Principal Data Strategist

About ThoughtFocus ThoughtFocus is a specialized IT services firm delivering technology solutions to clients in Banking & Insurance, Capital Markets, Payments, Mortgage & Lending, and Manufacturing. With a seasoned onsite leadership team and a proven global delivery engine, we partner with clients to modernize, scale, and extract strategic value from their technology investments. Our Data & AI practice is a core growth engine and this role sits at the center of it.

About the Role

ThoughtFocus is looking for a rare combination: a seasoned data technologist and business transformation advisor who can walk a client's architecture, challenge its assumptions, and then walk into the boardroom to shape strategy and drive deals. The Principal Data Strategist is a senior revenue-influencing role at the intersection of deep technical authority and executive-level client influence owning the narrative on data driven business transformation, AI readiness, and the solutions ThoughtFocus delivers. You will work across the full sales and engagement lifecycle from opportunity origination to close to outcome realization. You thrive in fast-paced, high-demand environments, manage multiple client situations simultaneously without losing quality or composure, and bring a builder's mindset to both client work and the ThoughtFocus practice.

What You Will Do

Revenue Generation & Client Engagement Drive revenue by identifying, shaping, and closing data and AI opportunities operating as a senior technical seller who earns trust through credibility, not just relationships. Partner with account and sales teams across the full opportunity lifecycle: qualification, solution shaping, proposal development, and close. Lead executive briefings, discovery workshops, and whiteboard sessions translating complex data and AI concepts into compelling business value narratives for C-suite and VP-level audiences. Develop crisp, persuasive proposals, roadmaps, and business cases that connect ThoughtFocus capabilities to client transformation priorities. Travel to client sites regularly to build relationships, advance opportunities, and maintain trusted advisor status.

Data & AI Strategy Advisory Advise clients on enterprise data strategy in the context of business technology transformation not just modernization for its own sake, but data as a strategic asset that drives competitive advantage. Guide clients on building AI-ready data foundations: governance, quality, lineage, integration, and architecture patterns that make reliable AI adoption possible at scale. Bring working knowledge of agentic AI, LLM integration into data pipelines, and AI governance frameworks enough to shape strategy, challenge vendor claims, and define a credible path forward. Define current- and target-state architectures spanning cloud, hybrid, and legacy environments; translate them into phased, actionable roadmaps tied to business outcomes. Guide platform and tooling decisions across the full data spectrum: architecture, modeling, ETL/ELT, integration, analytics, data science, and AI/ML.

Engagement Oversight & Client Success Provide senior strategic oversight on large, complex engagements ensuring delivery aligns with the original vision and clients realize tangible ROI from ThoughtFocus solutions. Bridge the gap between delivery teams and client stakeholders; serve as the escalation point for strategic misalignment. Work in close coordination with onsite and offshore delivery teams; bring deep fluency in the global delivery model to structure engagements that work across geographies and time zones.

Practice Development Contribute to the ThoughtFocus Data & AI practice: develop reusable offerings, points of view, solution accelerators, and go-to-market assets. ThoughtFocus Data & AI Practice | Page 1 ThoughtFocus | Confidential Position Description Help build ThoughtFocus's market presence through thought leadership, client storytelling, and representing the firm's data and AI capabilities externally.

What You Bring

Experience 15+ years of progressive experience across the data discipline architecture, modeling, ETL/ELT, data movement, analytics, data science, and AI. Demonstrated track record of influencing and driving revenue in a pre-sales, solution advisory, or consulting capacity. Experience in a fast-paced, matrixed environment managing multiple client engagements and priorities simultaneously. Background overseeing large, complex data programs not as a day-to-day delivery manager, but as the strategic authority accountable for outcomes. Fluency in the onsite-offshore global delivery model; you know how to architect and manage engagements that work across geographies.

Technical Depth Full-stack fluency across legacy and modern data platforms from Teradata, Informatica, SSIS, and Oracle to cloud-native architectures. Hands-on familiarity with Databricks, Snowflake, and Microsoft Fabric; comfortable advising on architecture, fit, and trade-offs for each. Data modeling (3NF, dimensional, data vault), ETL/ELT patterns, streaming architectures, data mesh and data fabric concepts. AI/ML operationalization, agentic AI patterns, LLM integration into data pipelines, and AI governance frameworks. Data governance, cataloging, lineage, and quality frameworks (Collibra, Alation, Great Expectations, or equivalents). Familiarity with major cloud hyperscalers AWS, Azure, GCP and their data and AI service ecosystems.

Communication & Executive Presence Exceptional written and verbal communication you write crisp proposals, tell coherent stories, and never hide behind jargon. Confident and compelling at the whiteboard: you sketch architectures, frameworks, and roadmaps in real time and bring a room with you. Equally at ease in a deep technical exchange with a data engineer and a strategic conversation with a CTO, CDO, or CFO. Comfortable operating in ambiguity and at pace you manage multiple threads without losing sharpness or client focus.