Forward Deployed Strategist

Vibehackers; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Vibehackers seeks a Forward Deployed Strategist to partner with clients, framing high-value AI opportunities and driving rapid prototyping toward MVPs. You will lead discovery, activation, and executive storytelling to accelerate adoption and measurable business outcomes.

In this advisory role, you translate ambiguous problems into structured use cases, quantify business value, and guide clients from requirements to scalable prototypes. In-person engagements are possible as needed.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of consulting experience with technology-driven process optimization.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication, including executive storytelling, workshop leadership, and business-case development.
• Proven ability to build trust with executives, functional leaders, and end users in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.
• Strong consulting presence: facilitation, constructive challenge, and guiding clients to practical decisions.
• Experience translating ambiguous business problems into structured problem statements, use cases, hypotheses, and MVP scopes.
• Ability to connect solution ideas to measurable business value (KPIs, ROI logic, adoption metrics, cycle-time improvements, risk reduction, time-to-value).
• Experience partnering with technical teams to move from business requirements to prototypes, pilots, and scalable solutions.
• Comfort working hands-on with AI copilots, analytics tools, workflow tools, and low/no-code platforms to accelerate discovery and validation.
• Empathy for users and willingness to immerse in real workflows, including exceptions and workarounds.
• High ownership, sound judgment, and comfort progressing without perfect requirements.

Responsibilities

• Client discovery and opportunity framing: rapidly understand client challenges, stakeholder dynamics, and workflows; identify high-value AI opportunities; translate ambiguity into clear problem statements, hypotheses, and MVP scopes.
• Business value and executive communication: define success through business KPIs, quantify expected value, build rigorous business cases, and tell executive-level stories that connect use cases to roadmaps and investment decisions.
• Prototype activation and scale readiness: prototype and iterate using low/no-code and AI-assisted tools; collaborate with technologists to demonstrate value early; surface platform, data, and operating-model gaps required to scale.
• Client leadership and engagement ownership: serve as the primary business-facing lead, manage scope and risk, create alignment on priorities and decisions, and work alongside clients (in person as needed) to drive outcomes.

Skills

Executive storytelling

Workshop facilitation

User-centered design

Problem framing

Business analysis

Value mapping

Stakeholder management

Prototyping

Change management

Adoption planning

Communication

Active listening

Project leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Quantifying business value

Facilitating decisions

Empathy

Ownership

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

MBA (preferred)

Tools

AI copilots

low/no-code platforms

analytics tools

workflow tools

Job description

Uses AI copilots and low/no-code tools for rapid prototyping and validation; focused on fast, business-facing AI activation.

About the Role

The Forward Deployed Strategist is a business-first consultant who partners with clients to identify, frame, and accelerate high-value AI and data opportunities, translating ambiguous problems into measurable MVPs. They lead discovery, prototype activation, and executive storytelling to drive adoption and scalable business outcomes.

Job Description

Role

The Forward Deployed Strategist on phData’s Advisory team is a business-first consultant who sits at the intersection of consulting, product thinking, value mapping, and technology. The role leads client-facing discovery, frames high-impact AI and data use cases in clear business terms, and drives rapid prototyping and activation toward measurable MVPs and scalable solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Client discovery and opportunity framing: rapidly understand client challenges, stakeholder dynamics, and workflows; identify high-value AI opportunities; translate ambiguity into clear problem statements, hypotheses, and MVP scopes.
• Business value and executive communication: define success through business KPIs, quantify expected value, build rigorous business cases, and tell executive-level stories that connect use cases to roadmaps and investment decisions.
• Prototype activation and scale readiness: prototype and iterate using low/no-code and AI-assisted tools; collaborate with technologists to demonstrate value early; surface platform, data, and operating-model gaps required to scale.
• Client leadership and engagement ownership: serve as the primary business-facing lead, manage scope and risk, create alignment on priorities and decisions, and work alongside clients (in person as needed) to drive outcomes.

Requirements

• 5+ years of consulting experience with a focus on technology-driven process optimization.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication, including executive storytelling, workshop leadership, and business-case development.
• Proven ability to build trust with executives, functional leaders, and end users in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.
• Strong consulting presence: facilitation, constructive challenge, and guiding clients to practical decisions.
• Experience translating ambiguous business problems into structured problem statements, use cases, hypotheses, and MVP scopes.
• Ability to connect solution ideas to measurable business value (KPIs, ROI logic, adoption metrics, cycle-time improvements, risk reduction, time-to-value).
• Experience partnering with technical teams to move from business requirements to prototypes, pilots, and scalable solutions.
• Comfort working hands-on with AI copilots, analytics tools, workflow tools, and low/no-code platforms to accelerate discovery and validation.
• Empathy for users and willingness to immerse in real workflows, including exceptions and workarounds.
• High ownership, sound judgment, and comfort progressing without perfect requirements.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, analytics, engineering, information systems, design, or related field, or equivalent experience.

Preferred Experience

• Master’s in business administration (MBA).
• Exposure to modern data and AI platforms, self-service analytics, workflow automation, and low/no-code tooling.
• Experience building business cases for technology investments and influencing executive stakeholders.
• Experience working alongside engineers, solution architects, or delivery teams in client-service environments.
• Familiarity with change management, adoption planning, or operating-model design.

Snowflake AWS Anthropic Claude Glean dbt Fivetran KNIME Sigma Azure Dataiku AI copilots analytics tools workflow tools low/no-code platforms self-service analytics workflow automation

Skills

Consulting Executive Storytelling Workshop Facilitation User-Centered Design Problem Framing Business Analysis Value Mapping Stakeholder Management Prototyping Change Management Adoption Planning Communication Active Listening Project Leadership Cross-functional Collaboration Quantifying Business Value Facilitating Decisions Empathy High Ownership

Experience Level

Senior

Employment Type

Full Time

• In-person client engagements as needed
• Inclusive and equal opportunity employer