Lead AI Strategist

Very Big Things, LLC; Cincinnati (OH); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation with performance upside

Comprehensive benefits

PTO

Job summary

A generative-AI consulting firm is seeking a Lead AI Strategist to own impactful customer engagements. This role involves collaborating with multidisciplinary teams, shaping AI adoption strategies, and driving client success through measurable outcomes. The ideal candidate will have over 8 years of experience in consulting or strategy roles, fluency in generative AI concepts, and a proven track record in stakeholder management. The work environment is remote-friendly, with some client travel required.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in consulting, product, strategy, or program leadership roles.
• Fluency in generative-AI concepts.
• Proven ability to lead executive-level stakeholder management.
• Strong analytical and product mindset.
• Excellent communication and facilitation skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead complex client engagements from discovery to scale-up.
• Facilitate executive workshops and craft AI adoption roadmaps.
• Define scope with engineering and drive de-risk delivery.
• Orchestrate change-management and establish governance.
• Define success metrics and build dashboards for clients.

Skills

Consulting experience

Generative AI knowledge

Stakeholder management

Analytical mindset

Communication skills

Builder mentality

Job description

🎯 Why This Role Matters

As a Lead AI Strategist you will be the end‑to‑end owner for our most impactful customer engagements. Partnering with a senior technical lead, you’ll guide a multidisciplinary team of engineers and researchers to scope, deliver, and scale AI‑native workflows that materially improve how our customers operate. You’ll work directly with executive stakeholders, translate ambiguous problems into clear roadmaps, drive adoption change‑management, and hold the team accountable for business outcomes—not just artifacts.

Location: Remote first. Cincinnati, OH; Atlanta, GA, or Miami/Fort Lauderdale, FL areas preferred. Remote (U.S.) considered with periodic client travel.

🧠 How You'll Contribute

• Own outcomes: Lead complex, high-impact client engagements end-to-end—from discovery and value targeting through launch and scale-up—anchored to business KPIs.
• Shape strategy: Facilitate executive workshops; identify high-leverage use cases; craft AI adoption roadmaps that deliver value in a quarter and compound thereafter.
• Partner with engineering: Work in lockstep with a senior technical lead to define scope, cut clean iterations, and de‑risk delivery across data, integration, and security constraints.
• Drive adoption: Orchestrate change‑management, training, and communications; design workflows that stick; establish governance, playbooks, and measurement.
• Measure impact: Define success metrics, baselines, and experiment designs; build dashboards and run regular business reviews with client sponsors.
• Communicate crisply: Synthesize complex ideas into clear narratives for C‑suite executives and frontline operators; create decision‑ready briefs and visuals.
• Uplevel the team: Mentor peers, standardize repeatable approaches (AI Sprints), and contribute to internal methods and reusable components.

🧬 What Makes You a Great Fit

• 8+ years (or equivalent skill level) in consulting, product, strategy, or program leadership roles delivering technology‑enabled change (client‑facing required).
• Fluency in generative‑AI concepts (LLMs, RAG, agents, prompt engineering).
• Proven ability to lead executive‑level stakeholder management, align incentives, and de‑risk complex initiatives.
• Strong analytical and product mindset: able to turn messy problems into testable plans, write tight PRDs/briefs, and make pragmatic trade‑offs.
• Excellent written, verbal, visual communication, and facilitation skills.
• Bias for action: builder mentality, caring more about outcomes than optics.
• Nice to have: domain experience in retail, hospitality, logistics, healthcare/pharma, or financial services; familiarity with data governance, security, and compliance practices.

🎉 Perks & Benefits

• Competitive compensation with performance upside.
• Comprehensive benefits
• PTO
• Final package depends on experience and location.

💙 Who We Are, What We Stand For

Very Big Things is a generative‑AI consulting and implementation partner. We combine forward‑deployed engineers, product strategists, and researchers to ship bespoke AI systems that deliver measurable ROI for mid‑market and enterprise clients. We’re AI‑native: we build, use, and continuously improve our own workflow tooling (e.g., AI Sprints across R&D → Production) to move from idea to business impact fast.

• We are remote‑friendly with an East‑coast heartbeat; client‑onsite time varies by engagement.
• We optimize for skill, signal, and values over pedigree. Expect a fast process: intro → working session (realistic client scenario) → panel → references.
• We focus on mid‑market and enterprise clients.
• We value curiosity, proactive learning, and ownership. If you’re a thoughtful builder who likes turning ambiguity into impact, you’ll fit right in.

Legal disclaimer

VBT is an equal‑opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all teammates.