Forward Deployed Strategist

Role

The Forward Deployed Strategist on phData’s Advisory team is a business-first consultant who sits at the intersection of consulting, product thinking, value mapping, and technology. The role leads client-facing discovery, frames high-impact AI and data use cases in clear business terms, and drives rapid prototyping and activation toward measurable MVPs and scalable solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Client discovery and opportunity framing: rapidly understand client challenges, stakeholder dynamics, and workflows; identify high-value AI opportunities; translate ambiguity into clear problem statements, hypotheses, and MVP scopes.
• Business value and executive communication: define success through business KPIs, quantify expected value, build rigorous business cases, and tell executive-level stories that connect use cases to roadmaps and investment decisions.
• Prototype activation and scale readiness: prototype and iterate using low/no-code and AI-assisted tools; collaborate with technologists to demonstrate value early; surface platform, data, and operating-model gaps required to scale.
• Client leadership and engagement ownership: serve as the primary business-facing lead, manage scope and risk, create alignment on priorities and decisions, and work alongside clients (in person as needed) to drive outcomes.

Requirements

• 5+ years of consulting experience with a focus on technology-driven process optimization.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication, including executive storytelling, workshop leadership, and business-case development.
• Proven ability to build trust with executives, functional leaders, and end users in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.
• Strong consulting presence: facilitation, constructive challenge, and guiding clients to practical decisions.
• Experience translating ambiguous business problems into structured problem statements, use cases, hypotheses, and MVP scopes.
• Ability to connect solution ideas to measurable business value (KPIs, ROI logic, adoption metrics, cycle-time improvements, risk reduction, time-to-value).
• Experience partnering with technical teams to move from business requirements to prototypes, pilots, and scalable solutions.
• Comfort working hands-on with AI copilots, analytics tools, workflow tools, and low/no-code platforms to accelerate discovery and validation.
• Empathy for users and willingness to immerse in real workflows, including exceptions and workarounds.
• High ownership, sound judgment, and comfort progressing without perfect requirements.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, analytics, engineering, information systems, design, or related field, or equivalent experience.

Preferred Experience

• Master’s in business administration (MBA).
• Exposure to modern data and AI platforms, self-service analytics, workflow automation, and low/no-code tooling.
• Experience building business cases for technology investments and influencing executive stakeholders.
• Experience working alongside engineers, solution architects, or delivery teams in client-service environments.
• Familiarity with change management, adoption planning, or operating-model design.