• Build and sustain trust-based relationships with client Directors, VPs, and C-level technology leaders, positioning yourself and AHEAD as the trusted advisor on modernization strategy and execution. 

• Tailor communication style and storyline to the audience — from engineers to C-level — and lead discovery sessions, workshops, executive readouts, and difficult conversations with confidence, empathy, and clarity. Navigate client organizational dynamics and manage expectations on outcomes, timelines, and delivery risks. 

• Apply structured, hypothesis-driven problem solving to ambiguous client situations: frame the core business issues, design the analyses needed to test them, and synthesize findings into a defensible point of view — even when information is incomplete or conflicting. 

• Develop modernization strategies that ladder up to clients' business and digital transformation objectives, accounting for organizational readiness, change management, and operating-model implications alongside the technical roadmap. 

• Build and defend the business case for modernization — quantifying TCO, ROI, and risk reduction — and use the client’s cost and value drivers to prioritize candidates, sequence the roadmap, and frame trade-offs. 

• Decompose enterprise modernization programs into pragmatic workstreams, sequencing decisions based on business value, risk, dependencies, and organizational readiness rather than purely technical considerations. 

• Continually identify new ways to serve the client, surfacing follow-on opportunities and expanding the footprint of the engagement based on observed business needs. 

• Lead pre-sales and pursuit efforts for modernization opportunities: shape the opportunity with the client, structure the solution, scope and estimate the work, lead proposal development and technical demonstrations, and own the technical credibility of the pursuit through close. Contribute to commercial structuring and pricing decisions. 

• Executive presence and trusted-advisor track record with senior client stakeholders (Director through C-suite) — including delivering difficult messages, handling pushback, and resolving conflict constructively. 

• Communicates with clarity and influence across audiences: constructs compelling storylines, surfaces underlying stakeholder concerns, and aligns groups around a recommendation. 

• Demonstrated ability to build, defend, and present business cases (TCO, ROI, value realization) that connect modernization investments to measurable financial and operational outcomes. 

• Strong ability to assess technical debt, identify modernization candidates, determine business value, and estimate effort and risk. 

• Ability to help clients develop an informed point of view on where and how to responsibly adopt AI-assisted engineering in their own organizations — including the operating model, governance, quality controls, and talent implications — not just the tooling. 

• Experience in consulting or pre-sales roles, including technical solutioning, prototyping, requirements definition, and project scoping. 

• Strong leadership qualities with the ability to motivate teams and provide direct technical oversight and mentorship 

Preferred 

• Working knowledge of the business models, value chains, and competitive dynamics of the industries AHEAD serves (e.g., financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, retail), with the ability to connect modernization decisions to industry-specific value drivers and regulatory constraints 

• Experience modernizing brownfield applications and legacy enterprise systems 

• Experience building proofs of concept, prototypes, or technical demonstrations in consulting sales cycles 

• Experience contributing reusable code libraries, accelerators, templates, or practice assets 

• Experience with automated software analysis tools (CAST, Matilda, Dynatrace, etc.)