Data & AI Principal

Futurice; Tampere; Hybrid; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Futurice Hybrid Work Model

Free choice of laptop, phone, tablet,

Sports and lunch benefit

Clubs for free-time activities

Learning events

Certification programs

Job summary

Futurice in Tampere seeks a Principal to shape data offerings and drive digital transformation for clients, bridging business strategy with hands-on data and AI solutions.

You’ll mentor teams, lead engagements from concept to production, and partner with design, software, data, and AI capabilities to deliver credible, measurable outcomes for business impact.

Qualifications

• Fluent Finnish and English skills.
• Strong background in business development and pre-sales.
• Hands-on or architect-level experience with cloud data platforms and GenAI/LLM-based solutions.
• Deep understanding of core business operations and how data/AI optimize them.
• Experience in management consulting or digital agency delivery.
• Experience leading change management or business transformation using data.

Responsibilities

• Drive commercial growth by building and refining Data & AI service offerings.
• Serve as a trusted consultant for C-suite and senior stakeholders.
• Advise on model development vs off-the-shelf approaches including edge deployment.
• Contribute to solution architecture reviews, due diligence, and vendor evaluations.
• Shape technical roadmaps for data infra and GenAI architectures.
• Lead client workshops and manage senior stakeholder expectations.
• Collaborate with design, software, data, and AI teams to integrate solutions.
• Stay current with cloud data platforms and applied AI trends.

Skills

Executive communication

Business development

AI and data strategy

Cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP)

GenAI/LLM solutions

Change management

Finnish language

English language

Tools

Databricks

Redshift

Glue

Azure Data Factory

Synapse

LangChain

LangGraph

LLMOps

Job description

Join us! If you’re ready to start the next chapter in your career journey, you’ve come to the right place. We’re always happy to hear from people who are eager to learn and grow, and share our values. Read more about the role.

About The Role

As a Principal in our team, you will play a pivotal role in shaping our data offerings, leading business development, and driving strategic digital transformation for our clients — while staying close enough to the technology to be credible in the room and useful on the ground.

This role bridges business strategy, organizational change, and hands‑on data and AI solutions. You will act as a senior advisor to client leadership, helping them unlock measurable business value from their data assets — but you'll also roll up your sleeves: reviewing architecture decisions on platforms like AWS, Azure or GCP, weighing in on tool choices (e.g. Databricks vs. Synapse, warehouse vs. lakehouse setups), and occasionally getting into the weeds of a proof‑of‑concept or data strategy workshop. Working alongside software developers, designers, data engineers and AI engineers, you will turn complex client challenges into commercial opportunities and technically sound solutions, steering engagements from initial concept through to production and successful business outcomes.

What You’ll Do

• Drive commercial growth by building and refining our Data & AI service offerings — shaping opportunities, leading sales discussions, writing proposals, and expanding key accounts
• Serve as a trusted consultant for C‑suite and senior business stakeholders, translating organizational challenges, industry trends, and business processes into clear data and AI strategies and roadmaps
• Advise on when custom model development or fine‑tuning is warranted versus off‑the‑shelf/foundation‑model approaches, including cases requiring offline, on‑device or edge deployment
• Get hands‑on where it counts: contribute to solution architecture reviews, technical due diligence, and vendor/tool evaluations (cloud data platforms, ETL/​orchestration tools, GenAI/​LLM stacks) alongside engineers and data scientists
• Weigh in on technical roadmaps covering data infrastructure (e.g. RedShift, Glue, Data Factory, Databricks), MLOps/​LLMOps practices, and applied GenAI architectures (RAG, agentic systems, orchestration frameworks such as LangChain or LangGraph)
• Focus on outcome‑driven digital transformation — ensuring data and AI initiatives directly improve operational efficiency, streamline processes, or create competitive advantage for clients
• Lead client relationships and workshops, framing ambiguous business problems into structured, technically grounded projects, and managing senior‑level stakeholder expectations
• Partner closely with Futurice’s design, software engineering, data engineering and AI capabilities to ensure solutions integrate seamlessly into broader digital ecosystems and enterprise platforms
• Stay technically current — cloud data platforms, modern data architecture, and applied AI/GenAI trends — so you can credibly challenge and guide both client and internal teams
• Mentor team members in both commercial awareness and technical/consultant skills, and capture reusable assets and best practices across engagements

