Analyst – Intelligence & Advisory

AHEAD builds platforms for digital business. By weaving together advances in cloud infrastructure, automation and analytics, and software delivery, we help enterprises deliver on the promise of digital transformation.   At AHEAD, we prioritize creating a culture of belonging, where all perspectives and voices are represented, valued, respected, and heard. We create spaces to empower everyone to speak up, make change, and drive the culture at AHEAD.    We are an equal opportunity employer, and do not discriminate based on an individual's race, national origin, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, marital status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law, whether actual or perceived.    We embrace all candidates that will contribute to the diversification and enrichment of ideas and perspectives at AHEAD. 

As a Analyst – Intelligence & Advisory, you will work alongside AHEAD’s consultants and practice teams at the intersection of technology, AI and business - turning ambiguous business questions from consulting teams into structured, hypothesis-led research and clear, actionable recommendations. You will independently own deliverables end-to-end, act as a credible thought partner to onsite consulting and pursuit teams, and help raise the quality bar by guiding junior analysts. Your work will directly shape how AHEAD’s consulting teams understand markets, position against competitors, plan for accounts, and win complex enterprise technology deals — and how sharply those insights are communicated to CXO audiences.

You will scope and prioritize requests, clarify objectives, and select the right insights on clients, markets, offerings and competition to address them. You will conduct data-driven analyses and turn the results into accurate, client-ready documents, models and charts, and join team problem-solving discussions so that recommendations are actionable and strategically relevant. Beyond individual requests, you will help build and maintain AHEAD’s knowledge assets, databases and proposal and use-case material, using scripts and automation to prepare and validate data, while continuing to grow with the industry.

Being part of this exciting team, you will get long term opportunities to lead client discussions with global IT leaders, identify and creatively solve complex problems using both qualitative and quantitative research methods. You will design and build written research, graphics, and tools/frameworks to support clients in critical processes, and help organizations transform the way they operate.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Problem Solving & Advisory Support

• Translate pursuit, account and client questions into structured problem statements, hypotheses, issue trees and research plans; clarify scope, success criteria and timelines with stakeholders up front.
• Apply consulting frameworks and structured thinking (e.g., MECE issue trees, hypothesis-driven analysis, value-chain and maturity assessments, 2x2 prioritization) to break down complex problems, test hypotheses and arrive at defensible answers.
• Exercise sound judgement when data is incomplete — triangulate across sources, state assumptions, size the opportunity and flag confidence levels — and always answer the “so what” with a recommendation, not just data.
• Apply sound judgement to prioritize what matters: separate signal from noise, assess the reliability of sources and data, challenge assumptions, and clearly call out risks, trade-offs and confidence levels in every recommendation.
• Advisory Engagements: Support pursuit and advisory engagements by delivering market insights, competitive benchmarking and strategic guidance that shape deal strategy and client conversations.

Research Delivery & Insights

• Own end-to-end delivery of assigned items from AHEAD's research product stack — Market Size & Outlook, Industry/Technology POVs, Account Intelligence Packs, Competitive Profiles & Battlecards, Buying Behaviour Analysis, market trend summaries/briefs, Capability Heatmaps, Benchmark Reports and other custom research products where required
• Synthesize intelligence from primary research and secondary sources — tier-1 analyst platforms (e.g., Gartner, Everest Group, Forrester, Nelson Hall, IDC, Avasant), business databases (e.g., Hoovers, AlphaSense ,ZoomInfo) and proprietary sources — into crisp, executive-ready insight narratives.
• Track competitor strategies, partnerships, offerings and deal signals, and translate them into actionable pursuit positioning.
• Analyze market dynamics across AHEAD-relevant technology areas—including Applications, cloud and infrastructure, application modernization, data and AI, cybersecurity, digital workplace, platform engineering, automation, and emerging technologies—to assess business needs and technology linkages.
• Build account-level intelligence to support strategic account planning, C-suite engagement and opportunity identification.
• Know how in helping service providers make informed pricing and solutioning decisions — e.g., peer price benchmarking, delivery-improvement and competitive analysis to improve win-rates (Good to have or is a plus)
• Validate sources for currency, credibility and relevance; maintain high standards of accuracy and referencing across all deliverables.

Reporting, Dashboards & AI-Enabled Research

• Design, build and maintain interactive dashboards and reports in Power BI and lightweight HTML dashboards (e.g., competitor trackers, account, and market views, CoE performance reporting) that let stakeholders self-serve insights.
• Clean, model and visualize data from multiple sources (Excel, databases, analyst-platform exports); ensure accuracy, clear metric definitions and version control.
• Use AI tools and agents to automate and accelerate research workflows — source scanning, competitor monitoring, summarization and first-draft creation — with human validation of every output.
• Verify AI-generated content for accuracy, bias and source traceability; build reusable prompts and agent workflows and share good practices with the team.

Storytelling & Visual Communication

• Convert research findings into answer-first storylines, proposal narratives and CXO-level communications that persuade rather than merely present.
• Build polished, consulting-grade decks and data visualizations using AHEAD’s brand-compliant templates; partner with visual communication specialists for high-impact pursuit and proposal material.
• Present findings and recommendations to senior internal stakeholders and handle questions and pushback with confidence.

