Applied AI Strategist - Senior - Location OPEN

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Location:

Chicago

Other locations:
Anywhere in Country

Date:
Aug 14, 2026

Requisition

The opportunity

As a Senior in Applied AI, you will be at the forefront of building and deploying AI solutions that are pivotal to value creation for private equity clients and their portfolio companies. You will ensure these initiatives are delivered with precision, aligning timelines, costs, and quality to achieve outstanding outcomes. Working embedded alongside senior practitioners, you will contribute hands‑on to the development and implementation of cutting‑edge AI solutions — and you will use AI as your primary way of working, every day.

Your key responsibilities

In this role, you will be responsible for hands‑on delivery of applied AI initiatives, applying your expertise to navigate complex challenges and drive innovation. You will:

• Build, test, and iterate on AI solutions — agents, retrieval systems, automations, and analytics — that align with business objectives.
• Utilize AI tools as a daily force multiplier, applying coding assistants, agentic workflows, and rapid prototyping to accelerate your own and the team's delivery.
• Engage actively with client and portfolio company teams, participating in working sessions and contributing to project success.

Skills and attributes for success

To excel in this role, you will need a strong foundation in applied AI and the drive to learn by building. Your skills will include:

• Demonstrated AI‑native fluency — an early adopter and constant experimenter who is a power user of the AI tools available to them.
• Hands‑on experience building with LLM APIs, agent frameworks, or automation tooling, whether professionally or through personal projects.
• Working proficiency in Python and SQL, or equivalent analytical tooling.
• Strong analytical and decision‑making skills, with the ability to structure ambiguous business problems.

To qualify for the role, you must have

• A Bachelor's degree in a relevant field.
• Typically 2-4 years of relevant experience.
• Experience in AI/ML engineering, data engineering, analytics, or strategy/operations roles — including in consulting, financial services, private equity, or portfolio company environments.
• Proficiency in translating business problems into buildable AI use cases and driving outcomes.

Ideally, you’ll also have

• A portfolio of AI experiments, side projects, or shipped tools that demonstrates curiosity and craft.
• Exposure to cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) or modern data platforms (Snowflake, Databricks).
• Familiarity with private equity value creation levers or portfolio company operations.

What we look for

We seek individuals who are not only technologically proficient but also demonstrate a keen understanding of business value. Top performers in this role are AI natives — early adopters who experiment constantly and make the newest tools part of how they work — who blend technical skill with strategic insight, exhibit strong ownership, and maintain excellent communication to build successful relationships and deliver on commitments.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients.