Chief Technologist and Futurist Retail Americas

Chief Technologist and Futurist Retail Americas

Role Purpose

We are looking for an executive to be the technology spokesperson and technology champion of Cognizant's Retail BU in order to deliver exponential growth and establish a technical leadership position within Retail IT Services Market by influencing client technology executives, championing partner relationships and collaboration, defining and shaping Cognizant technology offerings needed for the Retail market, and engaging with industry advisors and experts to create a buzz about Cognizant's technology capabilities in the Retail industry unlocking large deal opportunities ($100M+) with new and existing clients, expanding the scope of potential opportunities, and championing the technical solutioning and integration of large pursuits to ensure higher success rates.

Key Responsibilities

Industry Mastery and Client Engagement:

* Study and understand key technology trends, capabilities, and priorities across the Retail industry and be known as a Retail domain expert in key Retail technologies including Customer Experience, Unified Commerce, Personalization, Targeted Marketing, Supply Chain and Distribution, Stores, IoT, and Contact Center

* Share thought-leadership and deep industry technology knowledge with C-level staff, architects, senior leaders, and prospects at industry conferences, user groups, and partner events

* Collaborate with external entities like industry and sourcing analysts, advisors, consulting firms, design agencies, and ecosystem partners particularly hyper scalers and platform firms to identify and shape client opportunities that enable business redesign leveraging technology

* Identify and champion tech debt elimination and modernization with client technology leaders to create value and enable transformation

* Work across the entire Retail team, providing thought leadership, supporting strategic customer and partner engagements, and actively providing input to service line teams to enhance offerings, driving new capabilities

* Connect regularly with partners to understand their offerings and how technology can best be applied to the Retail industry

* Educate the sales organization on key components, trends, and capabilities of Retail technologies

* Create connections between seemingly unrelated technologies and platforms to drive growth and enable competitive advantages

Deal Origination, Pursuit, and Solutioning:

* Champion and lead the end-to-end solutioning of large, multi-service line technology pursuits ensuring the completeness of offerings, optimal leverage of platforms and partners, and modern capabilities

* Build and shape ideas into deals that redesign and transform key Retail business processes by leveraging industry leading technologies along with Cognizant's unique solution offerings and capabilities to create differentiated transformational value for Retail clients

* Collaborate with the market commercial and sales teams, in engaging client stakeholders define the business case, strategic options, technology transformation roadmap and articulate the business value of the strategic ideas to help shape client opportunities

* Provide independent perspective on opportunity size, deal profiling, and win probability to sales and delivery leaders

* Engage with business heads, service line leaders, finance teams to finalize solution estimates and overall deal commercials

* Communicate with senior management team at appropriate junctures during the pursuit and facilitate strategic pursuit decisions to improve win probability

* Work with market commercial and sales teams on qualified proactive opportunities to define solutions and take them to closure

* Strategize solution definition and solution defense along with extended Cognizant teams to increase pursuit success

* Build and shape large deals $100M+

BU Leadership and Transformation:

* Develop and execute technology integration strategies and plans for newly acquired businesses, ensuring alignment with overall company goals and objectives

* Oversee cross-functional integration global teams, to ensure smooth and efficient integration of acquired businesses

* Lead a team of high-performing individuals to build deep client relationships, source & win large multi-year deals, collaborate across Cognizant's delivery, integrated businesses and corporate functions to deliver consistently on the Americas 5 Key Priorities: people, clients, pricing, accelerating revenue and bookings, and profitable growth

* Continuous coaching and sponsoring of commercial leaders ensuring career discussions and growth

Experience

* Executive/CIO/CTO level candidate who has experience engaging, advising, and/or directly leading complex technology organizations including C-suite interaction

* Proven strong functional and technology background and ability to deliver technology transformation in Fortune 500 organizations

* Minimum of 12+ years of industry experience in a client facing role or account leadership role in the IT professional services or management consulting firm or as a technology leader

* Prior experience at AVP equivalent level in relevant companies

* Desired strong Retail industry expertise as an executive who has acted as a C-suite advisor for large enterprises

* Experience of leading diverse teams, experience of cultivating and collaborating in a multi-cultural environment

* Strong experience with the global service delivery model

Education
Bachelor's Degree OR equivalent combination of education, training, and experience

Salary and Other Compensation:

Applications will be accepted until March 17, 2025.

The annual salary for this position is between $171,051 - $316,500 depending on the experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate.

This position is also eligible for Cognizant's discretionary annual incentive program and stock awards, based on performance and subject to the terms of Cognizant's applicable plans.

Benefits: Cognizant offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements:

* Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance

* Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off

* 401(k) plan and contributions

* Long-term/Short-term Disability

* Paid Parental Leave

* Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Disclaimer: The salary, other compensation, and benefits information is accurate as of the date of this posting. Cognizant reserves the right to modify this information at any time, subject to applicable law.