Ascension - Engagement Partner

Engagement Partner

We are seeking a seasoned Engagement Partner to lead one of our strategic client relationships in the Healthcare and Data & Analytics space. This is a high-impact, client-facing role based out of Chicago, Illinois, USA focused on enabling digital transformation, delivery excellence, and business innovation across the healthcare value chain. The Engagement Partner should be local to the area and will own the end-to-end client engagement, delivery governance, and account growth strategy. You will be responsible for managing globally distributed teams working in a Managed Services model, including teams across onshore, nearshore, and offshore locations. The ideal candidate brings deep experience in Healthcare operations, data and analytics, and emerging technologies like Generative AI.

Key Responsibilities

1. Client Engagement & Strategic Relationship Management

- Be the single point of accountability for the client relationship, focusing on delivery excellence, value realization, and client satisfaction.

- Build deep relationships with VP and C-level stakeholders across Business, IT, Data and Analytics functions.

- Understand client's business landscape and craft tailored delivery strategies.

- Run Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs), Steering Committee Meetings, and executive workshops, ensuring alignment with client priorities and KPIs.

2. Delivery Excellence & Governance

- Lead the governance and oversight of all delivery programs.

- Drive delivery excellence through implementation of best practices in quality, reliability, and predictability. Set up and manage SLAs, KPIs, and continuous improvement initiatives.

- Lead and support data platform modernization efforts and ensure robust delivery pipelines for data ingestion, transformation, and insight generation.

- Actively manage a Managed Services model: resource planning, service transitions, cost optimization, innovation infusion, and business continuity.

3. Account Growth & Expansion

- Partner with the Client Partner and Sales Teams to uncover new opportunities for growth within the account.

- Proactively identify areas for upsell/cross-sell across new LOBs, geographies, or data-driven initiatives.

- Contribute to solutioning and proposal development for client RFPs, SOWs, and new initiatives.

- Build strategic roadmaps in collaboration with client stakeholders to guide long-term innovation and transformation.

4. Team Management & Global Coordination

- Manage large-scale delivery teams distributed across onshore and offshore locations.

- Ensure resource alignment, training, and domain enablement of delivery teams for healthcare use cases and compliance needs.

5. Innovation & Generative AI Enablement

- Lead the exploration and implementation of Generative AI solutions.

- Collaborate with client innovation teams to design PoCs, pilots, and scaled rollouts of AI-driven platforms and tools.

6. Financial Management & Operational Oversight

- Should be able to understand and have oversight on engagement-level functions including, budgeting, forecasting and margin optimization.

- Should be able to understand program level commercial levers.

Required Qualifications

- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Healthcare, Business, or a related field (Master's or MBA preferred).

- 15+ years of experience in IT consulting/services with a focus on Healthcare.

- Minimum 10 years of client-facing delivery leadership with large-scale engagements (100+ team members).

- Deep understanding of Healthcare domain - Demonstrated expertise in P&L management, budget planning, and financial governance or large client accounts.

- Strong expertise in modern Data and Analytics platforms - Strong experience operating under a Managed Services or Shared Services model.

- Proficient in Agile methodologies, ITIL, and modern delivery frameworks.

- Exceptional stakeholder management, communication, and negotiation skills.

- Experience in generative AI applications within healthcare is a strong plus.

- Ability to handle escalations, drive conflict resolution, and maintain strong relationships under pressure.