Associate Director, AI Strategy, EY-Parthenon

EY-Parthenon; Greater London; On-site; GBP 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

EY-Parthenon in London seeks an Associate Director to lead end-to-end AI strategy engagements with clients, guiding delivery and shaping commercial outcomes. You will translate complex client questions into implementable hypotheses, workplans and decisions, with oversight from Directors and Partners.

The role focuses on delivering enterprise AI strategies, assessing maturity and governance, and developing practical AI roadmaps and operating models to balance value, feasibility and risk.

Qualifications

• Experience leading AI strategy engagements and client-facing delivery.
• Ability to translate client questions into hypotheses, workplans and decisions.
• Strong governance, scope management and engagement economics experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead sizeable AI strategy engagements and act as primary client lead with oversight from Directors and Partners.
• Convert broad client questions into clear hypotheses, issue trees, workplans and decision points.
• Own day-to-day management of engagements, including team deployment, timelines and governance.
• Assess AI maturity, strategic priorities, technology landscape and translate findings into strategic recommendations and investment priorities.
• Develop and prioritise portfolios of AI use cases and practical AI roadmaps balancing value and feasibility.
• Define target AI operating models and collaboration between business, technology, data and risk teams.
• Lead or support buy-side AI due diligence for investors and assess AI capabilities' defensibility and relevance.

Job description

At EY, we’re all in to shape your future with confidence. We’ll help you succeed in a globally connected powerhouse of diverse teams and take your career wherever you want it to go. Join EY and help to build a better working world.

Associate Director – AI Strategy

Key Responsibilities

Lead engagement execution

• Lead sizeable workstreams and selected end-to-end AI strategy engagements, acting as the primary day-to-day client lead and ensuring delivery of commercially impactful outcomes, with oversight and support from Directors and Partners
• Convert broad client questions into clear hypotheses, issue trees, workplans, analytical requirements, stakeholder plans and decision points
• Own the day-to-day management of engagements, including team deployment, timelines, dependencies, deliverable quality, client governance, scope management and engagement economics

Deliver enterprise AI strategies

• Assess an organisation’s AI maturity, strategic ambition, business priorities, technology landscape, data readiness, talent base and governance capabilities and translate findings into clear strategic recommendations, investment priorities and executive decision points
• Identify, quantify and prioritise AI value creation opportunities across growth, productivity, cost, risk and customer outcomes, linking opportunities to measurable business impact.
• Develop and prioritise portfolios of AI use cases using commercial value, strategic relevance, feasibility, risk, data readiness and time-to-impact criteria
• Define target AI operating models, including decision rights, governance, funding, delivery structures, talent requirements and collaboration between business, technology, data and risk teams
• Evaluate build, buy and partner choices, including the implications of foundation models, cloud providers, specialist AI vendors and existing enterprise platforms
• Develop practical AI roadmaps, investment requirements, business cases, capability-building plans and implementation priorities based on the guidance from Directors, Partners and EY Experts, balancing value, feasibility, organisational readiness and implementation risk

Deliver AI-focused transaction work

• Lead or support buy-side AI due diligence for private equity and corporate investors, assessing the risks from AI to the business model / credibility and commercial relevance of a target’s AI capabilities and strategy
• Assess whether claimed AI capabilities are proprietary, defensible and material to the investment thesis, rather than superficial product features or repackaged third-party functionality