Manager - Data & AI Consulting

BDO Administration Pty Ltd; Sydney; On-site; AUD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

BDO is seeking a delivery-focused data and AI advisory professional to work within an engagement team. You will tackle data strategy, governance, and hands-on delivery of data platforms and AI solutions for clients.

The role covers advisory tasks, architecture, and development of AI-enabled analytics, including governance frameworks and risk assessment. Strong experience across data environments is expected.

Qualifications

• Tertiary qualification in IT, business, engineering, commerce or related discipline.
• Experience with data strategies, pipelines, architecture and modelling.
• Track record of leading workstreams and supervising junior team members.
• Ability to move between unfamiliar sectors quickly and adapt.

Responsibilities

• Conduct current-state data landscape analysis and quality assessment.
• Draft data strategies, roadmaps and business cases.
• Design data governance frameworks and stewardship models.
• Identify AI use cases and assess data readiness.
• Develop AI readiness assessments and adoption roadmaps.
• Build proofs of concept and analytics/AI solutions.

Skills

Data architecture

AI strategy

Governance

Data governance

Data pipelines

Stakeholder interviews

Regulatory awareness

Education

Tertiary qualification in IT, business, engineering, commerce or related discipline

Tools

ERP systems

CRM systems

Cloud platforms

Job description

We’re BDO, a global professional services firm connected to local markets. Our people work together to provide specialist expertise, helping businesses achieve their goals. We inspire others, to go further. We create together, to reach higher. We build trust, to lead purposefully. Whether you're building your future or starting your career with us, you won’t do it alone. From creating solutions for our clients to building careers for our people, we shape what matters, and that’s where you come in.

About the Role

This role will work as part of an engagement team to deliver data and artificial intelligence work for clients, spanning both advisory tasks — strategy, governance, use case assessment — and hands‑on technical delivery of data platforms, analytics and AI solutions. This is a delivery role with the key responsibilities outlined below:

Data Strategy and Governance

Conduct current-state analysis of data environments, including data landscape mapping, quality assessment and stakeholder interviews.

Support data maturity assessments by gathering evidence, applying assessment criteria and drafting findings.

Contribute to the development of data strategies, roadmaps and business cases, drafting sections.

Support the design of data governance frameworks — drafting policies, standards, role definitions and stewardship models.

Research privacy, sovereignty and regulatory considerations relevant to the engagement and raise matters requiring specialist input.

AI Advisory and Governance

Support use case identification and qualification — gathering requirements, assessing data readiness and testing technical feasibility.

Contribute to AI readiness assessments and adoption roadmaps.

Draft components of AI governance frameworks covering model risk, human oversight, transparency, monitoring and acceptable use.

Research emerging AI standards, tooling and approaches, and share findings with the team.

Raise concerns where a proposed use case appears technically infeasible or carries risk the client hasn't considered.

Data Platform and Architecture

Build and optimise data pipelines, transformation logic and data quality controls.

Contribute to data architecture and data modelling work.

Support platform and tooling evaluations by testing options, documenting findings and producing comparison analysis.

Apply the firm's reference architectures and standards, and contribute improvements based on what works in practice.

AI and Analytics Solution Development

Build proofs of concept and prototypes that demonstrate use case viability.

Develop analytics and reporting solutions, and AI solutions including generative AI and retrieval‑augmented approaches.

Test and evaluate AI solutions for accuracy, cost, latency and failure modes, and document the results.

Work alongside client teams and system integrators during delivery, explaining technical decisions clearly.

About You

Our ideal candidate has prior experience in technology or digital consulting. You'll have a deep understanding of data architecture as well as AI strategy and governance.

Combined with:

Tertiary qualification in information technology, business, engineering, commerce or a related discipline.

Demonstrated experience with data strategies, pipelines, architecture and modelling work.

Track record of leading workstreams and supervising junior team members.

Experience working across multiple industries or the demonstrated ability to move between unfamiliar sectors quickly.

Working knowledge of enterprise technology landscapes — ERP, HCM, CRM, integration platforms, cloud and data platforms.

Ability to design technical assessments to evaluate AI, analyse results and provide meaningful recommendations to clients.

Why BDO?

Working for BDO you will be part of a growing and market leading professional services firm. Our national and global footprint provides our people with opportunities to work on interesting client engagements, across diverse industry sectors and services. Our open and collaborative culture ensures access to Partners and professional mentors, to guide and accelerate your professional career, across a wide array of career pathways.

We provide our people with various health and wellbeing, social, financial, and professional development benefits to help realise what’s possible.

Participate in fitness challenges or take advantage of exclusive discounts to corporate health insurance, gym memberships and wellness facilities via our BWell program. Access benefits such as travel perks, retail discounts, employee referral rewards, study, and professional development support. Our leave options cater to the unique needs of our people; and include enhanced family support, cultural and religious leave, and options to purchase additional leave. You can also give back and get involved in community initiatives via our BCaring program.

With a strong focus on learning and growth, we provide on‑the‑job training and formal development programs to help you succeed in your role and develop your skills and experience.

Our culture is underpinned by our core values (One, Bold, Human, Heart and Strive). We are proud to be recognised as an Inclusive Employer for 2025-2026 by Diversity Council of Australia and a 2024-2025 Employer of Choice for Gender Equality by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA). BDO is committed to inclusive and accessible recruitment practices.

We shape what matters. At BDO we are always looking ahead, thinking bigger, reaching further and always staying personal and human in everything we do. We’re by your side, backing you to explore ideas and new ways of working to shape the future you want to see.