Managing Director - Data & AI (Montreal, Canada)

Unit8 SA

$150K — $180K *
Business Services
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Significant experience in Data & AI consulting with a proven track record of client origination and closure.
  • Currently at Principal or Associate Partner/Director level or equivalent, ready to ascend in your career.
  • Ability to 'speak Tech' with understanding of data architecture and AI, even without coding skills.
  • Established network of senior client relationships in the DACH market, particularly in pharma, insurance, or chemicals.
  • Fluent in English and German; proficiency in French is advantageous.
  • Willingness to travel for on-site engagements in the US for up to 5 weeks.

Responsibilities

  • Leverage your network to source, shape, and close new high-value engagements in the DACH region.
  • Translate complex business issues into actionable Data & AI solutions while ensuring team alignment with client expectations.
  • Lead complex tech-enabled transformations from problem definition to delivery, prioritizing business outcomes.
  • Act as the primary contact for key clients throughout the project, ensuring delivery aligns with business value.
  • Challenge clients on various aspects to drive better project outcomes.
  • Collaborate with engineering and data science teams to provide business insights and clear obstacles.

Benefits

  • Trust from Day One: confidence in your expertise as a fundamental part of the culture.
  • Work that Matters: engage in meaningful projects that facilitate impactful work for others.
  • Passion-Led Projects: environment fostering individual passions along with like-minded talent.
  • Impact: significant role in shaping Unit8's growth strategy in the DACH region and influencing key direction and delivery standards.
  • Competitive compensation package.
  • Flexibility & Growth: generous work flexibility and commitment to ongoing learning and pro-bono efforts.
  • Connection & Fun: initiatives promoting team interactions, including events and budget for social activities.
Full Job Description
Are You the Leader We're Looking For?

As a Managing Director at Unit8, success isn't just about closing deals - it's about becoming a cornerstone of how we grow and deliver in the DACH market. You will own both sides of the equation: originating high-value client relationships and ensuring the work we deliver actually moves the needle for our clients. If you've built your career at the intersection of commercial impact and technical credibility, and you're ready to operate with real autonomy in an expert-led environment, this is the role.

What Success Looks Like in This Role

This is a senior leadership position for someone as comfortable originating a complex engagement as overseeing its delivery. You shape and close the deal, build relationships and trust, and you stay close enough to ensure the technical execution actually delivers value. You will succeed by:

  • Building and converting a pipeline of high-value opportunities in the DACH market - primarily in pharma, insurance, or chemicals - through a network earned over years of credible work in data & AI
  • Selling from expertise: clients engage with you because you understand their problem because of your deep problem solving skills and experience not because you have a polished pitch
  • Staying embedded in delivery long enough to set the right pace, challenge client assumptions, and keep teams focused on the actual business problem
  • Bridging the gap between a senior data scientist and a C-suite conversation - translating technical constraints into strategic decisions and vice versa
  • Raising the delivery bar by knowing what good looks like and holding teams to that standard


What You'll Do
  • Leverage your existing network to source, shape, and close high-value engagements in the DACH region (new logos, not just expansions)
  • Translate complex business problems into concrete Data & AI solutions: identify where value can be created, make sure the team is building toward it, and hold the client accountable to realising it
  • Lead and shape complex, tech-enabled transformations - from early problem definition through to scaled delivery - ensuring the right technology choices serve the business outcome, not the other way around
  • Act as the senior point of contact for key clients throughout delivery, ensuring technical execution stays anchored to business value
  • Challenge clients when necessary - on scope, pace, and ambition
  • Work closely with our engineering and data science teams, providing business context, removing blockers and coaching them.

Requirements
Who You Are

You've run complex, tech-enabled transformations - perfectly from a top-tier global consultancy or a specialist data & AI firm. You have navigated high-stakes, complex engagements from ambiguity to delivery - and have the results to show for it.

  • You have significant experience in Data & AI consulting, with a clear and verifiable track record of personally originating and closing major client relationships
  • You are currently at Principal or Associate Partner / Director level - or equivalent - with the commercial track record and client ownership, looking for the next step in your career.
  • You don't need to write code, but you must "speak Tech." You understand data architecture and AI well enough to raise our delivery bar and earn the respect of world-class engineers.
  • You bring an established network of senior client relationships in the DACH market, ideally in pharma, insurance, or chemicals
  • Fluent in English and German; French is a meaningful advantage
  • Comfortable with traveling, including on-site engagements in the US (up to 5 weeks).

Benefits
What's In It For You

At Unit8, we don't just "turn data into value" - we empower the people who make it happen. If you are looking for a place where you can say, "I am independent and I take ownership", your next chapter starts here.

  • Trust from Day One: We believe in your expertise, and trust is a core part of our culture.
  • Work that Matters: You will do things that matter, and together we will facilitate the work of others.
  • Passion-Led Projects: We create an environment where you can pursue your passion alongside great talent. If the future makes you excited, you belong here.
  • Impact: You will be part of our leadership team and have a direct hand in shaping how Unit8 grows in the DACH market - defining our commercial approach, influencing which industries and clients we focus on, and setting the standard for how we deliver. This is not an execution role inside a fixed strategy; you help write it.
  • Competitive compensation package.
  • Flexibility & Growth: Above-the-norm flexibility on where and when you work, with up to 10% of your time dedicated to learning and pro-bono projects.
  • Connection & Fun: Whether it's our cross-office off-sites, online events, or a dedicated quarterly team budget for after-work activities, we make sure we stay connected.

Similar Jobs

More Jobs at Unit8 SA

More Business Services Jobs

  • Vice President, Sales & Service
    $150K — $250K + $30K bonus + equity, medical, dental, vision, life, std/ltd *
    Southern Dock Products / DuraServ
    Memphis, TN 38109 (Shelby County)
  • Vice President, Sales & Service
    $150K — $250K + $30K bonus + equity, medical, dental, vision, life, std/ltd, auto allowance, *
    Just Rite Equipment / DuraServ
    South Windsor, CT 06074 (Capitol County)
  • Vice President, Service & Sales
    $200K — $500K++ $30K bonus + equity, medical, dental, vision, life, std/ltd, auto allowance, *
    Casco Dock & Door / DuraServ
    West Sacramento, CA 95691 (Yolo County)
  • Director of Business Development
    $130K — $150K *
    Warren Whitney
    Richmond, VA 23226 (Henrico County)
  • Risk Manager
    $130K — $140K *
    Cal State Long Beach
    Long Beach, CA 90802 (Los Angeles County)

Find similar Managing Director - Data & AI (Montreal, Canada) jobs: