Consulting Senior Manager

Cognizant; Chennai District; On-site; INR 3,500,000 - 6,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Cognizant seeks a Consulting Senior Manager to lead complex hybrid IT engagements, translating client goals into strategy and roadmaps. You will mentor teams, ensure delivery excellence, and align solutions with enterprise strategy and societal impact through responsible technology.

In a global, client-facing role, you will drive governance, manage risk, develop business cases, and collaborate with practice and account teams to shape deals and improve outcomes.

Qualifications

• 12–14 years of IT consulting experience across enterprise clients.
• Deep knowledge of IT strategy, enterprise architecture and technology transformation.
• Proven stakeholder management and executive-level communication.
• Hybrid-work delivery with plan, execution, and governance.
• Familiarity with data privacy, cybersecurity and regulatory considerations.
• Experience with change management and adoption strategies.
• Ability to translate complex concepts into clear business language.

Responsibilities

• Lead large-scale IT consulting engagements translating client objectives into actionable technology strategies and roadmaps.
• Oversee end-to-end delivery ensuring scope, quality, timelines and budget are rigorously managed.
• Guide cross-functional teams in hybrid environments with onsite and remote resources.
• Develop tailored consulting methodologies and reusable assets.
• Coordinate with client stakeholders to run workshops and uncover challenges.
• Ensure risk management across engagements with mitigation plans.
• Develop insightful business cases and value realization frameworks for proposed IT solutions.
• Guide integration of emerging technologies into client landscapes securely and responsibly.
• Manage engagement financials to achieve margins while maintaining client satisfaction.
• Collaborate with practice leaders and account teams to shape go-to-market offerings.
• Drive continuous improvement and share lessons learned.
• Support talent development and build a strong pipeline.
• Advance sustainability and ethics in recommendations.

Skills

IT strategy

Enterprise architecture

Stakeholder management

Hybrid work

Change management

Data privacy

Cybersecurity

Regulatory compliance

Problem solving

Job description

Business Consulting

• Collaborate with regional teams, platform leads, industry leads, client partners, CRMs, and other business units to identify new business prospects and expand the India SCM consulting practice.
• Support high utilization of the SCM consulting practice and contribute to initiatives that improve practice effectiveness.
• Use industry knowledge and market insights to define and strengthen SCM consulting offerings.
• Lead advisory services, process consulting and business analysis across supply chain functions such as planning, sourcing and procurement, manufacturing, warehousing, logistics and fulfillment.
• Manage and drive consulting engagements with clients to discover and propose transformation opportunities, design high-value solutions and develop roadmaps.

Domain Responsibilities

• Lead consulting assessments and solution design for demand planning and forecasting, including passenger-based forecasts, food catering consumption history and menu-cycle-driven planning across a 1 to 12 month horizon.
• Define and improve material requirements planning processes, including forecast-linked planning logic and auto-draft order generation.
• Design and strengthen production and supply planning processes, including work-order generation, production scheduling and alignment between demand, supply and execution teams.
• Identify planning process gaps, data dependencies and technology enablement opportunities across demand, supply and production planning.
• Translate planning business requirements into functional solution requirements, transformation roadmaps and implementation-ready process designs.
• Support clients in improving planning governance, decision cadence, exception handling and cross-functional planning alignment.

Business Development

• Collaborate with client partners and business development teams to create high-impact proposals.
• Lead market research and analysis to develop relevant insights for client conversations and solution development.

Thought Leadership

• Drive the thought leadership agenda for supply chain functions through white papers, webinars and analyst engagement.
• Lead creation and delivery of points of view on supply chain functions, operating models and technology trends.

People Development

• Mentor and coach consulting associates; lead people development and community-building activities.
• Partner with recruitment teams to attract high-caliber consulting talent and build a strong talent pipeline.

Other Requirements

• Proven experience in creating, growing or leading a high-performance and outcome-driven consulting practice.
• Exposure to the four core supply chain pillars: plan, source, make and deliver.
• Should have working experience in supply chain planning platforms such as SAP IBP, Kinaxis, OMP, Blue Yonder, Oracle ASCP, o9, or similar supply chain planning platforms.
• Experience working with or managing global clients.
• Ability to work independently as well as in a team environment.
• Positive mindset, strong ownership and ability to operate in ambiguous client situations.
• Nice to have previous experience at a top-tier management consulting firm.

