Associate Director, Product Software and Transformation

About the role

Crosslake is looking for an Associate Director to join its Value Creation team within the Product, Software and Transformation practice. In this role, you will work with private equity investors and portfolio company leadership teams to turn product, software and technology opportunities into measurable business outcomes.

You will be the day-to-day lead on complex value creation engagements, bringing structure to ambiguous problems, aligning workstreams and ensuring the team converges on a clear, evidence-based answer. The ideal candidate combines the breadth of a strong consulting Engagement Manager or Project Leader with meaningful depth in transformation, product, software delivery or technology architecture.

You will be expected to shape the problem, develop hypotheses, lead analysis, manage senior stakeholders, drive the storyline and own delivery, while credibly challenging clients and specialists on the substance of the work.

This is a role for someone who is comfortable moving between commercial, product and technology conversations, and who can connect strategic ambition to technical feasibility, investment choices and a pragmatic path to implementation.

Role responsibilities

• Lead value creation engagements day to day, including defining the key questions, building the workplan, managing workstreams and keeping the team focused on the issues that matter most to the client.
• Bring structure to complex product, software and transformation challenges, breaking broad opportunities into clear hypotheses, analyses, workstreams and decision points.
• Develop compelling executive-level narratives that synthesise analysis, client input and specialist perspectives into practical recommendations.
• Build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders across business, product, technology and finance, helping clients navigate competing priorities and align around decisions.
• Translate effectively between commercial and technical audiences, ensuring recommendations reflect business priorities, product realities, architecture implications and delivery feasibility.
• Link product, software and transformation initiatives to value creation economics, including opportunity sizing, business cases, investment requirements, benefits, trade-offs and execution risks.
• Challenge assumptions, pressure-test recommendations and identify where deeper product, engineering, architecture, data, cybersecurity or transformation expertise is needed.
• Drive engagements beyond analysis towards clear decisions, prioritised actions and a pragmatic path from recommendation to execution.

What we’re looking for

• Experience operating at a level comparable to a high-performing consulting Engagement Manager, Project Leader, Associate Director or Senior Consultant, with a track record of leading complex client engagements.
• A strong consulting toolkit, ideally developed in a leading strategy, digital or transformation consultancy, or through comparable experience in high-stakes advisory or transformation environments.
• Proven ability to take ambiguous problems, impose structure, develop hypotheses, drive rigorous analysis, manage teams and translate findings into a clear executive storyline.
• Meaningful functional depth in one or more of transformation, product, software delivery, operating model design, technology strategy or technology architecture.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen, including the ability to size opportunities, build business cases, quantify benefits, understand investment needs and evaluate strategic trade-offs.
• Credibility with senior executives and functional leaders, including CEOs, CFOs, CTOs, CPOs and leaders across product, engineering, architecture and transformation.
• Confidence operating at the intersection of business strategy, product, software and technology, with enough domain understanding to ask the right questions and challenge the quality of recommendations.
• A hands-on leadership style: senior enough to build confidence with executives, while close enough to the work to guide analysis, challenge team thinking and personally shape the storyline.
• A practical, action-oriented mindset aligned with Crosslake’s values of service, curiosity, credibility, commitment and creativity.