Data Consultant

Salient Group; Sydney; On-site; AUD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Salient Group is seeking commercially minded data specialists to work with enterprise customers in Sydney or Melbourne on an AI-enabled data platform. The role focuses on solving complex billing, data quality and workflow challenges using SQL and Python, with direct customer engagement and ownership from discovery to deployment.

You will investigate large datasets, validate calculations, and translate findings into actionable recommendations for senior stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Experience investigating complex datasets and identifying root causes.
• Understanding of data quality, validation and reconciliation processes.
• Ability to work with large-scale enterprise data across multiple systems.
• Interest in how AI can improve analytical workflows.
• Strong communication skills to explain technical findings to non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Work directly with enterprise customers to understand commercial and technical challenges.
• Investigate complex datasets to identify discrepancies and data-quality issues.
• Analyse contracts, pricing structures and transactional data to understand billing calculations.
• Use SQL, Python and analytical techniques to validate data and reconcile calculations.
• Leverage AI tools to accelerate investigations and automate workflows.
• Critically evaluate AI outputs and communicate findings to customers.
• Translate technical findings into clear recommendations for senior stakeholders.
• Own problems from discovery through implementation and deployment.

Skills

SQL

Python

Data quality

Data validation

Stakeholder communication

Job description

Location: Sydney or Melbourne, Australia

Employment: Full-time, Permanent

Seniority: Mid-Level to Senior/Lead/Staff

Working arrangement: Primarily office-based

We're partnering with a well-backed, fast-growing AI company building technology to solve some of the most complex challenges in enterprise finance.

Traditional systems struggle when workflows, agreements, inputs and sources become complicated, customer data is fragmented and commercial arrangements constantly evolve. This company is building an AI-native platform capable of understanding complex workflows, investigating large datasets and automating processes that previously required significant manual effort.

Backed by leading venture capital investors and supported by experienced technology leaders, the business is scaling its Applied AI team as enterprise deployments accelerate across Australia and the US.

We're looking for commercially minded data specialists who enjoy solving ambiguous problems, working directly with customers and translating complex information into clear, actionable solutions.

What You'll Be Doing

• Work directly with enterprise customers, including CFOs, finance leaders and data teams, to understand their commercial and technical challenges.
• Investigate complex, large-scale datasets to identify discrepancies, missing information, incorrect business rules and underlying data-quality issues.
• Analyse customer contracts, pricing structures and transactional data to understand how billing calculations should work.
• Use SQL, Python and analytical techniques to validate data, reconcile calculations and develop reliable solutions.
• Leverage AI tools to accelerate investigation, automate workflows and extract meaningful insights from complex information.
• Critically evaluate AI-generated outputs, exercising sound judgment about accuracy, relevance and what should be communicated to customers.
• Translate complicated technical findings into clear recommendations for senior business stakeholders.
• Own problems from initial discovery through implementation, validation and successful customer deployment.

What We're Looking For

Technical and analytical capability

• Strong SQL skills and practical experience working with Python.
• Experience investigating complex datasets, identifying root causes and resolving inconsistencies.
• Understanding of data quality, validation, reconciliation and analytical problem-solving.
• Comfortable working with large-scale enterprise data across multiple systems.
• Interest in AI and how emerging technologies can improve analytical workflows.

Commercial and consulting capability

• Strong communication skills, particularly when explaining technical findings to non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to navigate ambiguous business problems, ask insightful questions and challenge assumptions constructively.
• Confidence working directly with senior stakeholders and customers.
• Sound judgement about which findings matter commercially and how best to communicate them.
• Ownership mentality, comfortable taking responsibility for outcomes rather than simply delivering analysis.

Backgrounds We're Interested In

We're open to candidates from several backgrounds, including:

• Data Science and Advanced Analytics
• Management and Technology Consulting
• Financial Services, Banking and FinTech
• Customer-Facing Technical Consulting

Experience at firms such as McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Deloitte, PwC, EY or KPMG could be relevant, as could experience within data-intensive technology businesses. We're particularly interested in people who combine strong analytical skills with commercial curiosity and excellent stakeholder management.

You don't need to be an AI researcher or a traditional software engineer. The ability to investigate complex problems, establish what's correct and communicate your findings clearly is more important.

Why Join?

• Real-world AI: Work on production AI applications solving financially significant enterprise problems.
• High ownership: Take responsibility for complex customer challenges from discovery through deployment.
• Exceptional team: Collaborate with experienced engineers, data scientists and technology leaders.
• Commercial impact: Your work directly influences billing accuracy, operational efficiency and customer outcomes.
• Career progression: Opportunity to grow into senior individual contributor, technical consulting or forward-deployed leadership responsibilities.
• Early-stage opportunity: Join while the team is scaling and help shape its approach to enterprise deployments.

If you're someone who enjoys getting into messy datasets, questioning assumptions, solving difficult commercial problems and communicating confidently with senior stakeholders, we'd love to hear from you.