Data Principal Technical Consultant

AHEAD; United States; On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

AHEAD is seeking a Principal Technical Consultant to provide architectural leadership and engineering direction across complex client engagements. You will partner with engagement leads to ensure scalable, secure solutions and enable delivery teams through governance and technical mentorship.

Responsibilities include shaping solution strategy, leading architecture reviews, and driving innovation within the Data Practice while contributing to business development and capability growth.

Qualifications

• Senior-level technical leadership required across complex client engagements.
• Ability to translate business objectives into scalable technical solutions.
• Mentor and coach engineering teams and drive architectural governance.

Responsibilities

• Lead architectural direction and technical oversight.
• Align execution with business objectives and client expectations.
• Review designs, data models, and engineering deliverables.

Skills

Technical leadership

Architectural governance

Solution architecture

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/engineering

Tools

Cloud platforms

Data platforms

AI and analytics tooling

Job description

AHEAD builds platforms for digital business. By weaving together advances in cloud infrastructure, automation and analytics, and software delivery, we help enterprises deliver on the promise of digital transformation.

At AHEAD, we prioritize creating a culture of belonging, where all perspectives and voices are represented, valued, respected, and heard. We create spaces to empower everyone to speak up, make change, and drive the culture at AHEAD.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and do not discriminate based on an individual's race, national origin, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, marital status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law, whether actual or perceived.

We embrace all candidates that will contribute to the diversification and enrichment of ideas and perspectives at AHEAD.

The Principal Technical Consultant is the senior technical leader responsible for architectural leadership, technical oversight, solution governance, and engineering direction across complex client engagements. Working closely with the Principal Consultant (Engagement Lead), this role ensures solutions are strategically aligned, architecturally sound, scalable, secure, and successfully delivered.

Principal Technical Consultants provide leadership across data, analytics, AI, cloud, governance, and modern data platform initiatives by shaping solution strategy, coaching engineering teams, resolving complex technical challenges, and ensuring delivery quality throughout the engagement lifecycle. While they remain hands-on when appropriate, their primary responsibility is enabling delivery teams through technical leadership, architectural governance, engineering excellence, risk management, and consultative guidance rather than serving as the primary individual contributor.

Beyond client delivery, Principal Technical Consultants strengthen the Data Practice by developing technical talent, advancing delivery methodologies, improving reusable assets, driving innovation, supporting business development, and contributing to the long-term growth of AHEAD’s technical capabilities.

Roles & Responsibilities

Technical Leadership and Solution Delivery

• Serve as the senior technical leader across complex client engagements, providing architectural direction and technical oversight throughout the delivery lifecycle.
• Partner with the Principal Consultant and Project Manager to align technical execution with business objectives, delivery plans, and client expectations.
• Establish technical strategy, solution architecture, integration approaches, implementation standards, and engineering best practices.
• Review and approve technical designs, architectures, code quality, data models, integrations, and engineering deliverables.
• Guide engineering teams through complex technical challenges while ensuring consistency across multiple workstreams.
• Proactively identify technical risks, architectural concerns, performance issues, and implementation challenges, and develop mitigation strategies before they affect delivery.
• Act as the primary technical escalation point for delivery teams, providing guidance on complex issues and critical client situations.
• Ensure solutions are scalable, secure, maintainable, operationally supportable, and aligned with enterprise architecture standards.
• Lead technical workshops, architecture reviews, design sessions, proof of concept efforts, and executive technical presentations.
• Maintain accountability for technical quality, engineering excellence, and successful technical outcomes.

Solution Strategy and Business Development

• Partner with Client Directors, Principal Consultants, and Solution Architects during discovery, assessments, and solution development.
• Lead technical discovery workshops and architecture assessments that shape client transformation strategies.
• Develop solution architectures, technical approaches, estimates, implementation strategies, and technical proposals.
• Communicate technical concepts effectively to executive, business, and technical audiences.
• Identify opportunities to expand client engagements through additional capabilities, modern architectures, and emerging technologies.
• Ensure proposed solutions balance business value, technical feasibility, delivery complexity, cost, and long-term maintainability.

Technical Leadership and Practice Growth

• Drive the evolution of technical standards, reference architectures, engineering frameworks, reusable accelerators, and delivery best practices.
• Serve as a recognized technical leader across modern data platforms, cloud technologies, AI, governance, and analytics.
• Mentor and coach Technical Consultants, Senior Technical Consultants, and Solution Architects through technical reviews, architecture guidance, and career development.
• Support recruiting, interviewing, onboarding, certification planning, technical enablement, and capability development.
• Lead innovation initiatives, evaluate emerging technologies, and contribute to technical thought leadership across the Data Practice.
• Promote engineering excellence, collaboration, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement across the organization.

Expectations

Principal Technical Consultants are expected to consistently demonstrate technical leadership, architectural excellence, consulting effectiveness, business awareness, and accountability while enabling successful delivery across complex client engagements.

Leadership and Ownership

• Demonstrate end-to-end ownership for technical delivery, architecture quality, engineering standards, and technical outcomes.
• Establish technical direction, governance, priorities, and decision frameworks across engineering teams.
• Make sound architectural decisions while balancing technical risk, delivery constraints, business priorities, and long-term maintainability.
• Coach technical leaders, develop engineering talent, and foster a culture of accountability and technical excellence.

Business and Consulting Acumen

• Understand client business objectives and translate them into scalable technical solutions.
• Apply structured thinking and consultative problem solving when evaluating technical alternatives and making architectural recommendations.
• Clearly communicate technical tradeoffs, risks, assumptions, and recommendations to executive and technical stakeholders.
• Balance business outcomes with technical quality, delivery timelines, operational supportability, and total cost of ownership.

Technical Excellence

• Serve as the technical authority for complex architectures, integrations, cloud