Principal, Infosys Consulting – Cognitive Manufacturing

Infosys Consulting, the management and technology consulting unit of Infosys Ltd, is seeking an experienced Principal to join its Manufacturing consulting practice and help grow its Cognitive Manufacturing service offering. This role offers the opportunity to work with leading manufacturing companies as they modernize operations, improve business performance, and apply advanced digital, data, and AI capabilities across the manufacturing value chain.

About the Role

As a Principal, you will lead client engagements that help manufacturing companies define and execute transformation strategies. You will work directly with senior business and technology leaders to shape roadmaps, build business cases, guide delivery teams, and create measurable outcomes across areas such as factory modernization, quality, supply chain, product industrialization, digital thread, AI-enabled operations, and service performance.

You will also play an important role in growing the practice by mentoring teams, contributing to thought leadership, supporting business development, and helping bring new Cognitive Manufacturing offerings to market.

Responsibilities

• Manufacturing Strategy & Design
  • Develop manufacturing transformation strategies and implementation roadmaps to improve throughput, quality, cost, sustainability, resilience, and speed.
  • Apply Industry 4.0 maturity and capability frameworks to assess client readiness across strategy, process, operating model, smart factory, IT/OT integration, data, analytics, AI, digital thread, workforce adoption, and governance. Translate findings into actionable transformation roadmaps.
  • Lead assessments across the manufacturing value chain, including NPI, product industrialization, parts reuse, engineering change, BOM synchronization, production planning, factory execution, quality, maintenance, supplier collaboration, logistics, and service feedback.
  • Help clients redesign manufacturing, supply chain, and distribution processes to improve agility, transparency, traceability, and decision-making.
  • Identify opportunities to apply digital, data, and AI capabilities to business priorities such as OEE, first-pass yield, scrap reduction, downtime, engineering productivity, inventory, working capital, launch performance, and service quality.
  • Lead executive workshops and working sessions to align stakeholders on business priorities, future-state capabilities, and transformation roadmaps.
  • Link Cognitive Manufacturing capabilities, digital thread, manufacturing data foundations, AI/ML, GenAI, IoT, and smart factory technologies to practical business cases and measurable outcomes.
• Cognitive Manufacturing Focus
  • Advise clients on connecting product innovation, engineering, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, distribution, and service into a more intelligent and closed-loop manufacturing value chain.
  • Shape AI-enabled operating models and decision-support capabilities across plant, network, and enterprise levels.
  • Help clients prioritize practical use cases in areas such as predictive quality, predictive maintenance, production optimization, AI-assisted scheduling, engineering change impact analysis, parts reuse, operator assistance, and manufacturing performance intelligence.
  • Guide clients from pilots and point solutions toward scalable Cognitive Manufacturing capabilities that can be adopted across plants, functions, and business units.
  • Define value realization approaches to track benefits across productivity, quality, cost, downtime, cycle time, working capital, launch performance, sustainability, and service outcomes.
  • Work with business, IT, OT, data, and technology teams to align process, data, system, governance, and change management needs.
• Consulting Delivery
  • Lead the design and delivery of consulting engagements, either as standalone projects or as part of larger transformation programs.
  • Own engagement quality, scope, budget, staffing, delivery risk, governance, executive communication, and client satisfaction.
  • Advise clients using industry best practices, manufacturing domain expertise, and practical experience with digital and AI-enabled transformation.
  • Lead teams of consultants, technology professionals, and subject matter experts to develop strategies, roadmaps, business cases, and implementation recommendations.
  • Work closely with clients to understand their needs, define long-term goals, and develop solutions that are practical, measurable, and achievable.
  • Coordinate with business, IT, OT, data, AI, cloud, PLM, MES, ERP, QMS, and vendor teams to translate business priorities into actionable initiatives.
  • Serve as a trusted liaison between client leaders, delivery teams, technology groups, and other stakeholders throughout the transformation journey.
• Practice Development
  • Contribute to the growth of the Manufacturing consulting practice and the Cognitive Manufacturing service offering.
  • Develop reusable assets such as assessment tools, maturity models, value maps, use-case libraries, workshop materials, roadmap templates, and points of view.
  • Share insights on manufacturing trends, Industry 4.0, smart factory, digital thread, AI in manufacturing, and emerging best practices.
  • Collaborate with colleagues across consulting, technology, data, AI, cloud, and industry teams to develop differentiated offerings for clients.
  • Support thought leadership through client discussions, internal knowledge sharing, market-facing content, industry forums, and innovation sessions.
  • Contribute to recruiting, training, onboarding, mentoring, and capability-building activities within the practice.
• People Management
  • Coach and develop consultants, senior consultants, and analysts to deliver high-quality work and grow professionally.
  • Lead blended teams that may include consulting, technology, data, AI, business analysis, and manufacturing subject matter experts.
  • Create a collaborative team environment with clear expectations for delivery quality, client readiness, problem solving, and stakeholder management.
  • Provide feedback, guidance, and mentoring to help build future manufacturing consulting leaders.
• Business Development
  • Lead small and medium-sized sales pursuits, including proposal development, solution shaping, workplans, estimates, and commercial inputs.
  • Build trusted relationships with senior client leaders across manufacturing, operations, engineering, quality, supply chain, IT, OT, and service organizations.
  • Present Infosys Consulting capabilities and Cognitive Manufacturing offerings in a clear, compelling, and client-relevant manner.
  • Identify follow-on opportunities by understanding client challenges and translating them into practical consulting opportunities.
  • Work with account teams, practice leaders, technology units, and alliance partners to position differentiated solutions and expand client impact.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or foreign equivalent required.
• Minimum 12 years of relevant experience in manufacturing, supply chain, operations, engineering, quality, technology consulting, business transformation, or management consulting.
• At least 3–5 years of management consulting experience at a top-tier consulting firm, professional services firm, or manufacturing company.
• 5–7 years of experience in one or more areas such as manufacturing, quality, supply chain, technology, operations, engineering, distribution, or service.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing operations across discrete, continuous, batch, make-to-stock, make-to-order, and engineer-to-order environments.
• Experience defining manufacturing strategies, operating models, process improvements, transformation roadmaps, or business cases.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex programs in large organizations and work effectively with senior business and technology stakeholders.
• Experience leading teams that include business consultants, technology specialists, data professionals, or manufacturing subject matter experts.
• Ability to translate business requirements into practical technology-enabled solutions and supporting business cases.
• Familiarity with Industry 4.0, smart factory, digital thread, AI/ML, GenAI, IoT, PLM, MES, ERP, QMS, data platforms, or manufacturing analytics.
• Excellent presentation, facilitation, communication, and relationship-building skills, including experience working with senior management and CXO-level stakeholders.
• Ability to manage ambiguity, structure executive discussions, and drive alignment across business, IT, OT, vendor, and leadership stakeholders.
• Must be willing and able to travel extensively based on client requirements.
• Candidates authorized to work for any employer in the United States without employer-based visa sponsorship are welcome to apply. Infosys is unable to provide immigration sponsorship for this role at this time.

Preferred Qualifications

• MBA or equivalent advanced degree.
• Depth of knowledge in one or more manufacturing domains such as production planning, production operations, supply chain, quality, sourcing, distribution, NPI, product industrialization, parts reuse, BOM management, maintenance, or service.
• Experience leading stakeholder-intensive transformation programs from strategy through execution.
• Proven ability to deliver high-quality work under tight deadlines and challenging constraints.
• Ability to collaborate across consulting, technology, data, AI, cloud, engineering, and industry teams.
• Working knowledge of Agile methodologies and iterative delivery approaches.
• Demonstrated thought leadership and ability to develop new service offerings, market-facing points of view, or reusable consulting assets.
• Experience with Cognitive Manufacturing, smart factory, digital thread, AI-enabled operations, connected products, manufacturing data foundations, or enterprise transformation.
• Familiarity with Industry 4.0 reference architectures, maturity models, and assessment frameworks across connected operations, automation, IIoT, manufacturing analytics, digital thread, smart factory, workforce adoption, and governance capabilities.
• Experience with PLM, MES, ERP, QMS, APS, IIoT, historian, cloud, data lake, analytics, manufacturing intelligence, or AI platforms.
• Familiarity with EBOM, MBOM, SBOM, BOP, routing, work instructions, APQP, PPAP, engineering change management, product configuration, or service lifecycle processes.
• Lean, Six Sigma, APICS, PMP, Agile, analytics, cloud, AI, or product management certification is desirable.
• Ability and willingness to work as part of a cross-cultural team, including flexibility to support multiple time zones when necessary.

Pay

For candidates based out of CA, WA, NY, IL, MN, and NJ states, estimated annual compensation will be $154,500 to $193,125.

Benefits

• Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Health and Dependent Care Reimbursement Accounts
• Insurance (Accident, Critical Illness, Hospital Indemnity, Legal)
• 401(k) plan and contributions dependent on salary level
• Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off