Senior Consultant, Innovation

**Why Ryan?** - Hybrid Work Options - Award-Winning Culture - Generous Personal Time Off (PTO) Benefits - 14-Weeks of 100% Paid Leave for New Parents (Adoption Included) - Monthly Gym Membership Reimbursement OR Gym Equipment Reimbursement - Benefits Eligibility Effective Day One - 401K with Employer Match - Tuition Reimbursement After One Year of Service - Fertility Assistance Program - Four-Week Company-Paid Sabbatical Eligibility After Five Years of Service The Senior Consultant, Cloud Innovation is a forward-deployed cloud innovation consultant who partners with internal stakeholders to identify high-value opportunities where cloud-native technology can improve service delivery, internal operations, and customer outcomes. This role leads discovery, solution scoping, and rapid experimentation (POCs/prototypes), then helps transition validated solutions into production-ready implementations or informs the roadmap for Ryan's commercial product offerings. This position is hands-on and delivery-oriented, blending cloud architecture, application development, FinOps awareness, and lightweight project leadership to deliver measurable business value. • *Project Management** - Coordinates resources, timelines, budgets, and delivery plans for a portfolio of cloud innovation initiatives (POCs, pilots, and scaled implementations) to ensure alignment with enterprise strategy and the ideation lifecycle - Drives end-to-end execution using agile practices (backlog, sprints, demos, retros) and maintains clear status reporting, dependencies, and delivery artifacts - Manages project issues, risks, and tradeoffs (scope, security, cost, time) and escalates to stakeholders with clarity, timeliness, and professionalism - Establishes and maintains strong relationships across engineering, security, finance, and business teams to accelerate delivery and remove blockers - Ensures operational readiness for delivered solutions (documentation, monitoring/alerting expectations, handoff plans, and support models) - Promotes cloud engineering best practices, including infrastructure as code, CI/CD, automation, repeatability, and security-by-design • *Innovation** - Operates as a forward-deployed cloud innovation consultant, embedding with teams to run discovery, prototype solutions, and validate outcomes in real workflows - Leads hands-on build, development, testing, and monitoring of cloud-native technology solutions across the Innovation portfolio (serverless, containers, APIs, event-driven patterns) - Translates business problems into clear technical requirements and lightweight architectures, connecting business processes, potential risks, data needs, and solution options - Designs and implements secure cloud networking patterns (AWS VPC / Azure VNET, subnets, routing, load balancers, firewalls/security controls) appropriate to the use case - Applies FinOps fundamentals-cost estimation, tagging/chargeback inputs, unit-cost thinking, and optimization recommendations-to guide decisions and communicate value - Builds prototypes and production components using Python or C#, integrating with cloud services, SDKs, and APIs - Partners with Ryan business units to identify trusted customers for participation in the Innovation lifecycle; facilitates feedback loops to prioritize the most promising ideas - Identifies emerging cloud capabilities and market trends (platform services, data/AI, automation) and recommends opportunities where technology and data strategy can benefit Ryan customers or service delivery methods • *Education** Bachelor's degree or Master's degree in business management, tax, computer science, information systems (MIS) and equivalent STEM degrees or equivalent experience. 3+ years related experience and/or training or equivalent combination of education and experience. • *Additional Skills And Experience** - Domain Application: Able to apply tax and technology domain expertise with good judgment and impactful communication to contribute value and accomplish desired outcomes for clients and the Firm. - Client Advocate: Proven ability to develop and cultivate meaningful relationships with internal/external clients resulting in client loyalty, satisfaction and continued growth and expansion. - Operational Excellence: Operates efficiently, ensuring profitability of work and stewardship of company resources. Plans and prioritizes to ensure successful delivery of high-quality business results on time, every time. - Perseverance and Impact: Exhibits determination, resilience, and commitment. Able to stay focused on what is under their control and focus efforts on what will most positively impact the Firm. • *Computer Skills:** - Microsoft Excel and Access, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word, CRM, and internet navigation/research - Fluency in Python or C# required; additional languages/scripting experience a plus - Experience with one or more database platforms is a strong indicator for success in the role - Experience with one or