Req ID: 388987

The Associate Director, Partner Strategy & Solutions, leads structured problem definition, discovery, business-case development, and solution-development execution for partner-enabled industry solutions and growth initiatives across NTT DATA North America. Serving as the Strategy & Solutions lead for assigned initiatives, this individual brings a consulting-style approach to ambiguous customer and market problems and converts them into decision-ready solution opportunities.

The role works across NTT DATA business units, technology practices, sales, marketing, and strategic technology partners. It is responsible for creating the analytical and commercial foundation for solution investment: defining the customer problem, gathering evidence, structuring use cases, sizing value, assessing capabilities and gaps, developing business cases, and driving cross-functional work through governance and launch readiness.

As part of the Strategy & Solutions team, the Associate Director shares responsibility for the full solution lifecycle: customer-problem intake, discovery, solution ideation, capability and gap assessment, development handoffs, commercialization, seller enablement, launch, and post-launch refinement. The distinguishing contribution of this role is rigorous consulting discipline, structured analysis, business-case development, and executive-ready decision support.

This is not a hands-on technology-development, account-sales, or partner-relationship-management role. The Associate Director must be AI-literate and comfortable working with technical teams, but is primarily accountable for ensuring that solution-development decisions are grounded in customer evidence, clear business value, practical economics, defined assumptions, and an executable path forward.

Responsibilities Include:

Problem intake and discovery

• Lead structured discovery with business-unit and industry segment leaders, sellers, practices, partners, and other stakeholders to define the customer problem, target buyer, business pressure, current-state process, pain points, desired outcomes, and urgency.
• Develop hypotheses and discovery questions that distinguish material customer problems from technology-led ideas or isolated requests.
• Synthesize qualitative and quantitative inputs into concise problem statements, use-case definitions, opportunity narratives, and decision criteria.
• Identify target industries, buyer personas, account characteristics, and evidence of market demand relevant to the proposed solution.

Business case and value development

• Develop business cases for solution-development initiatives, including customer value hypotheses, benefit drivers, adoption assumptions, revenue opportunity, investment needs, delivery considerations, dependencies, risks, and expected commercial return.
• Build value models, ROI and cost-benefit analyses, scenario comparisons, and other decision-support analyses appropriate to the maturity of the initiative.
• Work with Practices, finance stakeholders, partners, and commercial leaders to validate key assumptions and distinguish evidence from estimates.
• Translate technical features and capabilities into business outcomes, measurable value drivers, and executive-level rationale.
• Develop clear recommendations to proceed, revise, hold, combine, or stop initiatives based on the evidence available.

Solution-development planning and execution

• Serve as the named Solution Development Lead for assigned solution-development projects and coordinate work from intake through validation, development, commercialization, and launch readiness.
• Develop and maintain the integrated work plan, milestones, responsibilities, dependencies, risks, decision requirements, and acceptance criteria for assigned initiatives.
• Inventory relevant NTT DATA services, intellectual property, accelerators, reference architectures, delivery capabilities, client examples, and partner assets.
• Work with technical and delivery leaders to assess feasibility, capability gaps, delivery readiness, proof-point requirements, and investment needs.
• Define clear handoffs to Practices and partners for build or technical development and ensure required inputs and outputs are understood.
• Maintain execution cadence, resolve or escalate blockers, and keep stakeholders aligned on scope, evidence, business outcomes, and launch requirements.

AI-enabled solution analysis

• Assess where AI, generative AI, automation, and agentic technologies may improve customer outcomes within assigned initiatives and incorporate those possibilities into use-case and business-case analysis.
• Work effectively with technical specialists to understand proposed AI or agentic approaches, key assumptions, constraints, deployment considerations, and implications for customer value.
• Use large language models and generative-AI tools to accelerate research, synthesis, analysis, workshop preparation, scenario development, content creation, and quality review while applying appropriate judgment and validation.
• Ensure AI-enabled solution concepts are evaluated on practical business value, feasibility, differentiation, and adoption requirements rather than technology novelty alone.