Stakeholder Partnership

• Act as a day-to-day research partner with consulting, sales, practice and deal teams to translate business needs into hypothesis-led research and concise, insight-rich narratives aligned with AHEAD’s solutions.
• Manage multiple concurrent requests, balancing standard reports with bespoke, high-urgency support while keeping quality and timelines on track.
• Anticipate intelligence needs across the pursuit lifecycle-from opportunity identification and qualification to proposal development and win/loss review — and incorporate stakeholder feedback into future work.
• Collaborate with subject-matter experts across AHEAD’s practices to understand intelligence requirements and deliver research aligned to account goals.
• Present findings through concise, insight-rich narratives that connect business strategy with AHEAD  solutions.

Team Contribution, Tools & Continuous Improvement

• Contribute to reusable assets — research templates, source libraries, capability heatmaps, frameworks and maturity models — that extend research output into AHEAD IP.
• Help shape the CoE’s research agenda — identify priority topics, data gaps and new content ideas based on industry and stakeholder needs — and recommend process and tooling improvements to Intelligence & Advisory stakeholders
• Track and report on your own delivery metrics — turnaround time, quality and stakeholder satisfaction — and contribute to win/loss learnings on research-supported pursuits.
• Mentor, guide and review the work of junior analysts; share domain knowledge, research methods and quality standards to raise the team’s overall capability.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

• Experience: 3-5 years of progressive experience in research, market/competitive intelligence, deal advisory and strategy/management consulting – in large leading IT services /Consulting firms  OR leading research & advisory firms (Candidates from BPO industry /BPO Services companies need not apply)
• Education: Bachelor’s degree is a must; and/or master’s degree in management from a reputed institution is preferred.
• Domain Expertise – Technology and Vertical Domain (atleast one domain) : Good understanding of the IT services and enterprise technology landscape — Enterprise Applications, cloud, infrastructure, digital transformation, data & AI, GenAI, cybersecurity coupled with  one or two domains (Verticals)
• Exceptional Problem Solving & Structured Thinking: Proven ability to break down ambiguous, open-ended questions into structured problems, form and test hypotheses, perform root-cause analysis and reach clear conclusions with minimal supervision.
• Consulting Skills: Consulting-style approach to scoping, framing and answering stakeholder questions — including storyline development, “so what” thinking, handling feedback and pushback, and making recommendations rather than simply reporting data.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (e.g. Word, Excel and PowerPoint); software tools working knowledge (e.g. Alteryx, Tableau, Power BI, Knime, Qualtrics etc ) is a plus
• AI & Agents: Hands-on experience using generative AI tools and AI agents in research or analysis workflows (prompting, automation, validation of outputs), with a responsible-use mindset and enthusiasm for adopting new ways of working.
• Judgment & Analytical Skills: Strong ability to analyze market trends, vendor strategies and enterprise needs, combining qualitative and quantitative inputs (market sizing, benchmarking, comparative analysis) into actionable insights; sound judgement in prioritizing, weighing evidence, evaluating source credibility and making a call when data is imperfect.
• Reporting & Dashboarding: Working proficiency in Power BI (data modelling, DAX/Power Query basics) and advanced Excel; ability to build clear, interactive dashboards, including HTML-based dashboards, that turn data into decision-ready views.
• Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication; able to produce executive summaries, research notes and presentations that are clear, concise and ready for senior audiences.
• Presentation Skills: Strong working proficiency in PowerPoint — able to turn analysis into polished, consulting-grade slides, charts and visual narratives.
• Research Proficiency: Hands-on experience with secondary research using tier-1 analyst platforms and business intelligence databases, across areas such as competitive intelligence, account intelligence, market sizing, market trend synthesis, technology benchmarking and converting research evidence into structured findings is preferred.
• Curiosity & Ownership: Intellectual curiosity, comfort with ambiguity and the drive to push beyond surface-level data to uncover insight that changes how decisions are made.
• Organizational Rigour: Ability to manage multiple concurrent deliverables with competing priorities and tight timelines while maintaining quality.
• Collaboration: Collaborative, consultative mindset; builds trusted relationships with global, cross-functional teams.
• Exposure to RFP support, proposal intelligence or pursuit enablement within a consulting or technology firm.

Why AHEAD:   Through our daily work and internal groups like Moving Women AHEAD and RISE AHEAD, we value and benefit from diversity of people, ideas, experience, and everything in between.   We fuel growth by stacking our office with top-notch technologies in a multi-million-dollar lab, by encouraging cross department training and development, sponsoring certifications and credentials for continued learning.   India Employment Benefits include:  Comprehensive health insurance coverage for employees, with options to extend coverage to dependents Paid time off and company holidays, along with additional leave benefits as per policy Flexible work arrangements, supporting work-life balance Learning and development opportunities to support continuous growth and upskilling Employee wellness initiatives and programs focused on physical and mental well-being Retirement and statutory benefits in line with India regulations Inclusive and people-first culture, with a strong focus on collaboration and ownership