Senior Director, AI Transformation

Description

About Alvarez & Marsal

Alvarez & Marsal (A& M) is a global consulting firm with entrepreneurial, action- and results-oriented professionals. We take a hands-on approach to solving our clients' problems and helping them reach their potential. A& M is different by design: we give people ownership and impact from day one, fuel development through real opportunity, and provide direct access to leaders who invest in our growth. Our culture celebrates independent thinkers and doers who positively impact clients and shape our industry. Guided by A& M's core values of Integrity, Quality, Objectivity, Fun, Personal Reward, and Inclusive Diversity, our collaborative, globally minded environment is why our people love working at A& M.

The Team

A& M is seeking a Senior Director to join A& M IQx, our AI-focused business unit. We design, build, and deploy AI solutions that help clients eliminate manual work, move faster, and deliver measurable results across industries.

This is a technical leadership and consulting role, which includes both hands-on building, solution design, workstream leadership, and client advisory. You will own solution architecture, lead a project workstream, build the most complex components yourself, mentor Associates and Senior Associates, and serve as a trusted advisor to client executives. You will take solutions from proof of concept through secure, enterprise-scale production, and help shape proposals and pursuits with business unit leadership.

AI Transformation Practice

The AI Transformation team helps private equity firms, their portfolio companies and corporate clients drive value through applied AI. Our engagements span:

• Diligence & Strategy
  • AI disruption diligence
  • AI strategy and operating model design
• Cost & Margin
  • Margin expansion and cost optimization through automation and analytics, including AI-enabled zero-based optimization
  • Process redesign and workflow transformation
• Growth & Product
  • AI-enabled product builds and digital capabilities
  • New growth initiatives powered by data and advanced analytics
• Execution & Value Tracking
  • End-to-end transformation execution, governance and value tracking

We align AI initiatives with investment theses and corporate strategy, financial targets, and operational realities to ensure durable impact.

How you will contribute

As a Senior Director in the AI Transformation team, you will be a recognized expert in your function with credible, practical AI fluency. You will bring client relationships, shape and win new work, and lead the delivery of AI-driven value creation programs for private equity firms, their portfolio companies and corporate clients. You will be a trusted advisor to fund partners and Operating Partners, and to portfolio company and corporate C-suites, and you will help build the practice: its offerings, its methods and its people.

This role is for an experienced operator or consulting leader who knows how a function really runs at scale, and who can show executives where AI changes its economics and where it does not.

Key Responsibilities

Business Development

• Build and grow relationships with PE funds and Operating Partners, and with portfolio company and corporate executives
• Originate, shape, scope and co-lead pursuits, including proposals, pricing input and client presentations
• Lead AI bootcamps and working sessions with PE sponsors and corporate leadership teams, and turn them into follow-on work

Client Delivery

• Serve as the senior point of contact on engagements, owning executive communication and client satisfaction
• Oversee multiple engagements at once, each run by Directors and delivery pods
• Hold teams accountable for measurable financial outcomes, value tracking and benefits realization
• Provide quality assurance on deliverables, financial impact estimates and recommendations
• Bring deep expertise in at least one function (e.g., supply chain, procurement, manufacturing, finance operations, shared services, customer operations)
• Advise C-suite leaders on AI use cases, value, risk and operating model in plain, commercial terms
• Lead AI diligence and size-of-prize work, linking AI opportunities to EBITDA, margin and exit value
• Shape AI-enabled operating models and clean-sheet process designs grounded in operational feasibility
• Guide clients on vendor, partner and build-versus-buy decisions

Practice Development

• Act as a founding leader of a net-new practice, shaping its strategy, offerings and go-to-market alongside practice leadership
• Own one or more offerings end to end, from defining the service and pricing to building credentials and growing revenue
• Build the practice's methods, playbooks, accelerators, case studies and reusable assets
• Recruit, develop and mentor Directors, Managers and Associates, and help shape team structure, training and career paths
• Build relationships with AI and technology partners, and work across A& M practices to bring AI into the wider firm's client work
• Contribute to thought leadership, including white papers, market updates and industry events
• Champion AI adoption inside the practice and the wider firm by sharing tools and new ways of working

Qualifications

Required Experience

• 12-15+ years of experience in operations leadership, strategy or operations consulting, or value creation roles
• Deep functional expertise, gained either by running a function at scale or as a senior consultant specializing in it
• A track record of leading transformation programs with measurable financial results (margin improvement, cost takeout, productivity, growth)
• An existing network of client relationships, and a proven ability to originate and grow work
• Experience building and leading teams
• Experience working with private equity firms or PE-backed portfolio companies, and with corporate clients

AI & Technology Fluency

• Advanced, everyday user of AI tools (AI assistants, coding assistants and agent platforms) to speed up research, analysis and client deliverables
• Able to personally build a quick proof of concept or working demo, using AI coding assistants, low-code or agent platforms, to show a client what AI would do with their own data
• Hands-on experience applying AI or automation to change how a function or organization operates
• Understands how modern AI systems work (large language models, agents, retrieval, integration with enterprise data and systems) well enough to judge feasibility, cost and risk, and to challenge vendors
• Able to discuss AI use cases, data readiness, risk and adoption credibly with executives and technical teams alike
• Sound judgment on where AI creates real value and where it does not

Preferred Background

• Senior Director or Managing Director at a top-tier strategy, Big 4 or operations consulting firm, with deep industry or functional knowledge
• Or an industry executive who ran a function at scale and then led AI-enabled transformation
• MBA or advanced degree preferred

Your journey at A& M

At A& M, professional growth is tied directly to performance, not tenure. Our people take on meaningful, hands-on work supported by a performance development process that rewards contribution and fosters a culture of meritocracy. Stretch roles, evolving business needs, and firm growth create ongoing opportunities for ownership and building new skills, while direct access to senior leaders provides mentorship and real-time coaching along the way. We also prioritize your wellbeing through comprehensive benefits and resources. Together, these elements create an environment where high-performing professionals can continue to grow and advance from day one.

Regular employees working 30 or more hours per week are also entitled to participate in Alvarez & Marsal Holdings' fringe benefits consisting of healthcare plans, flexible spending and savings accounts, life, AD& D, and disability coverages at rates determined periodically as well as a 401(k) retirement savings plan. Provided the eligibility requirements are met, employees will also receive an annual discretionary contribution to their 401(k) retirement savings plan from Alvarez & Marsal. Additionally, employees are eligible for paid time off including vacation, personal days, seventy-two (72) hours of sick time (prorated for part time employees), ten federal holidays, one floating holiday, and parental leave. The amount of vacation and personal days available varies based on tenure and role type. Click here for more information regarding A& M's benefits programs.

The salary range is $175, 000 - $250, 000 annually, dependent on several variables including but not limited to education, experience, skills, and geography. In addition, A& M offers a discretionary bonus program which is based on several factors, including individual and firm performance. Please ask your recruiter for more details.

Must be authorized to work in the US without the need for employment-based sponsorship now or in the future. A& M will not sponsor applicants for US work visa status for this role.

#LI-LH1