GDS Mistral Alliance Operations Strategist-Associate Director

At EY, you’ll have the chance to build a career as unique as you are, with the global scale, support, inclusive culture and technology to become the best version of you. And we’re counting on your unique voice and perspective to help EY become even better, too. Join us and build an exceptional experience for yourself, and a better working world for all.          Role Title: GDS Mistral Alliance Operations Strategist - Associate Director Function : GDS ES Growth & Innovation    Skill Level: Strategic Leadership Sub Function: GDS Alliances Partner Operations CoE       The Opportunity EY GDS Growth & Innovation enables EY’s strategic ecosystem relationships, market activation priorities and alliance-led growth programs. The Mistral alliance brings together EY’s industry, transformation, risk and responsible AI capabilities with Mistral AI’s enterprise AI platform, open and commercial models, and flexible deployment approaches. The alliance requires a senior operations leader who can connect joint strategy, governance, commercialization, enablement, investment oversight and multi-geo execution through a disciplined global operating model.   The GDS Mistral Alliance Operations Strategist is an Associate Director-level role responsible for defining and driving the business management, governance and execution strategy for the EY–Mistral alliance. The role serves as the operational counterpart to global alliance leadership, translating joint priorities into scalable plans, measurable outcomes and coordinated execution across go-to-market, solution development, sales activation, delivery readiness, marketing, enablement and alliance investment programs.   Operating from GDS, this role will orchestrate consistent support across regions and service lines while maintaining clear interfaces with EY and Mistral stakeholders. It combines strategic planning, alliance business management, program leadership and executive influence with working knowledge of enterprise generative AI, sovereign and private deployment considerations, model and platform lifecycle management, responsible AI, security, regulatory obligations and the fast-moving economics of AI solutions.   Your key responsibilities Own and continuously mature the global operating model, governance framework and business management processes for the EY–Mistral alliance. Translate joint alliance priorities into annual and quarterly operating plans, execution roadmaps, decision rights, milestones and measurable business outcomes. Design and run executive governance forums, steering committees, pipeline and performance reviews, and working cadences involving EY and Mistral leadership. Develop alliance scorecards and executive insight packs covering pipeline, bookings, influenced revenue, solution maturity, client adoption, delivery capacity, enablement, investments, risks and outcomes. Coordinate joint go-to-market planning, account activation, campaigns, events, thought leadership, case studies and priority pursuits across regions and sectors. Support the lifecycle of Mistral-enabled offerings from ideation and business case through solution approval, readiness, launch, field adoption and performance improvement. Build repeatable GDS services, playbooks, intake processes, service levels, knowledge assets and escalation paths for alliance, sales and delivery stakeholders. Coordinate capability building across Mistral AI models, APIs, enterprise platform capabilities, agentic AI, retrieval-augmented generation, model customization and cloud, VPC, on-premises or edge deployment patterns. Embed responsible AI, privacy, cybersecurity, intellectual property, data residency, model risk and applicable regulatory considerations into alliance operating processes, with specialist teams retaining accountability for formal approvals. Maintain visibility of model, platform and commercial changes; assess operational impacts and coordinate updates to enablement, offerings, controls, contracts and stakeholder communications. Manage alliance investments, forecasts, budgets, resource plans, benefits realization and supporting evidence in collaboration with finance, commercial and alliance leadership. Orchestrate execution across alliance, technology, consulting, industry, risk, legal, procurement, finance, marketing, sales and delivery teams in a complex global matrix. Identify bottlenecks, dependencies and execution risks early, establish remediation plans and provide decision-ready recommendations to alliance leaders. Drive automation and data quality improvements across pipeline reporting, governance workflows, knowledge management, enablement tracking and leadership reporting. Coach matrixed contributors across operations, PMO, reporting and enablement support to improve quality, accountability, responsiveness and delivery discipline.   Skills and attributes for success Senior-level experience in technology alliance operations, AI or data ecosystem programs, business management, PMO, commercialization or strategic execution. Working knowledge of the enterprise generative AI landscape, including foundation models, APIs, agents, retrieval-augmented generation, customization, evaluation and production deployment. Ability to convert rapidly changing technology, product and market developments into clear alliance priorities, operating implications and executable plans. Strong understanding of partner governance, joint business planning, go-to-market activation, pipeline management, offering lifecycle and investment governance. Awareness of responsible AI, model governance, privacy, cybersecurity, intellectual property, third-party risk, EU AI Act considerations and data sovereignty requirements. Executive stakeholder presence and the ability to align senior leaders, technical teams and business stakeholders across organizations, regions and service lines. Excellent communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to translate technical and commercial information into concise, decision-ready narratives. Strong commercial and financial acumen, including forecasting, investment tracking, business cases, performance measurement and value realization. Strong analytical capability and disciplined use of metrics to diagnose performance, identify opportunities and recommend corrective action. Experience designing scalable processes and service models for GDS or a comparable global delivery environment. Comfort using approved AI, analytics and automation tools to improve research, reporting, meeting productivity, workflow execution and knowledge reuse. People leadership and matrix management skills, including coaching, prioritization, quality oversight and capability development.   To qualify for the role, you must have University degree required; qualification in business, technology, engineering, computer science, data and analytics, finance, operations or a related discipline preferred. MBA, postgraduate qualification or recognized certification in AI, data, cloud, project or program management, process improvement or technology management would be an advantage. 15+ years of relevant experience, including substantial leadership responsibility in technology alliances, AI or data programs, strategic operations, commercialization, global PMO or business management. Demonstrated success leading complex, cross-functional global programs in a matrixed professional services, technology, platform or ecosystem environment. Experience partnering with senior executives and technical leaders on joint strategy, governance, performance management and decision support. Practical experience with alliance business plans, pipeline and revenue reporting, offering or solution governance, enablement, investments and operating cadences. Sufficient fluency in ente