Most AI projects fail long before the engineering starts. They fail because somebody automated the wrong workflow, or a workflow nobody had actually observed. This role exists to stop that happening.
You will lead the Workflow Assessment that opens each engagement: sit with the people doing the work, map the real process, quantify where the time and money go, and recommend what should change first. Sometimes the recommendation is that a client should not build anything yet.
You work with COOs, CFOs and their operations leads, and you carry the client relationship from the first conversation through delivery, with a senior forward deployed engineer as your technical counterpart.
What you will do
- Lead assessments with client executives and their operations teams, from the first conversation to the final recommendation
- Map real operational processes and find the gap between the documented process and the one people run
- Build the business case: what a change is worth, what it costs, and what has to be true for it to pay off
- Shape the scope and plan of the engagement that follows, with the engineers who will deliver it
- Own the client relationship through delivery, and stay accountable for whether the outcome landed
What we look for
- 10+ years in consulting, operations or technology leadership, including engagements with real operational scope at enterprise clients
- Enough technical depth to hold your own with engineers and to know when a proposal is fantasy
- Genuine skill at process mapping, and at getting people to tell you what really happens
- Willingness to give an executive an answer they did not want to hear, and to keep the relationship afterwards
- Excellent written communication. Our assessment deliverables have to stand on their own after we leave the room
Nice to have
- A background as an engineer before moving into delivery
- Domain depth in manufacturing, distribution, healthcare or financial services
- You have inherited a stalled AI programme and diagnosed why it stalled
Your first six months
- Month 1: co-lead two assessments and learn how we scope them
- Month 3: lead assessments independently and own the resulting recommendation
- Month 6: our assessment method reflects your improvements, and you are coaching others to run it