Principal – AI Disintermediation; Founding Team

Location:

Austin, TX preferred (flexible), travel: ~50%

Praxis

IQ is building a specialized AI Disintermediation practice serving private equity firms and their portfolio companies. We assess how emerging AI capabilities — particularly agentic systems and LLM-native platforms — reshape industry structure, compress margins, eliminate intermediaries, and create asymmetric advantage.

We are hiring a Principal-level leader to help build and scale this practice from the ground up.

This is not a traditional consulting role. This is an opportunity to define a new category of AI-driven investment diligence.

As a Principal, you will:

• Lead AI disintermediation assessments for PE-backed investment targets
• Shape investment committee narratives and underwriting theses
• Translate AI market dynamics into quantified risk and upside
• Design AI-enabled value creation strategies post-close
• Help institutionalize Praxis
  
  IQ’s methodology and frameworks
• Serve as a senior client-facing leader with PE partners and C‑suite teams

You will operate at the intersection of strategy, technology, and capital allocation.

• Lead commercial and technical AI diligence work streams
• Evaluate competitive vulnerability to AI-native disruptors
• Assess defensibility (data moats, switching costs, workflow entrenchment)
• Quantify automation and margin compression risk
• Produce clear, investment-grade IC materials

• Assess architecture readiness for AI integration
• Evaluate data infrastructure and model leverage potential
• Identify where agentic AI could eliminate labor or intermediaries
• Pressure-test product defensibility in an AI-first future

• Develop 12–36 month AI transformation roadmaps
• Identify automation, pricing leverage, and cost reduction opportunities
• Align AI strategy to EBITDA expansion and exit multiple expansion

• Build internal frameworks, tooling, and repeatable processes
• Contribute to thought leadership and market positioning
• Mentor and develop junior team members

Strong preference for experience at firms such as:

• Deloitte (Strategy, Monitor, Tech Strategy)
• Bearing Point
• Baker Tilly (Advisory / Transaction Services)
• Alix Partners
• FTI Consulting
• Similar transaction advisory or PE value creation firms

• 7–12 years in strategy consulting, transaction advisory, or PE value creation
• Significant experience supporting private equity diligence
• Strong understanding of AI market dynamics and competitive disruption
• Ability to engage technical teams credibly at the architecture level
• Proven ability to present to investment committees or boards
• Exceptional structured writing and synthesis skills
• Willingness to travel ~50%

• Direct exposure to AI/ML or automation initiatives
• SaaS or tech-enabled business experience
• Top-tier university background
• Based in Austin (ideal but flexible)

• Senior consultants ready to step into ownership
• Strategists who want deeper technical exposure
• Builders who want equity‑like impact without joining a fund
• Leaders who want to define how AI reshapes PE investing

• Founding team influence
• Direct exposure to PE partners
• High autonomy, high accountability environment
• Meaningful upside as the practice scales