Senior Manager - Consulting - Cognizant Technology Solutions

Senior Manager, Consulting / Associate Director, Digital Strategy

COGNIZANT – OVERVIEW

Cognizant is one of the world's leading professional services companies, transforming clients' business, operating and technology models for the digital era. Our unique industry-based, consultative approach helps clients envision, build, and run more innovative and efficient businesses. Headquartered in the U.S., Cognizant, a member of the NASDAQ-100, is ranked 195 on the Fortune 500 and is consistently listed among the most admired companies in the world. Learn how Cognizant helps clients lead with digital at www.cognizant.com.

COGNIZANT CONSULTING – OVERVIEW

Cognizant Consulting is a global consulting organization delivering strategic and domain consulting through industry and technology expertise. With over 6,000 consultants worldwide, Cognizant Consulting offers high-value consulting services that improve business performance and operational productivity, lower operational expenses and enhance overall performance. Clients draw upon our deep industry expertise, program and change management capabilities and analytical objectivity to help improve business productivity, drive technology-enabled business transformation and increase shareholder value.  We provide a number of Business/IT Consulting Services including: Business Strategy, IT Strategy & Roadmap Development, Process Re-Engineering & Transformation, Enterprise Architecture & Technology Selection, and Domain Solutions. The Cognizant Consulting team is a high performing organization that is continually expanding our client base and increasingly being recommended by analysts such as Forrester and Gartner.

COGNIZANT COSNULTING – DIGITAL ADVISORY OVERVIEW

Digital Advisory practice assists CIOs in developing competitive advantage for their organizations by strategically aligning IT with business objectives and emerging industry needs. Areas of specialization within the CIO Advisory service line include: Business Driven IT  Strategy, Business Operations & Process Transformation, IT Cost Optimization, IT Organization Performance, IT Operating Models, Application Portfolio Rationalization, Global Sourcing Transformation,Post Merger Integration, and Divesture Planning.

POSITION SUMMARY

Cognizant Consulting is seeking a world-class consultant, client advisor, and leader to expand its North American Digital Advisory Practice.  As a leader within one of Cognizant Consulting’s most strategically important and fast-growing practices, this individual will provide leadership on multiple dimensions – business development, executive client leadership, thought leadership, and collaborative leadership within the Cognizant Consulting, and throughout Cognizant Technology Solutions more broadly. The successful candidate will have demonstrated a track record of developing and nurturing, trusted advisory relationships with top executives and leaders across industries, as well as exceptional analytical, interpersonal and creative thinking capabilities.

The successful candidate will be recognized for his or her ability to develop major client relationships through his or her professional network and domain (technology/functional) expertise and previous client impact. The successful candidate will have demonstrated a commitment to building and growing individuals and teams of consultants.  He or she will be someone with whom people at all levels go out of their way to work with – a great colleague and an outstanding mentor.

ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead IT Strategy engagements and assist clients with identifying current IT trends, defining new business models and supporting IT capabilities needed to create competitive advantage
• Conduct IT Cost Optimization assessments to help IT leaders assess their IT budgets and identify cost optimization / rationalization opportunities
• Assess client’s current IT organizations and define operating models which are aligned to business objectives. Example services include IT Organization Assessment, Workforce Optimization, IT Skill Assessment, IT Process Improvement, IT Portfolio Management, Project Prioritization, SDLC assessments, etc.
• Conduct and lead Application Portfolio assessments to determine the best technology disposition of client’s IT application portfolio following mergers, acquisitions or divestitures.
• Assist clients in identifying the right sourcing strategies, demand management and optimization strategies, and achieving procurement transformation objectives
• Understand relationships with IT processes and the Business functions to document synergies and share recommendations for process improvement  
• Serve as a Subject Matter Expert and trusted client advisor to assist in creating methodologies, frameworks, roadmap, and strategic vision in complex environments where information and data points may or may not be available.
• Manage other client vendors and third party service providers and play an integral Program Manager liaising with various stakeholders across Business, Technology, Operations, and other functional areas such as Human Resources, Marketing, and Communications
• For the above offerings the successful Senior Manager will be responsible to create approach, identify appropriate tools and methodologies, lead client workshops and discussions, perform analysis, draw conclusions, formulate strategic recommendations and develop business cases and roadmaps to support recommendations
• In addition to executing consulting engagements, s/he is expected to actively contribute towards industry specific offerings, whitepapers, RFP/ RFI responses and client discussion documents
• Ensure the quality of the Practice’s work continues to be truly distinctive through innovative, Intellectual Capital development with a focus on client impact and tangible results
• Help recruit, develop, and retain other Cognizant Consulting professionals – both new hires and existing Cognizant consultants who choose to focus on Advisory services – to support the firm’s ambitious growth target for the Practice.

CANDIDATE QUALIFICATIONS

The successful candidate will possess:

• At least 10+ years of management consulting experience, with a track record of business generation, practice building and on-going client relationships across multiple assignments with most recent experience in IT Advisory to Life Sciences companies.
• A significant track record of success in strategic consulting across industries serving leading companies on a diverse set of strategic and operational issues.
• A broad general manager perspective, including understanding of strategy and marketing, operations, IT, business transformation and performance improvement.
• A minimum of 6 years of experience in leading or managing teams effectively including planning/structuring analytical work, facilitating team workshops, and developing IT strategy recommendations (e.g., IT capability improvements, key initiatives, roadmaps)
• Knowledge and experience with leading initiatives spanning Business Driven IT  Strategy, Business Operations & Process Transformation, IT Cost Optimization, IT Organization Performance, IT Operating Models, Application Portfolio Rationalization, Global Sourcing Transformation and Post Merger Integration
• Experience in developing detailed, compelling and analytical PowerPoint/Excel/Word/Visio deliverables to convey complex thoughts and ideas to various stakeholders
• Thought-leadership; at least an understanding, if not a track record, of how to develop commercial knowledge capital and build it into the fabric of a practice.
• Senior client leadership experience and executive presence to represent Cognizant confidently and convincingly among the highest levels of client executives.
• The ability to work successfully in a flat, collaborative, highly matrixed environment and be effective with the Cognizant leadership team.
• MBA or Master’s degree strongly preferred; Bachelor degree required
• Ability to travel up to 100%

PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

Irrespective of an individual’s specific background, the successful candidate will be:

• Entrepreneurial, proactive, and productive; someone who instinctively knows what needs to be done and rallies colleagues to get things accomplished.
• Insightful with strong problem-solving skills and pragmatic with a practical, “real-world” sense of what is actually “do-able.”
• Articulate and compelling in his/her oral and written communication skills; engaging and concise – with interpersonal “presence.”
• Energetic, with drive, enthusiasm, and a natural skill in relationship development; an extensive network of potentially relevant relationships.
• Able to function as a “player/coach” – simultaneously helping to lead the practice while also staying directly involved in a number of client engagements.
• Excellent communicator with the ability to articulate complex information into meaningful action items and decisions for senior leaders

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