Principal Solution Consultant - ITSM - North America

Job Summary

The Principal Solution Consultant is a senior solution consulting and methodology leader responsible for shaping complex, outcome-driven consulting engagements. This role leads complex consulting framing, executive-level discovery, outcome architecture, governance design, and practice quality for engagements that require a higher level of ambiguity management, stakeholder alignment, and advisory rigor.

The Principal Solution Consultant sits above the Senior Solution Consultant role and focuses on complex or multi-domain engagements, methodology quality, and coaching across the practice. The role owns the consulting narrative and advisory quality for complex engagements, while Engagement Directors own broader executive relationships, portfolio outcomes, strategic escalation, and account-level value realization. Technical architecture, integration patterns, scalability, and detailed platform design remain owned by Technical Architects.

Job Responsibilities and Scope

ResponsibilitiesComplex Consulting Framing and Executive Discovery
Lead complex solution consulting engagements where business intent, operating model, value case, governance, and delivery approach need to be clarified before or during delivery.
Provide executive-level discovery and advisory leadership without owning account commercials, pricing, close plans, or portfolio strategy.
Shape business and operating-model architecture at the solution consulting level without owning detailed technical architecture, integrations, data flows, or platform standards.
Raise the quality of solution consulting work through methodology stewardship, stage-gate discipline, artifact quality, and coaching.
• Lead executive-level discovery to clarify business intent, transformation constraints, value targets, operating model impacts, risks, and success measures.
• Translate ambiguous business problems into structured consulting narratives, decision paths, phased approaches, and measurable outcome models.
• Frame current-state and future-state narratives that connect people, process, technology, governance, adoption, and value realization.
• Guide senior stakeholders toward decision-ready recommendations while keeping the engagement grounded in feasible delivery and customer maturity.
Outcome Architecture and Governance Design
• Define outcome architecture for complex engagements, including value hypotheses, KPI models, baseline measures, target outcomes, and benefits tracking approach.
• Design governance models appropriate to engagement complexity, including stage gates, decision forums, escalation paths, and executive readout cadence.
• Establish consulting guardrails for scope boundaries, assumptions, risk posture, adoption needs, success measures, and decision ownership.
• Ensure that each major phase has clear evidence, decision points, and artifacts to support alignment and accountability.
ESM/ITSM Advisory Focus
• Advise enterprise customers on the practical application of ITIL practices across the service value system, including service desk, incident, request, problem, change enablement, service level, knowledge, request configuration, asset, alerting and continual improvement practices.
• Design operating models that connect IT service management teams with product, engineering, DevOps, and application development teams.
• Provide high-level guidance around platform governance and security/compliance constraints.
• Shape executive reporting and service performance management through outcome-oriented dashboards that support decisions rather than activity reporting.
• Advise on CMDB and configuration management strategy, including the scope and purpose of the configuration model, CI classes and relationships, data ownership, discovery and reconciliation, service mapping, data quality controls, and the level of accuracy required for incident, change, problem, risk, and impact analysis.
• Facilitate maturity assessments and prioritized roadmaps that sequence process, people, data, technology, governance, and adoption changes according to customer readiness, value, risk, and the ability to sustain the operating model after implementation.
• Identify and recommend alternative/additional tooling whenever gaps in functionality have been recorded.
• Assess where standardization/out-of-the-box platform capabilities can be leveraged to improve the user experience, improve scalability, and reduce technical debt/overhead
• Identify and relate recommendations for custom solutions or alternative/additional tooling to justification via regulatory, operational, or business requirements


