Principal Consultant

Principal Consultant – Data & AI - to £100k base + bonus - Remote - No Sponsorship offered

About the role

Our client is a boutique strategic consultancy that delivers business transformations to leading clients across engineering, manufacturing, building services, luxury, professional services, and other complex B2B sectors.

As Principal Consultant (Data & AI), and deputy within this space, you'll lead significant parts of client engagements, owning entire workstreams from scoping through to delivery, as well as assisting with Business Development activities. You'll flex between specialist and generalist work across data strategy, governance, analytics, AI transformation, process mapping and change management - advising senior stakeholders, producing high-quality deliverables, and mentoring junior colleagues along the way.

This is a high-impact role for someone ready to take ownership and make a visible difference to a growing Technology, Data & AI practice, joining at a genuine growth phase with the scope to shape both the business and your own career.

What you'll do

• Lead and deliver data and AI transformation workstreams end-to-end
• Advise on data and AI strategy, governance, management, culture, analytics, adoption and ethics
• Pilot and implement AI solutions, KPI-led BI, data-driven ways of working and Responsible AI practices
• Facilitate workshops with senior stakeholders and translate business goals into measurable roadmaps
• Contribute to wider transformation work - process mapping, operating model design and change management
• Support business development: shape proposals, run discovery calls, build reusable frameworks, toolkits and accelerators
• Produce thought leadership and embed AI-led ways of working internally
• Coach and mentor analysts, and manage deliverables with associates/contractors

What you'll bring

• 6–10 years in consulting or transformation roles with strong data and AI expertise
• Depth across data and AI strategy, data management and governance, data culture, analytics and visualisation
• Proficiency in Power BI/Tableau and advanced Excel; SQL, PowerApps or Alteryx desirable
• A prominent user of leading AI tools and technologies
• Strong stakeholder management, facilitation and presentation skills
• Proven track record of owning client-facing deliverables and workstreams
• A learning and growth mindset, comfortable in a fast-paced, multi-sector environment

Desirable: data governance certifications (DAMA, MS Azure); experience with data platforms (Snowflake, Spark, Hadoop); change management certification (e.g. PROSCI).

What's on offer

• Flexible working - remote-first with team meetups and client days
• 30 days holiday plus pension contribution
• Private healthcare allowance
• L&D budget
• A leadership role shaping the practice, with direct access to senior clients and high-impact projects

Vertex Search is acting as a recruitment agency on this engagement. The client is unable to offer visa sponsorship at this stage of their journey.