Senior Consultant - AI Solutions - 1898 & Co.

DescriptionAt 1898 & Co., we help our clients unlock the power of data and analytics to shape smarter business strategies and drive innovation. Our Business Intelligence & Analytics team works with electric utilities, energy companies, and other critical infrastructure clients to design, implement, and deliver advanced analytics and AI-enabled solutions. As part of Burns & McDonnell, we bring decades of industry expertise and a spirit of innovation to solve some of the most pressing infrastructure challenges of our time.We are seeking a Senior Consultant focused on AI solutions who can envision, shape, and deliver artificial intelligence capabilities and outcomes for our clients. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable engaging clients and leading solution design discussions, with a demonstrated passion for applying transformative technology to evolve utility operations and inform better decision-making. In this role, you will partner with clients to identify high-impact opportunities, shape AI strategies, and collaborate with data scientists, engineers, software developers, and business experts to design practical, scalable solutions. You will also help strengthen our teams and market presence by bringing forward new concepts, building awareness of our capabilities, and contributing to industry conversations. Curiosity, adaptability, and a commitment to continual learning will be essential as AI technologies and their applications continue to evolve.What You’ll DoApply a pragmatic problem-solving approach to create value while ensuring solutions are robust, secure, and practical.Work closely with clients to translate business needs into AI and analytics opportunities, prioritize high-impact use cases, and define solution roadmaps.Serve as a trusted advisor to client executives and operational leaders by building credibility, alignment, and long-term relationships.Envision and design AI-enabled solutions for challenges involving the grid, asset management, outage prediction, renewable integration, supply chain, and other utility operations.Define reference architectures and integration patterns across cloud AI, data, software, and infrastructure platforms.Design generative AI and agentic solutions, including retrieval-augmented generation, large language model applications, and intelligent workflow automation for utility use cases.Collaborate with technical experts to ensure solutions are practical, scalable, and aligned with client goals, enterprise architecture, and operating environments.Address model deployment, monitoring, lifecycle management, data integration, security, and ongoing support requirements as part of solution design.Advise clients on responsible AI practices, including model risk, data privacy, security, governance, and emerging regulatory expectations.Document and summarize findings, develop visualizations and solution materials, and communicate recommendations clearly to stakeholders.Lead client workshops and presentations to communicate solution concepts, build consensus, and support decision-making.Develop materials, create market awareness, and present at industry conferences to communicate 1898 & Co.’s AI offerings and capabilities.Stay informed on emerging AI technologies and evaluate their potential impact on utility operations and client needs.Provide leadership, mentoring, and guidance to project teams and junior staff.Champion a culture of innovation, continuous learning, and thoughtful exploration of AI’s potential.Thrive in a fast-paced environment with shifting priorities.Ensure adherence to quality assurance and quality control processes, company policies, quality standards, and safety requirements.Perform other duties as assigned.Preferred Skills & ExperiencesStrong familiarity with the electric utility industry, including utility data domains such as advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), geographic information systems (GIS), and asset and grid systems. Experience in adjacent critical infrastructure sectors, such as gas, water, or telecommunications, will also be considered.Consulting or client-facing delivery experience, including the ability to engage executives, operational leaders, and technical teams.Experience shaping AI strategies, defining solution roadmaps, and translating business needs into scalable technical solutions.Hands-on experience with generative AI and agentic solutions, including retrieval-augmented generation, large language model application patterns, and prompt and context engineering.Experience with cloud AI and data platforms such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Databricks, or Snowflake, along with machine learning operations practices for model deployment, monitoring, and lifecycle management.Experience defining solution architectures and integration patterns across AI, data, software, cloud, and infrastructure environments.Familiarity with responsible AI and AI governance frameworks, including model risk, data privacy, security, and emerging regulatory expectations.Strong communication, presentation, and workshop leadership skills, with the ability to explain complex solution concepts to both business and technical audiences.Passion for continual learning and applying new AI advancements to solve real-world industry challenges.Interest in contributing to industry thought leadership through conference presentations, market-facing materials, and professional forums.QualificationsBachelor’s degree in Data Analytics, Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (Master’s/PhD preferred).7 years of experience in analytics, AI/ML, or utility operations with a strong focus on solution development and strategy.Proficiency with Python and support data and analytics libraries.Strong familiarity with the electric utility industry, its data domains (AMI, SCADA, GIS, asset/customer systems), and its operational challenges.Working knowledge of AI and analytics methods (machine learning, predictive modeling, data visualization) with the ability to collaborate effectively with technical experts.Passion for continual learning and applying new AI/analytics advancements to solve real-world industry challenges.Strong communication skills with the ability to engage both executives and technical teams.Consulting or client-facing experience strongly preferred.Job Field: EngineeringJob Type: ExperiencedSchedule: Full-timeTravel: Yes, 25 % of the Time