Practice Leader & Data & AI

emergiTEL Inc.; Toronto; On-site; CAD 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A fast-growing IT services company is looking for a Practice Leader to grow and mature their Data & AI Practice in Canada and the USA. This role requires a strong background in Data and Analytics modernization with 12-18 years of experience. You will be responsible for practice strategy, packaged offerings, and ensuring predictable growth. Ideal candidates are practice-builders with commercial acumen and a collaborative leadership style. This is a unique opportunity to shape a high-impact practice and contribute to the company's success.

Qualifications

• 12–18+ years in Data, Analytics, and/or AI modernization.
• Proven practice-building or practice-scaling experience.
• Strong enterprise delivery background and governance instincts.

Responsibilities

• Define the practice vision and roadmap aligned to modernization.
• Own practice economics and growth plan.
• Build a portfolio of packaged offerings.

Skills

Data and Analytics modernization

Practice building

Enterprise delivery governance

Collaboration

Commercial acumen

Job description

Our client is one of the fastest-growing IT Services and Consulting companies in Canada and serves some of the most iconic brands and Fortune500 companies. Over the last decade, we have achieved 100% client retention and earned more than 20 notable industry recognition. This reflects our reliability in delivering what we promise and the quality we bring to every engagement.

Join our growth-driven culture and help us lead, innovate, and simplify. We are looking for team members who embody our values:

• Empathetic - we listen, we understand, and are considerate of everyone
• Persevering - we don't give up on challenges or people and go all the way
• Inclusive - we value everyone and their perspectives
• Reliable - we deliver what we promise, and more
• Innovative - we make things better than they were yesterday

Role Overview

Our client is accelerating the growth of our Data & AI Practice to become a core engine for the firm—helping enterprises modernize data foundations and operationalize AI safely at scale. We are hiring a Practice Leader to grow and mature an existing practice into a repeatable, offering‑led business with strong delivery governance and a clear market narrative.

This role is for a consulting leader who wants a true scale mandate: you will own practice strategy, packaged offerings, talent, delivery standards, and practice economics—starting with BFSI as our primary growth vertical and expanding into Telco and Retail across Canada and the USA.

This is not a pure delivery role and not a traditional sales role. It is practice leadership with P&L accountability, partnering closely with sales and delivery leadership to drive predictable growth.

Why our client?

Most talented people don’t lack ideas, they lack permission.

• To challenge the way things are done.
• To move faster than quarterly planning cycles.
• To build and own the outcome.

We exist for people who think:

• I could do more if bureaucracy wasn’t in the way.
• Technology is moving faster than my organization can react.
• I want to be accountable for results, not just tasks.
• I want to build a business, not just work in one.

Build, Don’t Just Execute

• We are not a place where ideas die in decks and approvals. If you see a better way to solve a problem, you are expected to pursue it from concept to execution. Your thinking doesn’t stop at delivery, it extends to outcomes, value, and growth.

Operate Like an Owner

• You’ll have the autonomy to: Shape solutions, not just implement requirements—Influence strategy, not just follow it
• We believe in ownership over hierarchy—When the business grows, you grow with it through visibility, trust, responsibility, and shared success.

Move at the Speed of Change

• Technology doesn’t wait. Neither do we.
• mobileLIVE is built for people who are energized by rapid change and continuous learning where AI, cloud, data, and modern engineering aren’t buzzwords, but tools you actively shape and apply.
• If you’re frustrated by slow decision‑making, outdated processes, or risk‑averse cultures, you’ll find this environment refreshing and demanding in the best way.

A Place for Builders

• This is not the right place if you want: Clear lanes, narrow roles, and fixed playbooks—Comfort over accountability—Direction without responsibility. But if you want to create, experiment, lead, and leave a mark, mobileLIVE is the right platform for it.

This is your chance to build a business within a company and share in the success of what you help create.

You Will:

• Direct access to the executive leadership for sponsorship, decision‑making, and prioritization.
• Authority to define and evolve the practice operating model, offering portfolio, and delivery standards.
• Influence on packaging and pricing approach for offerings, in partnership with commercial leadership.

Core Responsibilities

1) Practice Strategy, Positioning & Growth

• Define the practice vision and roadmap, aligned to enterprise modernization and production‑scale AI.
• Own practice economics: growth plan, capacity planning, utilization approach, and margin discipline (in partnership with commercial/finance leadership).
• Position the practice clearly inside mobileLIVE and externally in the market.

2) Packaged Offerings, IP & Differentiation

• Build and evolve a portfolio of packaged, repeatable offerings (not bespoke‑only), such as:
• Drive reusability and consistency across engagements; ensure quality and repeatable delivery patterns.
• Align offerings to partner ecosystems without becoming vendor‑dependent.

3) Capability‑Led GTM (Partnering with Sales)

• Lead capability‑led business development—helping clients progress from assessment →MVP →scale.
• Partner with sales/account leaders to pursue and shape strategic opportunities, especially in BFSI.
• Contribute to thought leadership, POVs, and client narratives that clearly articulate outcomes and differentiation.

4) Solutioning & Pre‑Sales Leadership

• Sponsor solution shaping and deal design: discovery framing, target architecture, delivery approach, staffing, and assumptions.
• Maintain pricing/estimation discipline and protect margin integrity.
• Support strategic RFP/RFI responses and ensure each deal has a clear win theme.

5) Delivery Governance & Practice Standards

• Define practice delivery standards: quality gates, governance, reuse expectations, and “how we deliver” playbooks.
• Partner with delivery leadership to manage escalations and improve predictability and outcomes across engagements.
• Drive continuous improvement through retrospectives, playbook refinement, and shared learning.

6) Talent, Capability & Practice Building

• Define the Data & AI skill taxonomy and role definitions (data engineering, platform, analytics, ML/GenAI, MLOps/LLMOps, governance, architecture).
• Partner with Talent on hiring profiles, standards, and interview bars; ensure time‑to‑productivity through strong onboarding and enablement.
• Build communities of practice, learning paths, and internal enablement.

7) Ecosystem & Partner Alignment

• Collaborate with cloud/data/AI platform partners and internal leads to strengthen differentiation.
• Influence joint motions (accelerators, reference architectures, co‑sell) where they support practice goals.

Who You Are:

Experience

• 12–18+ years in Data, Analytics, and/or AI modernization
• Proven practice‑building or practice‑scaling experience (offerings + talent + delivery governance + growth)
• Strong enterprise delivery background and governance instincts, especially for complex environments
• BFSI experience strongly preferred (consulting or industry), with the ability to translate patterns into Telco and Retail

Attributes

• Practice‑builder with commercial acumen (packaging, pricing, margin discipline, scalable delivery models)
• Credible with enterprise executives and senior technologists; strong executive presence
• Structured, outcome‑oriented thinker who simplifies complexity and drives momentum
• Collaborative leader who builds a bench and scales through others (not heroics)
• Comfortable with ambiguity and accountable for results

What Success Looks Like

• The practice has crisp positioning, a clear portfolio of packaged offerings, and visible market traction.
• Clients recognize mobileLIVE as a trusted partner for data modernization and production‑grade AI.
• Delivery is predictable and scalable, with strong reuse of accelerators and playbooks.
• The Data & AI Practice becomes a durable growth engine for mobileLIVE across Canada and the U.S.