Data & AI Principal

About the role

As a Principal in our team, you will play a pivotal role in shaping our data offerings, leading business development, and driving strategic digital transformation for our clients — while staying close enough to the technology to be credible in the room and useful on the ground.

This role bridges business strategy, organizational change, and hands-on data and AI solutions. You will act as a senior advisor to client leadership, helping them unlock measurable business value from their data assets — but you'll also roll up your sleeves: reviewing architecture decisions on platforms like AWS, Azure or GCP, weighing in on tool choices (e.g. Databricks vs. Synapse, warehouse vs. lakehouse setups), and occasionally getting into the weeds of a proof-of-concept or data strategy workshop. Working alongside software developers, designers, data engineers and AI engineers, you will turn complex client challenges into commercial opportunities and technically sound solutions, steering engagements from initial concept through to production and successful business outcomes.

• Drive commercial growth by building and refining our Data & AI service offerings — shaping opportunities, leading sales discussions, writing proposals, and expanding key accounts

• Serve as a trusted consultant for C-suite and senior business stakeholders, translating organizational challenges, industry trends, and business processes into clear data and AI strategies and roadmaps

• Advise on when custom model development or fine-tuning is warranted versus off-the-shelf/foundation-model approaches, including cases requiring offline, on-device or edge deployment

• Get hands-on where it counts: contribute to solution architecture reviews, technical due diligence, and vendor/tool evaluations (cloud data platforms, ETL/orchestration tools, GenAI/LLM stacks) alongside engineers and data scientists

• Weigh in on technical roadmaps covering data infrastructure (e.g. RedShift, Glue, Data Factory, Databricks), MLOps/LLMOps practices, and applied GenAI architectures (RAG, agentic systems, orchestration frameworks such as LangChain or LangGraph)

• Focus on outcome-driven digital transformation — ensuring data and AI initiatives directly improve operational efficiency, streamline processes, or create competitive advantage for clients

• Lead client relationships and workshops, framing ambiguous business problems into structured, technically grounded projects, and managing senior-level stakeholder expectations

• Partner closely with Futurice's design, software engineering, data engineering and AI capabilities to ensure solutions integrate seamlessly into broader digital ecosystems and enterprise platforms

• Stay technically current — cloud data platforms, modern data architecture, and applied AI/GenAI trends — so you can credibly challenge and guide both client and internal teams

• Mentor team members in both commercial awareness and technical/consultant skills, and capture reusable assets and best practices across engagements

What we hope you bring

• Solid hands-on or architect-level experience with the modern data and AI landscape — cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), data infrastructure (e.g. Redshift, Glue, Data Factory, Synapse, Databricks), and GenAI/LLM-based solutions (agentic architectures, RAG, tools like LangChain, LangGraph or similar), including familiarity with model training/fine-tuning and offline or edge AI deployment considerations — enough to engage credibly in technical discussions and reviews, even if you're not writing production code day-to-day

• Exceptional communication, facilitation and relationship-building skills across both business and technical audiences

• Strong background in business development, pre-sales, and account growth within a consulting, agency, or corporate advisory environment

• A relevant university degree (masters in technology, mathematics or computer science)

• Deep understanding of core business operations (e.g., sales, supply chain, financial operations, or customer experience) and how data and AI can be leveraged to optimize them

• Background in management consulting, technology advisory, or digital agency account management, ideally with delivery exposure to data/AI projects

• Experience leading change management or business transformation initiatives driven by data and analytics

• Fluent Finnish and English skills

In addition, we listed here some of the perks we offer

• Futurice Hybrid Work Model

• Free choice of laptop, phone, tablet, headphones and other work gear

• Sports and lunch benefit

• Futurice's clubs for free-time activities

• Learning events

• Certification programs

Compensation

Your complete compensation package will be discussed in detail during the recruitment process. Our salary model is designed to offer a range of levels based on three factors: skills, responsibilities and impact. We are dedicated to fostering an inclusive and supportive work environment where every employee has the opportunity to thrive and advance in their career and become better versions of themselves.

During the initial interview round, we will discuss the salary range for this position. We offer a fixed salary with the possibility of performance-based bonuses and additional benefits.