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Financial Services Strategy Director and Industry Lead, EMEA — CI&T
Permanent
Context
CI&T are looking for a highly experienced Financial Services Strategist (10+ years) to join our team as both a senior strategist and the FS Industry Strategy Lead. This is a senior, visible role for a versatile strategist with deep FS knowledge, commercial and innovation expertise, and a track record of delivering measurable business outcomes.
In this role, you are the firm’s senior authority on Financial Services. You bring deep industry understanding, help shape where clients should invest, and ensure our work delivers meaningful business outcomes.
You will work in partnership with Client Partners and Business Unit Leads, who own portfolio performance and commercial closure. Your role is to inform and strengthen those strategies through industry expertise, opportunity identification, and clear value logic.
Across engagements, you will act as a trusted advisor to clients and custodian of the strategy, guiding direction and decision-making. You will lead strategy across all accounts while technology and delivery leaders remain accountable for execution, team management, and implementation.
Internally, you will play a senior leadership role in the broader Strategy Practice, helping shape ways of working, build alignment between strategy and delivery, and foster collaboration across teams. You will also raise FS capability, develop propositions, shape thought leadership, and strengthen our reputation in the market.
Role Responsibilities
1. Lead FS Strategy & Account Growth
Partner with Client Partners and Growth Unit Leads to shape account direction using deep FS insight and market understanding.
Advise clients on high-level FS strategy, emerging trends, and opportunity areas.
Highlight growth and transformation opportunities and support prioritisation to guide investment decisions.
Serve as a trusted advisor to clients and internal account teams, providing strategic guidance across end-to-end engagements and owning the delivery of the strategy.
2. Develop New FS Propositions & Innovation Initiatives
Drive the creation of differentiated FS propositions grounded in industry need and competitive advantage.
Work with client, growth and marketing teams to articulate value, positioning, and routes to market.
Translate emerging trends, regulatory change, AI, and market insights into actionable and ownable, revenue-generating propositions.
Partner with client, growth, and marketing teams to articulate value, positioning, and routes to market.
Support go-to-market strategy, investment prioritisation, and high-level business case development.
3. Practice & Thought Leadership
Play a senior leadership role within the Strategy Practice, contributing to capability development, ways of working, and mentoring across all strategists and consultants.
Serve as the FS subject matter expert, raising industry knowledge and informing account strategies across the organisation.
Mentor and develop strategists, consultants, and technical teams on FS insights, emerging trends, and client challenges.
Develop reusable frameworks, assets, and points of view that benefit the practice broadly, while highlighting FS-specific perspectives.
Contribute to external thought leadership through whitepapers, industry events, and panels, representing both FS expertise and the firm’s strategy capability.
Support talent growth and internal enablement to strengthen the practice and build the pipeline of FS-relevant opportunities.
Where appropriate, take the lead on FS propositions or client engagements, helping grow capability and influence as the team expands.
4. Guide Client Engagements & Delivery
Ensure strategies are actionable, feasible, and aligned with delivery capabilities.
Collaborate with AI, data, product, and engineering teams to connect technology to business outcomes.
Provide senior-level guidance throughout engagements to deliver measurable impact.
5. Insight, Synthesis & Decision Support
Conduct rapid market, competitive, and customer insights for FS clients.
Translate complex and ambiguous inputs into clear opportunity areas, strategic recommendations, and actionable roadmaps.
Lead workshops, prioritisation frameworks, and investment cases for clients.
What Success Looks Like
CI&T is viewed by FS clients as a strategic partner, sought for insight, guidance, and trusted advice.
Growth opportunities and transformation initiatives are identified, prioritised, and converted into credible propositions.
New FS propositions and offerings are successfully launched, commercialised, and scaleable.
CI&T’s market presence and thought leadership in FS are strengthened through events, whitepapers, and panels.
Teams demonstrate stronger FS capability, with FS practitioners effectively mentored and developed.
The broader Strategy Practice is strengthened and aligned, with you helping to shape ways of working, connect strategy and delivery, and foster collaboration across teams.
Skill profile
Experience & Industry Knowledge
10+ years in strategy, innovation, transformation, or consulting within Financial Services (banking, payments, wealth, capital markets, FS generalist).
Demonstrable experience leading FS engagements from strategy through to delivery oversight, including commercial strategy, AI-enabled transformation, and operating model/capability design.
Experience in proposition development, new business creation, and contributing to practice leadership.
Deep FS expertise and market knowledge, able to inform strategy across multiple accounts and initiatives.
Strategy & Commercial Acumen
Proven expertise in Customer strategy, experience design, value proposition design, growth strategy, and commercial case development.
Ability to connect customer, business, operational, and technology perspectives into clear strategic guidance.
Comfortable influencing investment prioritisation and opportunity selection without owning commercial closure.
Innovation & Technology Awareness
Experience in AI strategy, emerging technologies, and digital transformation in FS.
Comfortable translating technical capabilities into actionable business strategies.
Understanding of agile ways of working, operating model change, and capability building.
Client Engagement & Thought Leadership
Trusted advisor to senior FS stakeholders, shaping priorities and strategic direction.
Skilled in strategic storytelling, proposal development, and business case articulation.
Ability to guide engagements and decisions while collaborating with Client Partners and delivery teams.
Experience contributing to thought leadership, speaking at events, and driving market presence.
Insight & Synthesis
Conduct qualitative and quantitative research, competitor benchmarking, and trend analysis.
Transform ambiguous or complex inputs into structured opportunity areas, strategic recommendations, and actionable roadmaps.
Lead workshops, investment discussions, and prioritisation frameworks.
New Business & Client Relationship Building
Strong proposal writing and pitch storytelling
Capable of building trust rapidly with senior stakeholders
Skilled at identifying opportunity patterns within accounts
Strategic Storytelling & Communication
Exceptional deck-writing and narrative design
Ability to simplify complexity for senior audiences
Confident workshop facilitator and communicator
Ways of Working
Highly independent, self-directed, and pragmatic.
Collaborative across strategy, delivery, and commercial teams.
Comfortable operating in a fast-growing, high-ambiguity environment.
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