What We Hope You Bring

• Exceptional communication, facilitation and relationship‑building skills across both business and technical audiences
• Strong background in business development, pre‑sales, and account growth within a consulting, agency, or corporate advisory environment
• Solid hands‑on or architect‑level experience with the modern data and AI landscape — cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), data infrastructure (e.g. Redshift, Glue, Data Factory, Synapse, Databricks), and GenAI/LLM‑based solutions (agentic architectures, RAG, tools like LangChain, LangGraph or similar), including familiarity with model training/fine‑tuning and offline or edge AI deployment considerations — enough to engage credibly in technical discussions and reviews, even if you're not writing production code day‑to‑day
• Deep understanding of core business operations (e.g., sales, supply chain, financial operations, or customer experience) and how data and AI can be leveraged to optimize them
• Background in management consulting, technology advisory, or digital agency account management, ideally with delivery exposure to data/AI projects
• Experience leading change management or business transformation initiatives driven by data and analytics
• Fluent Finnish and English skills

Futurice offers you

Besides our overall cultural and organizational model, we support your growth as a professional. As an agency, we have a versatile portfolio of projects, and we solve different kinds of problems that require different kinds of tools. For you, this means the chance of a lifetime to pursue your learning goals and broaden your skill set. You will be inspired and supported throughout your journey, as our aspiration is to be the Ultimate Learning Platform for your career. On top of this, you get the opportunity to work with the most motivated and multi talented forces in development, design and strategy.

In addition, we listed here some of the perks we offer:

• Futurice Hybrid Work Model
• Free choice of laptop, phone, tablet, headphones and other work gear
• Sports and lunch benefit
• Futurice's clubs for free‑time activities
• Learning events
• Certification programs

Compensation

Your complete compensation package will be discussed in detail during the recruitment process. Our salary model is designed to offer a range of levels based on three factors: skills, responsibilities and impact. We are dedicated to fostering an inclusive and supportive work environment where every employee has the opportunity to thrive and advance in their career and become better versions of themselves.

During the initial interview round, we will discuss the salary range for this position. We offer a fixed salary with the possibility of performance‑based bonuses and additional benefits.

How we work

Ever since Futurice was founded, we’ve been committed to offering a workplace people will genuinely enjoy coming to every morning, Mondays included. We’ve put tons of effort into fostering a healthy and welcoming company culture combined with fair and competitive salaries as well as perks that improve the wellbeing of each Futuricean – take a look here, check our Culture Handbook 2.0 and learn more about our people through their career stories. Each of our offices also adds its own unique vibe and flavor into the mix. Learn more about our offices here!

At Futurice, new joiners are not expected to fit into a specific mold – people are free to come as they are, regardless of their background. We believe there’s power in perspectives and consider diversity an important part of our success – which is why we have made diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) a key component of our company’s strategy. You can learn more about our DE&I commitment and efforts here.

We’re Futurice

We are Futurice, an outcome‑focused digital transformation company.We help our clients solve their biggest challenges and empower them to make a positive impact on the world.

Founded in 2000, our team comprises over 800 diverse experts who represent more than 60 different nationalities. We have Nordic roots and a global mindset and operate across Europe.

We help organizations unlock new value by combining data, AI, design, and strategy. Our promise is simple: faster, smarter delivery; AI-powered decisions; and exceptional, data‑driven experiences. We deliver clarity, and clarity delivers results.

Our vision is to redefine organizations with data and AI. Large enterprises work with us to build smarter services, accelerate decision‑making, and strengthen their competitive edge.

Founded in 2000, Futurice has grown into an 800+ person community across Europe. Our culture is built on trust, transparency, care, and continuous improvement. We offer a collaborative, international environment where ambitious people learn, grow, and make a real impact.