Methodology and Stage-Gate Advisory
• Apply and evolve the Solution Consulting methodology while tailoring it to client context without losing rigor or consistency.
• Guide teams through stage-gate advisory practices across diagnosis, design and planning, validation, activation, and scale.
• Review key engagement artifacts for clarity, completeness, value alignment, and readiness for customer or executive review.
• Identify gaps in advisory quality, governance, requirements clarity, adoption planning, or outcome measurement and help teams resolve them early.
Complex Deal Advisory and Scoping Support
• Support complex pursuits by advising on discovery approach, advisory workshops, solution framing, scope assumptions, value case, and delivery risk.
• Provide consulting input to proposals and SOWs where business outcomes, governance, operating model, phased roadmap, or methodology approach need stronger definition.
• Partner with Sales and Account teams as an advisory and scoping contributor without owning pursuit strategy, commercial strategy, pricing, negotiation, or close plan.
• Help identify whether an opportunity requires additional input from Engagement Directors, Principal Solution Architects, Technical Architects, or delivery leadership.
Artifact Ownership and Advisory Quality
• Create or review high-value consulting artifacts such as value cases, current-state and future-state narratives, operating models, phased roadmaps, governance models, KPI models, benefits trackers, decision logs, and executive readouts.
• Ensure artifacts are decision-ready, logically connected, customer-specific, and usable by delivery teams and senior stakeholders.
• Convert field lessons into reusable playbooks, templates, accelerators, discovery guides, workshop formats, and quality standards.
• Maintain a high bar for clarity, evidence, traceability, and measurable value across complex consulting engagements.
Coaching, Practice Quality, and Team Leadership
• Coach Senior Solution Consultants and Solution Consultants through structured feedback, advisory review, workshop preparation, and artifact improvement.
• Lead by example on executive communication, consulting structure, facilitation, value framing, and clarity through artifacts.
• Support hiring, onboarding, enablement, communities of practice, and internal quality reviews for the Solution Consulting practice.
• Contribute to team leadership activities where needed, including mentoring, capability planning, practice standards, and development of consulting talent.
• Model responsible use of approved AI tools to improve delivery efficiency, speed, quality, consistency, and value realization across consulting workflows and reusable assets.
Decision Rights and Collaboration
• The Principal Solution Consultant owns complex consulting framing, outcome architecture, methodology quality, stage-gate advisory, and coaching.
• Senior Solution Consultants own solution design intent and customer-facing advisory on standard and medium-complexity engagements.
• Principal Solution Architects and Technical Architects own technical architecture, integration patterns, scalability, platform design, and detailed technical feasibility.
• Engagement Directors own executive relationships, portfolio outcomes, strategic escalation, and account-level value realization.
• Sales owns account strategy, commercial strategy, pricing, negotiation, close plan, and deal progression.
Skills and ExperienceRequired Qualifications
• Proven ownership of large or complex consulting engagements with multiple stakeholders, workstreams, phases, or business domains.
• Experience designing enterprise work management solutions using Atlassian products including Jira Software, Jira Service Management, Operations, Assets, and Confluence.
• Demonstrated experience leading executive-level discovery, advisory workshops, governance forums, and decision-oriented client conversations.
• Strong capability in problem framing, value modeling, KPI definition, roadmapping, operating model design, adoption planning, and benefits tracking.
• Fluency in stage-gate governance, iterative delivery, consulting methodology, and outcome-based advisory practices.
• Strong familiarity with enterprise delivery, ITSM, Agile, Work Management, service management, and adjacent Atlassian ecosystem considerations.
• Ability to coach consultants, review advisory artifacts, and raise delivery quality through repeatable methods and reusable assets.
• Strong working knowledge of ITIL concepts and practices; ITIL certification (Foundation or higher) preferred.
• Ability to translate ITIL guidance into pragmatic processes, controls, and reporting.
• Strong technical writing ability
• Ability to speak clearly and concisely to audiences of varying technical aptitudes
Preferred Qualifications
• Experience in regulated, complex, or enterprise environments such as financial services, healthcare, automotive, public sector, or global organizations.
• Knowledge of ITIL, SAFe, Lean-Agile, DevOps, Enterprise Service Management, change management, or operating model frameworks.
• Experience contributing to practice development, team leadership, hiring, onboarding, enablement, or consulting quality programs.
• Hands-on experience with one or more of: ServiceNow, Zendesk, and/or BMC, including configuration and/or implementation delivery.
• Experience working with integrations and enterprise reporting/analytics.
• Experience leading enterprise-scale platform transformations, including migrations from legacy platforms to new solutions, with a focus on change impact across end users, external customers, operational teams, and executive stakeholders.
Key Competencies
• Executive communication: concise, credible, decision-oriented communication with senior stakeholders.
• Outcome architecture: links business goals, solution recommendations, adoption needs, and measurable value.
• Structured problem-solving: turns ambiguity into a coherent plan, artifact set, and decision path.
• Governance leadership: defines cadence, stage gates, decision forums, escalation paths, and evidence needs.
• Systems thinking: connects people, process, technology, governance, risk, and operating model considerations.
• Talent multiplier: raises the bar through coaching, quality review, reusable assets, and team leadership.
Career Path and Growth Options

This role is part of the Solution Consulting Practice and provides multiple growth paths depending on strengths, business need, and leadership interests. Potential paths include:

• Engagement Director, owning broader executive relationships, portfolio outcomes, and account-level value realization.
• Practice Lead or Team Leadership, owning consulting capability development, standards, enablement, and people leadership.
• Head of Solutions Consulting or similar senior leadership role, owning practice strategy, quality, and cross-functional alignment.