Principal Client Account Lead

We are looking for a Principal Client Account Lead to support a strategic customer in the Food Service and Beverage industry. Partnering with the overall Client Account Lead, you will lead defined client relationships, workstreams, and expansion opportunities within the account.

You will turn account strategy into action, connect business priorities to Data and AI solutions, and coordinate Sales, Technical Account Leads, Delivery, and partners to deliver measurable outcomes. This is a senior supporting role with meaningful ownership.

What you will own

Client leadership and account execution

• Translate account strategy into clear plans for assigned stakeholders, workstreams, and priorities, with defined ownership, milestones, and next actions.
• Build trusted relationships with senior business and technology leaders. Lead selected client conversations, workshops, roadmap discussions, and QBRs in partnership with the overall CAL.
• Maintain visibility into client priorities, stakeholder dynamics, delivery health, and risks. Recommend actions early and escalate issues affecting broader account commitments.

Delivery and client outcomes

• Partner with Delivery, Technical Account Leads, and Practice leaders to keep assigned engagements aligned to client objectives, scope, quality, and measurable business value.
• Translate business priorities into practical programs spanning data platforms, governance, analytics, and AI, drawing on technical experts for solution design and delivery.
• Help teams address customer intelligence, forecasting, personalization, loyalty, and operational efficiency. Resolve delivery misalignment and bring client insights into future roadmaps and engagement plans.

Growth and commercial partnership

• Identify unmet needs and expansion opportunities within assigned stakeholder groups and workstreams. Qualify and advance them with the overall CAL, Sales, technical leaders, and partners.
• Shape proposals, statements of work, business cases, roadmaps, and executive narratives. Own assigned pursuit activities from discovery through close, including stakeholder mapping and value articulation.
• Maintain accurate opportunity and forecast inputs. Connect client priorities to phData’s capabilities and relevant partners, including Snowflake, AWS, and Anthropic.

Cross-functional leadership and firm contribution

• Align Sales, Delivery, Finance, Practices, and Partners around priorities, dependencies, and decisions. Lead through influence and bring clear recommendations on scope, staffing, sequencing, and risk.
• Mentor team members and model principal-level operating discipline: commercially aware, prepared, detail-oriented, and accountable for follow-through.
• Share Food Service and Beverage insights, deal learnings, and delivery patterns through playbooks, reusable assets, and account governance practices that strengthen phData’s engagement model.

About you

You combine commercial judgment, delivery fluency, and strong client leadership. You create clarity in ambiguous situations, influence without formal authority, and connect client relationships, delivery outcomes, and growth. You take ownership of your scope while operating as part of a broader account team.

Required qualifications

Experience

• 6+ years of experience in consulting, professional services, or other complex client-facing environments.
• Proven experience leading enterprise client workstreams, multi-engagement programs, or defined portfolios within a strategic account.
• Experience identifying, shaping, and advancing expansion opportunities within existing enterprise clients, in partnership with senior account and sales leaders.
• Experience working in a matrixed environment with Sales, Delivery, technical teams, Finance, and partners.
• Experience building relationships with senior business and technology stakeholders and leading executive-ready conversations.

Technical and functional skills

• Experience connecting business priorities to Data, Analytics, Cloud, and AI solutions.
• Sufficient fluency in modern data platforms, data engineering, governance, analytics, machine learning, and AI to lead client problem framing and coordinate the right technical experts.
• Ability to structure ambiguous client problems, develop a clear value hypothesis, and translate it into an actionable roadmap or opportunity.
• Strong commercial judgment, including experience contributing to proposals, statements of work, pricing or margin discussions, and account forecasts.

Industry and client leadership

• Experience in Food & Beverage, Restaurants, Hospitality, Retail, CPG, or a closely related industry is a plus.
• Understanding of enterprise operating environments and business priorities such as customer intelligence, demand forecasting, personalization, loyalty, operational efficiency, and AI adoption.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate with both business and technology leaders.
• Demonstrated ability to influence without direct authority, create alignment across teams, and drive issues to resolution.

Other

• Willingness and ability to travel up to 50% based on client needs and business priorities.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience supporting a large strategic restaurant, hospitality, retail, or CPG account.
• Experience working with Snowflake, AWS, Anthropic, Databricks, or similar Data and AI ecosystems.
• Experience leading QBRs, roadmap workshops, value realization discussions, or executive business reviews.
• Experience creating industry points of view, account playbooks, sales enablement, or reusable consulting assets.
• Experience operating as an Engagement Lead, Client Partner, Account Lead, Product Lead or equivalent role in a professional services environment.

Location & Time Zone Expectations

This role is based in the Atlanta, Georgia, metro area and operates primarily in the Eastern Time Zone.

• Candidates must be located in or willing to relocate to the greater Atlanta metro region.
• We are a remote-first company; some flexibility may be required to collaborate across time zones.
• Travel of up to approximately 50% may be required to support client milestones and in-person meetings.

Why phData?

• Impactful Work: Partner with leading organizations on meaningful data & AI initiatives.
• Collaborative Culture: Work with a supportive, high-performing global team that values transparency, autonomy, and continuous improvement.
• Growth Opportunities: Access to challenging projects, mentorship, and structured development pathways.
• Values-Driven: We prioritize doing the right thing for our clients, our teams, and our community.

Benefits at phData

US:

• Remote-First Work Environment
• 401k plan with company match
• Dental and Vision insurance
• Home Office Equipment Stipend
• Annual stipend for Learning and Development
• Competitive comp, excellent benefits, Flexible PTO plus 10 Holidays (and other cool perks)