Principal Consultant, Data & AI

Accountabilities: As a Principal Consultant, you will provide technical leadership across strategic customer engagements while helping advance the organization's Data and AI capabilities. Your responsibilities will include: Lead the technical direction and delivery of the firm's most complex Microsoft technology engagements. Act as the ultimate technical escalation point, resolving highly ambiguous problems and managing the greatest delivery risks across the practice. Own technical authority during pre-sales activities for major strategic opportunities, including technical scoping and executive-level solution presentations. Define, improve, and promote technical standards, delivery methodologies, and best practices across consulting teams. Advise leadership on capability gaps, emerging technologies, practice strategy, and potential technology investments. Influence architecture decisions and methodology frameworks across the practice, with opportunities to shape broader industry approaches. Mentor Senior Consultants and help develop technical expertise within the team. Maintain advanced Microsoft certifications and contribute to the organization's technical reputation through speaking, publishing, or community leadership. Collaborate with Sales, Solution Architects, and Professional Services colleagues to deliver high-value customer solutions. Travel up to 25% as required by customer engagements. Requirements The ideal candidate combines extensive enterprise consulting experience with deep Microsoft Data and AI expertise, strong executive communication skills, and the ability to influence strategic decisions independently. Key qualifications include: 10+ years of experience in technical consulting, working closely with Sales, Solution Architecture, and delivery teams. An active Microsoft Expert or Specialty-level certification in your primary area of specialization at the time of entry. Extensive experience delivering enterprise-scale Microsoft technology engagements, with deep expertise in a primary specialization. Strong technical knowledge of relevant technologies, including: Microsoft Fabric, including Lakehouse, Warehouse, pipelines, notebooks, and OneLake. Power BI, including semantic modeling, DAX, governance, and capacity management. SQL, Python, PySpark, and Databricks. Azure data services and Azure DevOps/GitHub CI/CD for data. Microsoft Foundry and Copilot Studio. Proven ability to establish and drive delivery standards, develop new methodologies, and encourage their adoption across teams or practices. Strong executive communication and presentation skills, with the ability to represent an organization credibly in customer, partner, and public-facing environments. Experience influencing leadership-level strategy and investment decisions without relying on formal management authority. Ability to work autonomously, exercise sound technical judgment, and resolve complex problems involving significant uncertainty and delivery risk. Active involvement in the Microsoft partner ecosystem. A collaborative mindset, supported by humility, initiative, accountability, empathy, and awareness of team dynamics. Additional advantages include: Multiple Microsoft Expert or Specialty-level certifications across related specializations. Active participation in the broader technology community through speaking engagements, publishing, advisory boards, or other industry contributions. Benefits Opportunity to lead technically complex, high-impact enterprise engagements. Significant autonomy and influence over technical standards, architecture decisions, and practice strategy. Direct collaboration with senior leadership and cross-functional consulting teams. Opportunities to mentor experienced consultants and shape the development of technical capabilities. Professional growth through advanced Microsoft certifications and participation in the Microsoft partner ecosystem. Potential to build recognized industry authority through speaking, publishing, and community leadership. Exposure to strategic customer opportunities and emerging Microsoft Data and AI technologies. Travel of up to 25% as required by engagements.