• Business acumen and ability to understand client industries, operating models, and strategic priorities.
• Executive presence and polished presentation skills, including presenting deliverables to client executive management.
• Excellent verbal and written communication, interpersonal, and active-listening skills across diverse audiences.

Nice To Haves

• Experience designing for complex, data-heavy, or regulated workflows, including analytics and operational platforms.

Responsibilities

• Facilitate portions of strategy, roadmap, design, and planning workshops.
• Lead multidisciplinary advisory, product, design, data, and engineering teams in delivering consulting services.
• Lead Experience Design engagements end to end, from research and discovery through interaction design, prototyping, usability validation, and developer handoff.
• Shape product and experience strategy with client and delivery teams, translating business needs into requirements, specifications, and design direction for engineering teams.
• Lead conception and incubation of products, platforms, and accelerators from concept to market, including early go-to-market; guide clients replacing legacy systems with modern solutions.
• Guide the definition and design of AI-enabled and agentic solutions using human-centered and responsible-AI principles, including human-in-the-loop controls, evaluation, and governance.
• Lead technical project teams delivering consulting services.
• Manage objectives, requirements gathering, tasks, milestones, status, dependencies, and timelines to deliver engagements successfully and on time while meeting business objectives.
• Break down complex problems, identify relevant factors, and determine an approach to the project.
• Define outcome-based success measures for workstreams and track them alongside scope, schedule, and budget.
• Partner with data and AI teams to apply enterprise data and emerging approaches to trusted, usable solutions tied to business outcomes.
• Support business development through client discovery meetings, opportunity qualification, and development of initial proposal concepts.
• Scope, position, and sell Experience Design services, including design systems, accessibility, and AI experience engagements.
• Develop customer relationships, present technical solutions to C-level executives, build consensus, and address difficult client conversations to achieve meaningful outcomes.
• Identify expansion opportunities, co-author points of view and market-facing content, and represent AHEAD offerings.
• Assess client technology footprints and prioritize value-creation opportunities that inform business cases.
• Build basic business-case components, including cost/benefit and ROI/TCO inputs, connecting delivery outcomes to client priorities.
• Develop and enhance AHEAD Advisory consulting and deployment offerings.
• Build and lead an Experience Design capability, including a Center of Excellence model, design governance, and shared standards across client product teams.
• Develop repeatable Experience Design offerings and accelerators, such as design system starter kits, accessibility assessments, and AI experience frameworks.
• Grow client relationships and the practice by developing long-term programs, people, standards, and scalable offerings.
• Maintain broad knowledge of current and anticipated IT marketplace trends, technologies, and standards.
• Mentor team members.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health insurance coverage for employees, with options to extend coverage to dependents.
• Paid time off and company holidays, along with additional leave benefits as per policy.
• Flexible work arrangements.
• Learning and development opportunities to support continuous growth and upskilling.
• Employee wellness initiatives and programs focused on physical and mental well-being.
• Retirement and statutory benefits in line with India regulations.
• Cross-department training and development, and sponsored certifications and credentials for continued learning.

What This Job Offers

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