Nice to Have

• Experience in food, catering, aviation services, consumer goods, manufacturing or other planning-intensive industries.
• Knowledge of demand forecasting, MRP, production planning, supply planning and planning master data concepts.
• Knowledge of industry, research or benchmarking resources across supply chain planning functions.

Job Summary

Consulting Senior Manager in a global technology consulting environment responsible for delivering complex hybrid model IT consulting engagements that drive measurable business transformation for clients while ensuring operational excellence mentoring consulting teams and aligning solutions with the enterprise strategy and societal impact through sustainable and ethical technology enablement.

Responsibilities

• Lead large scale IT consulting engagements that translate client business objectives into actionable technology strategies and solution roadmaps that enhance operational efficiency and long term enterprise value for customers and the organization
• Oversee end to end delivery of consulting projects from initial assessment through implementation support ensuring that scope quality timelines and budget are rigorously managed and aligned with agreed outcomes
• Provide clear guidance to cross functional consulting teams in hybrid working environments ensuring effective collaboration between onsite and remote resources to maintain consistent communication and delivery standards
• Drive development of tailored consulting methodologies and reusable assets that integrate industry best practices in IT strategy architecture and governance to strengthen the organizations market positioning and client trust
• Coordinate closely with client stakeholders to facilitate workshops and discovery sessions that uncover critical business challenges and enable data driven recommendations that improve technology investment decisions
• Ensure rigorous risk management across consulting engagements by identifying delivery and operational risks early developing mitigation plans and continuously monitoring progress to safeguard client operations
• Develop insightful business cases and value realization frameworks for proposed IT consulting solutions demonstrating quantifiable benefits such as cost optimization process modernization and improved customer experiences
• Guide integration of emerging technologies into client landscapes in a pragmatic manner ensuring that recommended solutions are secure scalable and aligned with responsible use of technology to benefit society
• Manage engagement financials including forecasting resource planning and utilization to achieve target margins while maintaining high client satisfaction and sustainable workloads for consulting teams
• Collaborate with internal practice leaders and account teams to shape go to market offerings for IT consulting leveraging market trends client feedback and delivery experience to refine propositions that create shared value
• Drive continuous improvement in project delivery processes by capturing lessons learned standardizing best practices and promoting adoption of tools that increase productivity and transparency across consulting programs
• Support talent development within the consulting practice by coaching team members on consulting skills domain expertise and stakeholder management to build a strong pipeline of future experts and strengthen organizational capability
• Advance organizational objectives related to sustainability ethics and social responsibility by embedding these considerations into consulting recommendations and demonstrating how technology solutions can contribute positively to communities

Qualifications

• Possess extensive experience of twelve to fourteen years in IT consulting with a strong track record of delivering complex advisory and implementation engagements for enterprise clients across diverse sectors
• Bring deep knowledge of IT strategy enterprise architecture and technology transformation including proficiency in defining target operating models and modernization approaches for legacy environments
• Demonstrate advanced capability in stakeholder management and communication with proven success in facilitating executive level discussions and translating complex technical concepts into clear business language
• Exhibit strong competence in project and program management disciplines including planning execution monitoring and reporting using structured frameworks that ensure predictable outcomes in a hybrid work context
• Show proficiency in analytical and problem solving skills using quantitative and qualitative methods to evaluate technology options perform impact assessments and recommend solutions that maximize client value
• Display familiarity with consulting industry tools and methodologies including structured assessment techniques process mapping and maturity models that support rigorous diagnostic and recommendation activities
• Hold experience in collaborating with multidisciplinary teams spanning business technology and operations functions to design integrated solutions that align strategic objectives with practical implementation feasibility
• Demonstrate awareness of data privacy cybersecurity and regulatory considerations relevant to enterprise technology initiatives ensuring that consulting advice respects compliance requirements and responsible practices
• Bring exposure to change management and adoption strategies that help client organizations transition smoothly to new ways of working while sustaining productivity and reducing resistance to technology driven change
• Possess ability to work effectively in hybrid environments employing digital collaboration platforms and remote engagement techniques that maintain strong relationships and continuity of service without frequent travel
• Show commitment to continuous learning in emerging technologies industry trends and consulting techniques to keep recommendations current and to support innovative yet pragmatic solutions for client challenges
• Exhibit strong business acumen with the capability to connect technology initiatives to revenue growth cost efficiency customer experience and broader societal impact through responsible digital transformation