Forward Deployed AI Strategist

ABOUT THE ROLE:

AI Forward Deployed Strategists are the hybrid role at Varick. You embed with enterprise clients the way a top-tier consultant would, and you're the single thread from the first client conversation to the system running in production.

This is a role for people who think like strategists and operators. You sit across the table from both a CFO and a junior controller, diagnose what's actually broken in their operation, and then translate that into a clear brief that our engineers can build against. You don't need to write the code - you need to know what to build, why it matters, and how to land it with the client.

You need to be the person in the room who reframes the problem, asks the question no one else thought to ask, and earns the right to a follow-on engagement. This is the bar.

WHAT YOU'LL DO:

• Embed with client leadership and operations teams to understand their business from the ground up, map workflows, and identify where AI can create real leverage

• Run discovery engagements that look more like a McKinsey study than a typical software project — interviews, process mapping, hypothesis-driven analysis, executive readouts

• Translate ambiguous business problems into concrete specs that our engineering team can build against

• Own engagements end to end: from the first conversation with a COO to the handoff of a running system

• Present findings, frameworks, and recommendations directly to C-suite stakeholders, and defend them under pressure

• Feed what you learn in the field back into Varick's playbooks, patterns, and platform

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR:

• A track record of solving hard, ambiguous problems for senior stakeholders — ideally at a top-tier consulting firm (McKinsey, BCG, Bain) or as a founder

• First-principles thinker. You don't reach for the framework or the template — you reason from the actual business problem in front of you

• Exceptional client presence. You can hold a room of executives, push back on a CFO without losing them, and make a COO feel like you understand their business better than their last three vendors did

• Founder or operator instincts. You've built something, run something, or owned a P&L — and you know what it feels like when the work actually has to ship

• Strong commercial sense. You understand where the value is, who's paying for it, and what a successful engagement looks like from the client's side of the table

• AI-native. You use AI tools every day, you've followed the space closely, and you have a real point of view on where agents work, where they don't, and what's coming next. You can scope an AI implementation and communicate clearly with engineers about what to build

• Extreme ownership. You run your engagements end to end with minimal oversight, and you're accountable for the outcome, not the output

• Willingness to travel to client sites (10–20%)

HELPFUL EXPERIENCE:

• Senior experience at a top-tier strategy firm (McKinsey, BCG, Bain), especially with a digital, AI, or operations focus

• A track record of senior client work - owning relationships with C-suite stakeholders, running engagements

• Founder or early-employee experience at a startup, especially one that sold into the enterprise

• Experience leading transformation or operations work inside a large enterprise - finance, ops, or strategy functions at a Fortune 500

• Hands-on experience deploying AI tools in a real business context, even if you weren't the one writing the code

WHY VARICK:

• Early to the thesis. We bet on this category before it was obvious — and we're already working with billion-dollar companies

• Real ownership, not slide-deck purgatory. If you're tired of making recommendations that never get implemented, or spending a month polishing a deck no one reads, come build something that actually ships and runs

• High-bar team. Everyone here is someone you'll want to learn from — operators, engineers, and strategists at the top of their craft.

• Direct access to operators and executives (CFOs, COOs, ops leads), with none of the layers, decks-for-decks-sake, or process overhead of a traditional firm

• You own the full loop: find the problem, frame it, scope the solution, see it ship, see it run

• Small, early team — your judgment shapes the product, the playbooks, and how Varick scales

*We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status. Employment is subject to a standard confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement.