Principal Consultant, Internal AI (Chicago)

AHEAD builds platforms for digital business. By weaving together advances in cloud infrastructure, automation and analytics, and software delivery, we help enterprises deliver on the promise of digital transformation.

At AHEAD, we prioritize creating a culture of belonging, where all perspectives and voices are represented, valued, respected, and heard. We create spaces to empower everyone to speak up, make change, and drive the culture at AHEAD.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and do not discriminate based on an individual's race, national origin, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, marital status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law, whether actual or perceived.

We embrace all candidates that will contribute to the diversification and enrichment of ideas and perspectives at AHEAD.

Principal Consultant, Internal AI

The Principal Consultant, Internal AI, is a hands-on, cross‑functional role embedded within AHEAD's internal AI transformation function. You will serve as the connective tissue between business units, the Transformation Office, and technology delivery squads — guiding each BU through AI‑powered workflow reimagination from discovery through adoption. You will not just advise; you will facilitate, translate, drive, and track value creation. You will partner with engineers and change management experts to bring structured design‑thinking methodology, AI platform knowledge, and stakeholder management skills to turn ambiguous business friction into scoped, high‑impact technology solutions.

Duties/Responsibilities

Lead Reimagination

• Embed with assigned business units to surface technology transformation opportunities through structured discovery and diagnostic sessions.
• Facilitate design‑thinking workshops to translate fuzzy pain points into well‑scoped problem statements, success criteria, and MVP candidates.
• Guide stakeholders through AHEAD's use case intake funnel, determining whether a use case is a citizen development opportunity, a quick win, or a longer development effort.
• Champion a consistent, repeatable approach to enable scale.

Bridge Technology and Business

• Serve as the strategic continuity layer between business units and technology delivery teams, ensuring cohesion across citizen and complex use cases.
• Provide informed guidance on platform fit without serving as the technical architect; connect the right people at the right time.
• Collaborate with cross‑functional stakeholders to ensure solutions are executable within AHEAD's delivery model.

Drive Adoption & Change Readiness

• Assess workforce and role impacts alongside AI solution design; flag when change management, role redesign, or training is needed and pull in the right change management partners.
• Support BU stakeholders through the full adoption arc — from first demo through sustainable, embedded use — ensuring AI solutions don't land on a shelf.
• Build momentum by capturing and sharing early wins, time savings, and adoption metrics that demonstrate business value back to leadership.

Own Stakeholder & Executive Engagement

• Manage relationships with business leaders, development team members, and senior sponsors across your assigned domain.
• Communicate progress, trade‑offs, and prioritization decisions clearly to executive and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Represent your team's work in leadership forums, contributing a grounded, business‑backed perspective to platform and roadmap decisions.

Measure & Report Impact

• Define success metrics at the use case level — time saved, errors reduced, adoption rate, headcount impact — and track them consistently.
• Contribute to show‑back / charge‑back accountability model with clear, honest reporting on business value delivered.
• Proactively surface blockers, risks, or capacity constraints to course‑correct before they become larger issues.

$240,000 - $300,000 a year

The compensation range indicated in this posting reflects the On‑Target Earnings (“OTE”) for this role, which includes a base salary and any applicable target bonus amount. This OTE range may vary based on the candidate’s relevant experience, qualifications, and geographic location.

Why AHEAD:

Through our daily work and internal groups like Moving Women AHEAD and RISE AHEAD, we value and benefit from diversity of people, ideas, experience, and everything in between.

We fuel growth by stacking our office with top‑notch technologies in a multi‑million‑dollar lab, by encouraging cross department training and development, sponsoring certifications and credentials for continued learning.

USA Employment Benefits include:

• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• 401(k)
• Paid company holidays
• Paid time off
• Paid parental and caregiver leave
• Plus more! See benefits for additional details.

Use of AI:

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, assessing responses, or to capture recordings and create transcriptions or summaries during interviews. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans.

If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please refer to Candidate Privacy Notice or contact us at View email address on apply.placed-app.com.

You may opt‑out of the review or analysis of your application and resume by AI tools by using the General Application. Please include the role you wish to apply for in the Additional Information field. You may also choose to opt‑out of recording and transcription at any time, including after joining an interview. Candidates will not be penalized for choosing to opt‑out.