VP, Research, Enterprise Hardware, Physical AI, & Industrial Automation

Vice President, Research: Enterprise Hardware, Physical AI, and Industrial Automation

Level: Vice President

Function: Research

Scope: Segment lens across all TSIA research areas

Position type: Individual contributor, no direct reports

Position summary

TSIA is the Technology Services Industry Association. This role owns TSIA's segment point of view for enterprise hardware, physical AI, and industrial automation companies. The mandate splits evenly between two obligations: translating TSIA's research from across all research areas into frameworks these companies can act on, and originating new research and data instruments where current coverage does not reach these segments. It extends existing TSIA work on servitization risk, equipment-as-a-service, brownfield connectivity, outcome-oriented services, and the shift from technician utilization to service revenue absorption.

Operating model. This is a segment role, not a discipline practice. TSIA's research area vice presidents own their disciplines; this role owns a cross-cutting segment view and works through those practices rather than in parallel to them. Jointly authored work is expected. No benchmark instrument is attached: benchmark support is part of the job, benchmark ownership is not.

Desired qualifications

• Physical AI fluency with operational specificity across robotics and autonomous systems, intelligence embedded in equipment (edge inference, predictive maintenance, connected telemetry), and AI infrastructure. You must be able to state what each changes in field service, remote operations, spare parts, and uptime contracting.
• Ten or more years in technology services leadership, including profit and loss or senior functional ownership inside a hardware manufacturer, industrial equipment or automation company, or enterprise infrastructure vendor.
• Working command of the full technology services continuum, with credibility across every TSIA research area: support services, field services, professional services, managed services, customer success, education services, customer growth and renewal, and offering management. Demonstrable depth in at least one.
• Services economics literacy: cost to serve, absorption, attach and renewal rates, spare parts and reverse logistics economics, contract margin structure, and the balance sheet consequences of equipment-as-a-service.
• Segment credibility across all three: discrete manufacturing and factory automation; process industries and energy; and enterprise information technology and data center hardware, including the power, cooling, and high-density build-out driven by AI demand.
• Industrial and hardware technology depth: operational and information technology convergence, brownfield connectivity constraints, connected installed base and telemetry, remote monitoring, field service management platforms, and service parts planning.
• Instrument design experience. You have built and fielded at least one data collection instrument (maturity assessment, diagnostic, or research survey) and can defend its construction: dimensions, question design, scoring rubric, sample design, and significance testing.
• Published or publishable long-form analytical writing. Samples required at application.
• Executive-level presentation and facilitation with hardware or industrial services executives
• Demonstrated daily use of artificial intelligence tools in analytical and production workflows, specifically Gemini and Claude, including Claude Cowork and Claude's design and artifact generation capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Own the segment research agenda for enterprise hardware, physical AI, and industrial automation.
• Translate research from across all TSIA research areas into segment-specific frameworks, guidance, and deliverables.
• Design, field, and maintain data collection instruments in sequence: Quick Polls for topical velocity, maturity assessment and diagnostic tools as the durable asset, then original research surveys with defensible sample design and statistical testing.
• Support existing benchmark practices with segment interpretation, question input, and participant recruitment.
• Deliver member advisory work: briefings, working sessions, diagnostic readouts, and strategy engagements.
• Represent the segment externally: TSIA World keynotes and breakouts, webinars, press commentary, and member roundtables.
• Co-author with research area vice presidents. Cross-practice collaboration is a requirement, not a preference.
• Support commercial activity: prospective member meetings, renewal support, and segment positioning. No quota carried.

Preferred qualifications

• Operating history in advanced devices, infrastructure, or industrial equipment
• Direct experience executing an equipment-as-a-service or outcome-based service transition, including its financial and asset consequences.
• Dealer, distributor, or channel-delivered service network accountability.
• Prior analyst, research, or corporate strategy experience; multi-geography or global accountability.
• Advanced degree in engineering, business, economics, or a quantitative field.

Screening criteria

Four profiles will not advance: services breadth without hardware or industrial operating history; hardware or industrial history that treats services as attach rate and cost recovery rather than a business with its own economics; ability to adapt existing frameworks without the ability to design an instrument or produce original analysis; and fluency in physical AI terminology without the ability to specify what it changes operationally. Expect to be asked for the service revenue, gross margin, attach rate, and cost-to-serve figures of the businesses you ran or supported, and for the construction details of any instrument you claim to have built.

Selection process

1. Requirements screen.
2. Services continuum breadth and segment credibility interviews with research leadership.
3. Instrument design exercise: propose a maturity assessment for one named segment, with dimensions, scoring, and fielding approach.
4. Analytical work sample produced with Gemini and Claude, plus a walkthrough of method.
5. Final panel, including a simulated member advisory session.