Principal - Financial Services (AI Strategy)

We’re growing quickly and looking for an exceptional Principal to lead AI Strategy work for Financial Services sector clients. This role is designed for a senior operator-consultant who can advise C-suite leaders, identify high-impact AI opportunities, and help clients move quickly from strategy to implemented value. 

The Principal - Financial Services will lead complex AI strategy engagements for banking, asset management, insurance, and capital markets clients. You will bring deep sector fluency, strong executive presence, and the ability to translate AI capabilities into measurable business impact across regulated financial workflows. 

This role requires an AI-native mindset. We are not looking for traditional consulting delivery alone. The right candidate is a builder who can use, prototype, and help implement AI tools directly with clients; understands modern technology architecture; and can deliver tangible upfront value without defaulting to prolonged discovery cycles.

• Own senior client relationships and lead engagement teams from problem definition through recommendation and execution
• Advise C-suite and senior leaders, including CIOs, CDOs, CROs, business heads, and innovation leaders, on AI-enabled strategy, cost optimization, risk management, and revenue growth
• Identify high-impact AI use cases across financial services workflows and prioritize them based on feasibility, value, risk, and implementation complexity
• Develop practical roadmaps that connect business objectives, technology architecture, data requirements, governance, and operating model change

• Challenge traditional consulting delivery models by bringing immediate, tangible value through rapid AI-enabled diagnostics, prototypes, and workflow demonstrations. 
• Use and direct AI tools directly with clients rather than only advising conceptually. 
• Lead teams that combine consulting judgment, technical understanding, financial services-sector fluency, and hands-on AI execution
• Establish repeatable methods for AI use case identification, prototyping, evaluation, adoption, and scaling

• Navigate banking, asset management, insurance, and capital markets operations with credibility and precision
• Assess AI opportunities in areas such as fraud detection, risk modelling, automated underwriting, compliance monitoring, algorithmic trading support, claims processing, and personalized wealth management
• Understand the operational realities of core banking systems, trading platforms, CRM ecosystems, data platforms, and legacy infrastructure
• Translate sector-specific constraints into pragmatic implementation plans

• Address model explainability, bias mitigation, data security, privacy, and governance requirements in financial AI deployments
• Help clients evaluate AI risk within regulatory environments including SEC, FINRA, GDPR, and related supervisory expectations
• Partner with client legal, compliance, risk, technology, and business teams to design responsible AI adoption pathways
• Ensure recommendations are commercially sharp, technically grounded, and defensible in regulated environments

• Senior experience leading strategy, technology, AI, digital transformation, or operating model engagements for financial services clients
• Deep credibility with senior financial services stakeholders, ideally including CIOs, CDOs, CROs, COOs, business-unit leaders, transformation leaders, risk leaders, or compliance leaders
• Comprehensive understanding of banking, asset management, insurance, fintech, or capital markets operations and regulatory environments
• Practical understanding of how AI can be applied to financial services workflows, including risk management, compliance, customer experience, operations, underwriting, fraud, investment management, productivity, or financial workflow automation use cases
• Strong understanding of the constraints of deploying AI in regulated financial services environments, including data governance, privacy, model governance, explainability, bias, operational risk, cybersecurity, and compliance
• Ability to identify high-value AI use cases in financial services and translate them into practical client-facing offerings, workshops, playbooks, prototypes, workflow redesigns, or advisory content
• Demonstrated experience building or operating within AI-native business models or AI-enabled delivery approaches, including partnering with AI product managers or technical teams to agentify advisory services
• Proven builder orientation: ability to use, prototype, and help implement AI tools directly with clients rather than only advising conceptually
• Strong engagement leadership, team management, executive communication, and client relationship skills

• Experience at a top-tier consulting firm, financial institution, AI-native services firm, fintech, regtech, or enterprise technology company
• Hands-on exposure to AI, data, or automation initiatives in fraud, risk, underwriting, compliance, trading, lending, insurance, or wealth management
• Familiarity with core banking systems, trading platforms, CRM ecosystems, data platforms, and model governance environments
• Experience developing AI governance, responsible AI, model risk management, or compliance frameworks
• Background working across technology, economics, management science, product, or data science teams
• Advanced degree or equivalent experience in business, engineering, computer science, economics, finance, or a related analytical field

• Credibility with financial services executives and the judgment to operate in high-stakes regulated environments
• Builder mindset with comfort moving from boardroom strategy to practical AI workflow design
• Ability to separate AI hype from real operational and commercial value
• Strong innovative mindset and willingness to challenge traditional consulting billing and delivery norms
• High ownership, analytical rigor, and precision under ambiguity