Senior Analyst – Intelligence & Advisory

AHEAD; United States; Remote; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive health insurance

Paid time off and holidays

Flexible work arrangements

Learning and development opportunities

Employee wellness initiatives

Retirement and statutory benefits

Inclusive and people-first culture

Job summary

AHEAD seeks a seasoned Research & Advisory professional to translate client questions into structured analyses, deliver market intelligence and executive-ready insights. You will synthesize primary and secondary research, build dashboards in Power BI and present strategic recommendations to senior stakeholders in fast-paced pursuit teams.

Experience in IT services, cloud, data and AI, with strong storytelling and collaboration skills, is highly valued. Hybrid work with global clients is offered.

Qualifications

• 5–8 years of progressive experience in research, market or deal advisory.
• Bachelor’s degree is a must; a master’s degree is preferred.
• Knowledge of IT services, cloud, AI and cybersecurity is a plus.
• Proficiency in Power BI, Excel and data visualization tools.
• Strong problem solving, storytelling and executive communication.

Responsibilities

• Translate pursuit, account and client questions into structured problem statements and research plans.
• Apply MECE issue trees, hypothesis testing and value-chain analysis to guide recommendations.
• Own end-to-end delivery of market intelligence, dashboards and reports.
• Synthesize intelligence from primary and secondary sources into executive-ready insights.
• Build consulting-grade decks and present findings to senior stakeholders.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align intelligence with strategy.

Skills

Problem solving

Structured thinking

Communication

Presentation skills

Collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Master’s degree preferred

Tools

Power BI

Excel

Tableau

Alteryx

Knime

Qualtrics

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.

AtAHEAD, 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,anddo not discriminatebased onan individual’s race, national origin, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, maritalstatus,or any other protected characteristic under applicable law, whether actual or perceived.

_ We embraceall candidatesthatwillcontribute to the diversification and enrichment of ideas andperspectives atAHEAD. _

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Problem Solving & Advisory Support

• Translate pursuit, account and client questions into structured problem statements, hypotheses , issue trees and research plans; clarify scope, success criteria and timelines with stakeholders up front.
• Apply consulting frameworks and structured thinking (e.g., MECE issue trees, hypothesis-driven analysis, value-chain and maturity assessments, 2x2 prioritization) to break down complex problems, test hypotheses and arrive at defensible answers.
• Exercise sound judgement when data is incomplete — triangulate across sources, state assumptions, size the opportunity and flag confidence levels — and always answer the “so what” with a recommendation, not just data.
• Apply sound judgement to prioritize what matters: separate signal from noise, assess the reliability of sources and data, challenge assumptions, and clearly call out risks, trade-offs and confidence levels in every recommendation.
• Advisory Engagements: Support pursuit and advisory engagements by delivering market insights, competitive benchmarking and strategic guidance that shape deal strategy and client conversations.

Research Delivery & Insights

• Own end-to-end delivery of assigned items from AHEAD’s research product stack — Market Size & Outlook, Industry/Technology POVs, Account Intelligence Packs, Competitive Profiles & Battlecards, Buying Behaviour Analysis, market trend summaries/briefs, Capability Heatmaps, Benchmark Reports and other custom research products where required
• S ynthesize intelligence from primary research and secondary sources — tier-1 analyst platforms (e.g., Gartner, Everest Group, Forrester, Nelson Hall, IDC, Avasant), business databases (e.g., Hoovers, AlphaSense ,ZoomInfo) and proprietary sources — into crisp, executive-ready insight narratives.
• Track competitor strategies, partnerships, offerings and deal signals, and translate them into actionable pursuit positioning.
• Analyze market dynamics across AHEAD-relevant technology areas—including Applications, cloud and infrastructure, application modernization, data and AI, cybersecurity, digital workplace, platform engineering, automation, and emerging technologies to assess business needs and technology linkages.
• Build account-level intelligence to support strategic account planning, C-suite engagement and opportunity identification.
• Know how in helping service providers make informed pricing and solutioning decisions — e.g., peer price benchmarking, delivery-improvement and competitive analysis to improve win-rates (Good to have or is a plus)
• Validate sources for currency, credibility and relevance; maintain high standards of accuracy and referencing across all deliverables.

Reporting, Dashboards & AI-Enabled Research

• Design, build and maintain interactive dashboards and reports in Power BI and lightweight HTML dashboards (e.g., competitor trackers, account, and market views, CoE performance reporting) that let stakeholders self-serve insights.
• Clean, model and visualize data from multiple sources (Excel, databases, analyst-platform exports); ensure accuracy, clear metric definitions and version control.
• Use AI tools and agents to automate and accelerate research workflows — source scanning, competitor monitoring, summarization and first-draft creation — with human validation of every output.
• Verify AI-generated content for accuracy, bias and source traceability; build reusable prompts and agent workflows and share good practices with the team.

Storytelling & Visual Communication

• Convert research findings into answer-first storylines, proposal narratives and CXO-level communications that persuade rather than merely present.
• Build polished, consulting-grade decks and data visualizations using AHEAD’s brand-compliant templates; partner with visual communication specialists for high-impact pursuit and proposal material.
• Present findings and recommendations to senior internal stakeholders and handle questions and pushback with confidence.

