Principal Technical Consultant
AHEAD
Principal Technical Consultant
AHEAD
Builds and manages enterprise technology
This leadership role within the Modern Apps practice focuses on guiding clients through greenfield application development and application modernization initiatives, with a strong emphasis on technical leadership, architectural judgment, and delivery execution. The ideal candidate will bring deep expertise in modern application architectures, cloud-native technologies, and modernization strategies, while leading engagements from strategy through implementation and solution delivery.
In Modern Apps, the Principal Technical Consultant (PTC) is expected to lead teams building and modernizing web applications, mobile applications, APIs, functions (AWS Lambda/Azure Functions/GCP Functions), and related platform services. This includes using AI-assisted engineering tools such as agentic IDEs and autonomous development platforms to accelerate delivery while maintaining accountability for architecture, security, scalability, maintainability, and measurable business outcomes.
The role is highly client-facing and consulting-oriented. The PTC must be comfortable leading discovery sessions, facilitating workshops, defining modernization strategies, shaping target architectures, supporting pre-sales efforts, and presenting complex technical concepts to audiences ranging from engineers to executive leadership in addition to being a hands-on software engineer delivering code.
Facilitate application and platform assessments, modernization strategy development, target architecture design, roadmap creation, and planning workshops.
Lead technical teams across the full application landscape (CI/CD, testing, data migrations, architecture, application code) and review and sign off on key deliverables including assessments, architecture blueprints, migration plans, and proof-of-concept outcomes.
Establish standards across security, DevSecOps, cloud architecture, observability, testing, and operational readiness.
Demonstrate effective personal use of AI-assisted software delivery tools and help others use them effectively by structuring context, setting expectations, validating outputs, and ensuring engineering quality.
Lead, mentor, and guide consultants and client team members through implementation challenges and modern engineering practices.
Contribute to practice development through reusable assets, accelerators, methodologies, and thought leadership.
Build and sustain trust-based relationships with client Directors, VPs, and C-level technology leaders, positioning yourself and AHEAD as the trusted advisor on modernization strategy and execution.
Tailor communication style and storyline to the audience — from engineers to C-level — and lead discovery sessions, workshops, executive readouts, and difficult conversations with confidence, empathy, and clarity. Navigate client organizational dynamics and manage expectations on outcomes, timelines, and delivery risks.
Apply structured, hypothesis-driven problem solving to ambiguous client situations: frame the core business issues, design the analyses needed to test them, and synthesize findings into a defensible point of view — even when information is incomplete or conflicting.
Develop modernization strategies that ladder up to clients' business and digital transformation objectives, accounting for organizational readiness, change management, and operating-model implications alongside the technical roadmap.
Build and defend the business case for modernization — quantifying TCO, ROI, and risk reduction — and use the client’s cost and value drivers to prioritize candidates, sequence the roadmap, and frame trade-offs.
Decompose enterprise modernization programs into pragmatic workstreams, sequencing decisions based on business value, risk, dependencies, and organizational readiness rather than purely technical considerations.
Continually identify new ways to serve the client, surfacing follow-on opportunities and expanding the footprint of the engagement based on observed business needs.
Lead pre-sales and pursuit efforts for modernization opportunities: shape the opportunity with the client, structure the solution, scope and estimate the work, lead proposal development and technical demonstrations, and own the technical credibility of the pursuit through close. Contribute to commercial structuring and pricing decisions.
Significant experience leading large-scale application transformation, custom development, or modernization engagements for enterprise clients.
Deep expertise in modernization strategies and patterns, including refactoring, rearchitecting, rebuilding, and related portfolio transformation approaches.
Expert-level understanding of cloud-native architecture (microservices, APIs, event-driven patterns, serverless, containers, orchestration) with in-depth proficiency on at least one major cloud platform (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
Deep proficiency in some common enterprise languages and frameworks, with the ability to read, write, debug, and review complex code (C#, Java, Python, TypeScript).
Strong experience with DevOps and DevSecOps practices including CI/CD, infrastructure as code, automated testing, code security scanning, and observability.
Deep knowledge of data migration strategies and patterns.
Strong understanding of database modernization, schema evolution, and the migration of relational and non-relational data platforms.
Experience working with legacy or monolithic applications and understanding the challenges of older technology stacks.
Strong understanding of working with LLMs, including prompting, context management, context-window limitations, and clear output validation for AI-assisted delivery.
Strong knowledge of Agile methodologies and modern SDLC practices.
Proven ability to architect robust, scalable, and secure solutions that directly address business needs.
Executive presence and trusted-advisor track record with senior client stakeholders (Director through C-suite) — including delivering difficult messages, handling pushback, and resolving conflict constructively.
Communicates with clarity and influence across audiences: constructs compelling storylines, surfaces underlying stakeholder concerns, and aligns groups around a recommendation.
Demonstrated ability to build, defend, and present business cases (TCO, ROI, value realization) that connect modernization investments to measurable financial and operational outcomes.
Strong ability to assess technical debt, identify modernization candidates, determine business value, and estimate effort and risk.
Ability to help clients develop an informed point of view on where and how to responsibly adopt AI-assisted engineering in their own organizations — including the operating model, governance, quality controls, and talent implications — not just the tooling.
Experience in consulting or pre-sales roles, including technical solutioning, prototyping, requirements definition, and project scoping.
Strong leadership qualities with the ability to motivate teams and provide direct technical oversight and mentorship
Preferred
Working knowledge of the business models, value chains, and competitive dynamics of the industries AHEAD serves (e.g., financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, retail), with the ability to connect modernization decisions to industry-specific value drivers and regulatory constraints
Experience modernizing brownfield applications and legacy enterprise systems
Experience building proofs of concept, prototypes, or technical demonstrations in consulting sales cycles
Experience contributing reusable code libraries, accelerators, templates, or practice assets
Experience with automated software analysis tools (CAST, Matilda, Dynatrace, etc.)
AHEAD designs and runs technology systems for large enterprises, connecting infrastructure, applications, data and security under a single delivery team. Its roots in data centers shape its approach to modernizing complex environments that span private facilities and public clouds. Engineers assess a client's existing systems, plan upgrades and build the platforms, while managed services teams monitor operations, maintain software and respond to security incidents. The company earns money through consulting and implementation projects, technology sales and ongoing services that keep those environments running. AHEAD was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
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