AI Strategy Associate (Junior)

Careers at TCS: It means more

TCS is a purpose-led transformation company, built on belief. We do not just help businesses to transform through technology. We support them in making a meaningful difference to the people and communities they serve - our clients include some of the biggest brands in the UK and worldwide. For you, it means more to make an impact that matters, through challenging projects which demand ambitious innovation and thought leadership.

The Role

TCS is the strategic AI partner to a flagship global airline. Under that partnership we have established and now run a governed AI portfolio for the client — a single prioritised, funded and measured set of AI initiatives spanning commercial, customer, operations, engineering and corporate functions, rather than the scattered pilots most enterprises accumulate.

Running a portfolio at that scale creates continuous analytical demand: new opportunities to assess, benefit cases to build and re-baseline, initiatives to sequence, and leadership readouts to produce. This role exists to meet that demand — and to do it AI-natively.

The term is 18 months, aligned to the current portfolio cycle.

What “AI-native” means here

This is not a role where you advise on AI and then work the way analysts worked a decade ago. You are expected to use AI tooling as your default working method — research, synthesis, financial modelling, document drafting, analysis of client process and data — and to be judged on the quality and volume of decision-ready output you produce, not on hours spent producing it.

The discipline that matters is judgement: knowing what to delegate to a model, what to verify, and what to never delegate at all. Every number that reaches a client is yours to defend. We will train you on the tooling and the guardrails. We are hiring for the judgement.

What you’ll do

• Assess new AI opportunities across the client’s functions — mapping the process, identifying where AI creates measurable value, and sizing the prize
• Build and maintain the commercial cases behind portfolio initiatives: benefit models, cost baselines, IRR, payback, sensitivity analysis
• Support portfolio governance — sequencing, dependency mapping, owner and milestone tracking, benefit realisation reporting against baseline
• Produce executive-ready readouts and papers for client leadership forums
• Build reusable practice assets: benefit libraries, assessment frameworks, airline sector points of view
• Contribute to live pursuits across the wider TtH portfolio where capacity allows

What the role offers

• Work on a live, board-visible AI portfolio at one of the most demanding enterprise clients in the sector
• Owned workstreams and named deliverables, with direct exposure to client leadership
• Mentorship from the AI Portfolio Lead and senior consultants across the practice
• Deep, practical fluency in working AI-natively on real commercial problems
• Progression route to Consultant, Data & AI Advisory, subject to performance and business need

Who we’re looking for

Essential

• MBA or Master’s in business, economics, engineering or a related discipline, or equivalent early-career experience
• Demonstrable commercial modelling capability — you can build a business case from a blank sheet and defend every assumption in it
• Structured problem-solving: you can take an ambiguous brief across a large operation and reduce it to a prioritised, evidenced recommendation
• Existing working fluency with AI tooling, and the judgement to know where it is and isn’t trustworthy
• Strong written and verbal communication, including executive-level presentation

Desirable

• Prior consulting, strategy, transformation or financial analysis experience
• Exposure to airline, travel, transport or large-scale consumer operations
• Familiarity with enterprise data platforms (Snowflake, Databricks, Azure) in an analytical or advisory capacity
• Evidence of leading teams or programmes

We are less interested in the number of AI tools you have used than in whether you can tell a client which three of thirty-five ideas are worth funding, and why.

Assessment process

1. Application review — CV and a short statement on a commercial decision you have analysed
2. Competency interview with the hiring manager
3. Case exercise — an AI opportunity assessment and business case, presented back. You may use AI tooling; you will be asked to explain where you did and how you verified it
4. Final conversation with practice leadership

Practical detail

• Right to work: Candidates must hold the right to work in the UK.
• Client confidentiality: The engagement operates under strict client confidentiality. The client will be named at offer stage, subject to NDA.
• At end of term: Subject to performance and business need, the role is intended to lead to a permanent position within Data & AI Advisory.

Rewards & Benefits

TCS is consistently voted as a Top Employer in the UK and globally. Our competitive salary packages feature pension, health care, life assurance, laptop, phone, access to extensive training resources and discounts within the larger Tata network.

We offer health & wellness initiatives and sports events; we are the proud sponsor of the London Marathon.

Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing

Tata Consultancy Services UK&I is committed to meeting the accessibility needs of all individuals in accordance with the UK Equality Act 2010 and the UK Human Rights Act 1998.

We welcome and embrace diversity in race, nationality, ethnicity, disability, neurodiversity, gender identity, age, physical ability, gender reassignment, sexual orientation. We are a disability inclusive employer and encourage disabled people to apply for this role.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we offer an interview to applicants with disabilities or long-term conditions who meet the minimum criteria for the role. Please email us at UKI.recruitment@tcs.com if you would like to opt in.

If you are an applicant who needs any adjustments to the application process or interview, please contact us at UKI.recruitment@tcs.com with the subject line: “Adjustment Request” or call TCS London Office 02031552100 / +44 204 520 2575 to request an adjustment. We welcome requests prior to you completing the application and at any stage of the recruitment process.

Due to the high volume of applications, we will be unable to contact each applicant individually on the status of their application. If you have not received a direct response within 30 days, then it should be deemed unsuccessful on this occasion.

Join us and do more of what matters. Apply online now.

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