Stakeholder Partnership

• Act as a day-to-day research partner with consulting, sales, practice and deal teams to translate business needs into hypothesis-led research and concise, insight-rich narratives aligned with AHEAD’s solutions.
• Manage multiple concurrent requests, balancing standard reports with bespoke, high-urgency support while keeping quality and timelines on track.
• Anticipate intelligence needs across the pursuit lifecycle-from opportunity identification and qualification to proposal development and win/loss review — and incorporate stakeholder feedback into future work.
• Collaborate with subject-matter experts across AHEAD’s practices to understand intelligence requirements and deliver research aligned to account goals.
• Present findings through concise, insight-rich narratives that connect business strategy with AHEAD solutions.

Team Contribution, Tools & Continuous Improvement

• Contribute to reusable assets — research templates, source libraries, capability heatmaps, frameworks and maturity models — that extend research output into AHEAD IP.
• Help shape the CoE’s research agenda — identify priority topics, data gaps and new content ideas based on industry and stakeholder needs — and recommend process and tooling improvements to Intelligence & Advisory stakeholders
• Track and report on your own delivery metrics — turnaround time, quality and stakeholder satisfaction — and contribute to win/loss learnings on research-supported pursuits.
• Mentor, guide and review the work of junior analysts; share domain knowledge, research methods and quality standards to raise the team’s overall capability.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

• Experience: 5–8 years of progressive experience in research, market/competitive intelligence, deal advisory and strategy/management consulting – in large leading IT services /Consulting firms OR leading research & advisory firm ( Candidates from BPO industry /BPO Services companies need not apply )
• Education: Bachelor’s degree is a must; and/or master’s degree in management from a reputed institution is preferred.
• Domain Expertise – Technology and Vertical Domain (atleast one domain) : Good understanding of the IT services and enterprise technology landscape — Enterprise Applications, cloud, infrastructure, digital transformation, data & AI, GenAI, cybersecurity coupled with one or two domains (Verticals)
• Exceptional Problem Solving & Structured Thinking: Proven ability to break down ambiguous, open-ended questions into structured problems, form and test hypotheses, perform root-cause analysis and reach clear conclusions with minimal supervision.
• Consulting Skills: Consulting-style approach to scoping, framing and answering stakeholder questions — including storyline development, “so what” thinking, handling feedback and pushback, and making recommendations rather than simply reporting data.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (e.g. Word, Excel and PowerPoint); software tools working knowledge (e.g. Alteryx, Tableau, Power BI, Knime, Qualtrics etc ) is a plus
• AI & Agents: Hands-on experience using generative AI tools and AI agents in research or analysis workflows (prompting, automation, validation of outputs), with a responsible-use mindset and enthusiasm for adopting new ways of working.
• Judgment & Analytical Skills: Strong ability to analyze market trends, vendor strategies and enterprise needs, combining qualitative and quantitative inputs (market sizing, benchmarking, comparative analysis) into actionable insights; sound judgement in prioritizing, weighing evidence, evaluating source credibility and making a call when data is imperfect.
• Reporting & Dashboarding: Working proficiency in Power BI (data modelling, DAX/Power Query basics) and advanced Excel; ability to build clear, interactive dashboards, including HTML-based dashboards, that turn data into decision-ready views.
• Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication; able to produce executive summaries, research notes and presentations that are clear, concise and ready for senior audiences.
• Presentation Skills: Strong working proficiency in PowerPoint — able to turn analysis into polished, consulting-grade slides, charts and visual narratives.
• Research Proficiency: Hands-on experience with secondary research using tier-1 analyst platforms and business intelligence databases, across areas such as competitive intelligence, account intelligence, market sizing, market trend synthesis,technology benchmarking and converting research evidence into structured findings is preferred.
• Curiosity & Ownership: Intellectual curiosity, comfort with ambiguity and the drive to push beyond surface-level data to uncover insight that changes how decisions are made.
• Organizational Rigour: Ability to manage multiple concurrent deliverables with competing priorities and tight timelines while maintaining quality.
• Collaboration: Collaborative, consultative mindset; builds trusted relationships with global, cross-functional teams.
• Exposure to RFP support, proposal intelligence or pursuit enablement within a consulting or technology firm.

Why AHEAD:

Through our daily work and internal groups like Moving Women AHEAD and RISE AHEAD, we value and benefit from diversity of people, ideas, experience, and everything in between.

We fuel growth by stacking our office with top-notch technologies in a multi-million-dollar lab, by encouraging cross department training and development, sponsoring certifications and credentials for continued learning.

India Employment Benefits include:

Comprehensive health insurance coverage for employees, with options to extend coverage to dependents

Paid time off and company holidays , along with additional leave benefits as per policy

Flexible work arrangements , supporting work-life balance

Learning and development opportunities to support continuous growth and upskilling

Employee wellness initiatives and programs focused on physical and mental well-being

Retirement and statutory benefits in line with India regulations

Inclusive and people-first culture , with a strong focus on collaboration and ownership