Director - Data, AI & Retail Transformation

Director Data, AI & Retail Transformation

Industry: Retail
Experience: 15+ Years
Role Level: Director / Senior Leadership

Position Overview

We are looking for an experienced Data, Analytics & AI Transformation Leader to drive strategic, large-scale transformation initiatives for enterprise retail clients.

This is a senior client-facing leadership role combining Data & AI strategy, enterprise architecture, transformation delivery, retail domain consulting, executive stakeholder management, and pre-sales/solutioning .

The ideal candidate will have experience leading complex Data, Analytics, Cloud and AI programs while advising senior business and technology stakeholders on modernization strategies, AI adoption, and multi-year transformation roadmaps.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end Data, Analytics, AI, Cloud and Digital Transformation programs for enterprise clients.

• Own program delivery, governance, budgets, timelines, risks, KPIs, dependencies and executive reporting.

• Lead globally distributed teams across data engineering, architecture, analytics, cloud, AI/ML and digital technologies .

• Define enterprise architecture, data modernization strategies and multi-year technology transformation roadmaps.

• Advise clients on adoption of emerging AI capabilities including Generative AI, Agentic AI, RAG, AI assistants/copilots, MLOps and Responsible AI .

• Identify and develop Data & AI use cases across retail functions including merchandising, marketing, personalization, loyalty, digital commerce, pricing, supply chain and inventory management .

• Partner with C-level executives, business leaders and technology stakeholders on transformation strategy and execution.

• Drive architecture and technology decisions across modern data platforms, cloud ecosystems and AI solutions.

• Support strategic pursuits through discovery workshops, solutioning, RFP/RFI responses, proposals and executive presentations .

• Contribute to account growth by identifying new transformation opportunities and expanding strategic client relationships.

• Establish delivery governance, architecture standards and best practices across large transformation programs.

Required Experience

• 15+ years of experience across Data, Analytics, AI, Cloud and/or Digital Transformation.

• Significant experience leading large-scale enterprise transformation programs and global delivery teams .

• Experience managing multi-million-dollar programs, portfolios or strategic client engagements .

• Strong customer-facing consulting and executive stakeholder management experience.

• Demonstrated experience developing enterprise transformation strategies and technology roadmaps.

• Experience with pre-sales, strategic pursuits, solution development, proposals and RFP/RFI responses .

• Ability to bridge business strategy, enterprise architecture and technology delivery.

• Strong experience within the Retail industry is highly preferred.

Data & Analytics Expertise

Experience with modern enterprise data ecosystems involving technologies and concepts such as:

• Snowflake and/or Databricks

• Lakehouse and Enterprise Data Warehousing

• Data Governance and Data Quality

• Data Products

• Real-time and batch data processing

• Spark, dbt and Kafka

• Microsoft Fabric and Power BI

AI & GenAI Expertise

Strong understanding and practical exposure to modern AI capabilities, including:

• Generative AI and LLM-based applications

• Agentic AI

• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)

• AI Assistants and Copilots

• AI/ML platforms

• MLOps

• AI Governance

• Responsible AI

Cloud & Engineering

Experience across one or more major cloud platforms:

• AWS

• Microsoft Azure

• Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Exposure to modern engineering and platform technologies such as Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD and DevOps practices is preferred.

Retail Domain Experience

Experience delivering technology or transformation initiatives across one or more of the following areas is highly valuable:

• Omnichannel Retail

• Digital Commerce / eCommerce

• Customer 360

• Customer Personalization

• Loyalty

• Merchandising

• Pricing & Promotions

• Supply Chain

• Inventory Management

• Store Analytics

• Retail Data & AI

• AI-driven Retail Automation

Leadership & Consulting Skills

• Strong executive presence and communication skills.

• Strategic and transformation-oriented mindset.

• Strong business and commercial acumen.

• Ability to communicate complex Data and AI concepts to business executives.

• Excellent stakeholder management, consulting and negotiation capabilities.

• Experience leading large, globally distributed cross-functional teams.

• Ability to operate effectively across strategy, architecture, delivery and business development .