Governance and executive decision support

• Prepare initiatives for steering and investment decisions with clear evidence covering customer need, target-account relevance, business value, Practice participation, partner contribution, delivery ownership, technical feasibility, investment required, and production intent where new development is proposed.
• Create concise executive materials that frame the issue, alternatives, assumptions, economics, risks, unresolved decisions, and recommended path.
• Lead or support working sessions, workshops, and governance discussions with senior stakeholders and document decisions, conditions, owners, and follow-up actions.
• Maintain disciplined follow-through on decisions and ensure material changes in assumptions or economics are surfaced promptly.

Commercialization and launch contribution

• Partner with Strategy & Solutions colleagues to translate validated solution concepts into partner-ready offers, including buyer context, use cases, business outcomes, value proposition, qualification criteria, target-account logic, proof points, and seller guidance.
• Provide the customer evidence, value case, commercial assumptions, and analytical content required for packaging, seller enablement, and launch materials.
• Support enablement for Partner Sales Leaders and BU/Practice Sellers by explaining the customer problem, use-case logic, business value, qualification criteria, and solution rationale.
• Capture field and launch feedback and update business-case assumptions, target segments, value hypotheses, or solution requirements as evidence improves.

Key Interfaces

• Managing Director, Strategy & Solutions
• Strategy & Solutions team members and Solution Development Leads
• Partner Sales Leaders
• Partner Execution
• Business-unit leaders and BU/Practice Sellers
• Industry, practice, solution, delivery, architecture, engineering, and product leaders
• Marketing and sales-enablement teams
• Strategic technology-partner product, technical, sales, and go-to-market teams
• Global partner and solution stakeholders
• Steering-committee and executive-governance participants

Success Measures

• Quality and clarity of customer-problem definitions, use cases, and solution opportunity assessments
• Strength, transparency, and decision usefulness of business cases, value models, assumptions, and recommendations
• Assigned initiatives progress through the lifecycle with clear ownership, milestones, evidence, and decisions
• Practice, partner, delivery, and business-unit validation of proposed solution concepts
• Quality and timeliness of steering materials and executive decision support
• Readiness of assigned solutions for commercialization, seller enablement, and launch
• Qualified pipeline, production deployments, and commercial outcomes associated with assigned initiatives
• Timely identification of weak assumptions, gaps, blockers, and initiatives that should be corrected or stopped

The role does not own hands-on engineering, underlying technology development, delivery execution, partner-sales execution, account ownership, a direct sales quota, deal-registration processing, or Salesforce opportunity ownership.

Required Qualifications

• Experience in management consulting, business transformation, solution development, product or offer strategy, commercial analysis, industry solutions, corporate strategy, or a related field.
• Demonstrated strength in structured problem solving, hypothesis development, executive-level analysis, and converting ambiguous problems into clear workplans and decisions.
• Experience developing business cases, value propositions, ROI or cost-benefit analyses, commercial assessments, investment recommendations, or similar decision-support models.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to connect customer problems, technology capabilities, operating implications, and financial or commercial outcomes.
• Working knowledge of AI, generative AI, automation, agentic technologies, and modern cloud-based technology environments sufficient to collaborate effectively with technical specialists and evaluate business applicability.
• Hands-on proficiency using leading large language models and generative-AI tools for research, synthesis, analysis, prompt design, content creation, and quality validation.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex cross-functional projects and facilitate senior stakeholders without direct authority over all contributors.
• Excellent written communication and presentation skills, including the ability to produce concise, executive-ready recommendations from incomplete or complex information.
• Strong quantitative reasoning and comfort working with business, financial, market, and operational data.
• Experience in technology services, partner ecosystems, enterprise sales, or go-to-market environments preferred.
• Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree or relevant consulting, business, product, or technology credentials preferred.

Core Competencies

• Structured problem solving
• Consulting discipline
• Business-case development
• Commercial and financial acumen
• AI literacy and applied LLM fluency
• Cross-functional coordination
• Executive-ready communication
• Facilitation and stakeholder influence
• Analytical rigor
• Project and program leadership
• Accountability and follow-through

NTT DATA provides a reasonable range of compensation for U.S.-based positions. The starting pay range for this remote role is 116,775 - 216,250. This range reflects the minimum and maximum target compensation for the position across all US locations. Actual compensation will depend on a number of factors, including the candidate's actual work location, relevant experience, technical skills, and other qualifications. This position may also be eligible for incentive compensation based on individual and/or company performance.

This position is eligible for company benefits including medical, dental, and vision insurance with an employer contribution, flexible spending or health savings account, life and AD&D insu