Principal Consultant - Data & AI

Job description

Advise. Invest. Build. Meet ALAIKA — a new kind of Financial Services firm — globally scaling, headquartered in Munich. The work is hard. The bar is high.**Partner in 3-4 years possible**, for the ones who can keep up and actually build a business themselves on our platform. **Stop reading if any of these describe you:** - **Specialisation.**You are a generalist with shallow expertise and a thin network **→** AI will eat your lunch. We bet on depth. - **Ownership.**You would rather oversee than own **→**We fall in love with problems. Own them. Solve them. Ship solutions. - **Speed.**Slow is your default**→**Speed compounds. Be smart and brave enough to select 80/20 in the right way. - **Mindset.**"Not possible" is part of your vocabulary**→**We hire people who always find a way. ## **Still there? Then ALAIKA might be for you.** At ALAIKA, our vision is to build the future of Financial Services with three brands under one roof — Advisory (Strategy Consulting), Capital (Private Equity), Building (Company Builder). Right now, we are in the midst of building our trojan horse ALAIKA Advisory. The ambition: building the leading Financial-Services-specific entrepreneurial holding — Fortune 500 access, PE discipline, Silicon Valley technology-depth and thinking. **Three networks that compound and multiply.** - **One industry.**Financial Services. Nothing else. - **One focus.**The intersection of business and technology — across Strategic Transformations, AI & Data Intelligence, and Cybersecurity. - **One goal.**Being the go-to partner for the world's leading Fortune 500 financial services companies — and the ones we might help build into that. Founded in October 2022 by [**Johanna von Geyr**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/johanna-von-geyr-374b81/) (build-up and led Financial Services Practice for a NASDAQ-listed strategy consultancy) and [**Harald Braunstein**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/harald-braunstein/) (serial entrepreneur with exits incl. IPO), we bring together deep functional domain expertise and networks in global Financial Services, with a proven track record in building, scaling, and investing in leading software product companies.  Curious what ALAIKA is all about? Explore our [website](https://www.alaika-advisory.com/) and [introduction deck](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pX8HFTMUueKa5bTrP3k22kR1kFjq2Ot9/view). **Join the movement — apply now.** ## **The role and what you will work on** - **Advise.**Take on the most pressing strategic and technology challenges of the world’s leading financial services companies —**across Strategy, Data & AI, and Cyber**, with deep data analysis and AI-domain expertise as your anchor. In the room with decision-makers as the expert your clients trust on the questions that matter most. - **Own.**Take full ownership of significant accounts and the relationships and revenue inside them. The work, the team, the clients, the numbers. You do not own pieces; you own outcomes. - **Lead.**Run project teams and large key initiatives. Set the standard for consultants, senior consultants, and managers — challenge them, develop them, raise their game. **Multiply the output of everyone around you** — not just your own. - **Sell.**Open new doors inside existing accounts. Originate new mandates. At ALAIKA, business development is not a partner privilege — it is always an expectation. - **Connect.**Walk in with deep networks. Extend them. Lead C-level discussions in your area of responsibility. Be recognized as a market leader in your domain. Build trust deep enough that clients call you first. - **Grow.**Sharpen the rare profile the market is short on — analytical mastermind, data & AI expert, entrepreneurial dealmaker. **Partner-track within reach.** - **Build.**We are scaling, with real building left to do — IP, processes, go-to-market, strategy. **You are a strategic partner in shaping what ALAIKA becomes**. That is not a slogan — it is your Tuesday. ## **When you are a fit** *“Show me an athlete who did well academically. An athlete because they know what it takes to win and they have had to experience loss.”* *— Kenneth C. Griffin, Founder of Citadel* You will work alongside intrinsically driven people chasing an uncapped career — people who do "what it takes". You fear "being one more number stuck in middle management". Your goal is to make it to the top: at ALAIKA itself, at a leading investment or financial services firm, or in a company you build yourself — ALAIKA can help with that too. - **Book-smart.**Strong academic foundation. Think in structures, not gut feel. - **Street-smart.**Read the room fast. Prioritise ruthlessly. Grasp commercial reality. - **People-smart.**Communicate with precision — clear, direct, persuasive. Build trust across functions and seniority. - **Athlete performance mindset.**High aspirations. Grit. Learn faster than the environment changes. - **Entrepreneurial guts.**Self-confident achiever. Act first, apologise later — speed is everything. You move. ## **What you bring** - **Background.**Outstanding degree in an analytical field from a top-tier university, or a track record that speaks for itself. - **Experience.**Minimum 5 years in a high-pressure, results-driven environment — top strategy consultancy with a strong data and AI practice, or fast-growing AI-native technology company. Deep hands-on experience delivering data and AI projects is required. An established network across the data, AI, and financial services community is expected at this level. - **Industry Focus.**You have worked inside or deeply alongside financial services institutions. Sub-sector expertise in insurance preferred, but we would consider experience in bankin