We are seeking a highly motivated and experienced AI Consultant with a proven background in AI adoption to join our AI Center of Excellence (AI COE). This position is ideal for a senior, hands-on candidate who advises customers on how to apply AI to their business, turns that advice into working results, and reports to the AI COE Lead. The role supports Client business domains, primarily in an advisory capacity, across Security (enterprise security and cybersecurity), Manufacturing, Infrastructure (build and operations), and Connected Services, with Security having the highest demand for support, followed by Manufacturing. The successful candidate will use a strong technical background to run proofs of concept (POCs) and product evaluations hands-on, and translate the results into clear recommendations, while project delivery remains owned by the Delivery Teams.
Essential Functions:
Description / Essential Functions:
AI Advisory
Advise customers and domain teams on AI adoption, from identifying and prioritizing use cases to defining roadmaps, governance and success measures.
Analyze customer business processes end to end, identify where AI and automation deliver measurable value, and build the business case (ROI, cost/benefit).
Lead workshops and executive briefings, and present recommendations to senior customer stakeholders.
Advise on responsible and secure AI adoption, including data protection, access control and AI-specific risks such as prompt injection and data leakage.
Domain Support
Security (highest demand): Prioritize AI adoption for patch management and system hardening, while also advancing AI-assisted security operations such as playbook automation, incident response and investigation.
Manufacturing: Shape AI use cases around factory production processes and IoT/OT data, such as predictive maintenance, quality inspection and anomaly detection.
Infrastructure: Support AI use cases in infrastructure build and operations as demand arises.
Connected Services: Support AI use cases in connected services as demand arises.
Hands-on POC and Product Evaluation
Plan, build and run POCs, including scope, success criteria, test scenarios and evaluation reports.
Lead hands-on evaluations of AI and automation products and platforms (for example, Tines for security workflow automation and Ignition for industrial/OT data), and deliver objective fit/gap findings and go/no-go recommendations.
Design solution architectures for AI, GenAI and AI Agent solutions on Microsoft Azure or AWS, and provide technical input to proposals, POC plans and SoWs.
Knowledge Assets and Partners
Capture reusable assets such as use cases, reference architectures, evaluation reports, and demo/POC materials for horizontal deployment across domains and customers.
Coordinate with external partners (cloud providers, AI and security vendors, system integrators) on joint demos, POCs and validations.
Requirements
Minimum qualification:
Required Education & Experience:
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
8+ years of experience in IT consulting, solution architecture, or related technical roles, including at least 3 years of hands-on experience delivering AI, GenAI or intelligent automation solutions in production or customer POCs.
Proven experience advising customers on AI adoption (use case identification, business case, roadmap and governance), credible with both business and executive stakeholders.
Strong hands-on technical skills in GenAI and AI Agent technologies (for example, LLMs, RAG, prompt engineering, agent orchestration, Power Platform/Copilot Studio) and in cloud AI services on Microsoft Azure or AWS.
Proven track record of running POCs and product evaluations hands-on, from planning through final recommendation.
Experience applying technology or AI in at least one of Client focus domains, with enterprise security or cybersecurity strongly preferred and manufacturing as the next priority.
Business-analyst capability: experience mapping end-to-end business processes and identifying where AI and automation pay off.
Excellent communication, facilitation and presentation skills, and the ability to work independently in cross-functional, multicultural teams.
(Candidate would be disqualified if they do not meet these requirements)
Preferred Qualifications:
Security domain experience, such as SOC operations, incident response, SIEM/XDR (for example, Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Defender or Splunk) and SOAR or security automation platforms such as Tines.
Manufacturing domain experience, such as factory production processes (production, quality, maintenance, MES), IoT/OT data, and platforms such as Ignition or SCADA.
Experience in infrastructure build and operations.
Experience with connected services.
Experience with AI Agent frameworks and protocols (for example, Semantic Kernel, LangChain/LangGraph, AutoGen or MCP) and AI platforms such as Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI or Amazon Bedrock.
Experience applying AI across the software development lifecycle (SDLC), including Requirements, Architecture, Story Creation, Development, and QEA Execution.
Relevant certifications, such as Microsoft Azure AI Engineer, AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer, AWS Certified Generative AI Developer, AWS Certified Data Engineer, CompTIA Security+, CISSP or CBAP.
Experience working with Japanese companies or in a global, bilingual environment.
Position Type/Expected Hours of Work:
Hybrid work environment (2 days per week in the office).
Contract-to-hire position.
Occasional evening and weekend work may be required as job duties demand.
Working hours are Monday Friday from 9AM 6PM.
Travel:
This position requires up to 10-20% travel.
