Senior Specialist, Automation (RPA)

The Company

Bain & Company, a leading global strategy-consulting firm, serves clients on issues of strategy, operations, technology, organization and mergers and acquisitions. The firm was founded in 1973 on the principle that Bain consultants must measure their success by their clients' results. Delivering transformative results has always been a strength and competitive differentiator for Bain.

With 58 offices in 37 countries, Bain has worked the majority of the Global 500, thousands of major regional and local organizations, hundreds of nonprofits, and private equity funds representing 75 percent of global equity capital. We are proud of our clients' track record, like the fact that our public clients have historically outperformed the stock market 4 to 1.

Organizationally and culturally, Bain is very much a partnership. The environment is highly collegial, team-oriented, and apolitical. There is very little hierarchy and a great deal of autonomy – which translates into both entrepreneurial freedom and mutual respect and accountability.

Bain Automation Center of Excellence

The Bain Automation Center of Excellence is an integral part of Bain’s Performance Improvement practice that helps companies grow earnings and outperform the competition. The Automation Center of Excellence works with Bain teams and clients to identify, build and deploy automation solutions across business processes, such as service operations and support functions (Finance, Human Resources and others).

Position Summary

Bain & Company is looking to recruit an Automation Senior Specialist for our Automation Center of Excellence in North America.

The position will focus on helping our clients more effectively identify, design, and implement digital solutions across various business processes, in particular service operations and support functions (such as Finance or Human Resources). By digital solutions, we mean mature technologies, such as planning & analytics in Finance, to emerging technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (including, but not limited to, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Machine Learning (ML)).

The position will require working with Bain clients to identify and prioritize opportunities (or use cases) to deploy digital technologies and automation in various business processes. The position will include supporting clients in profiling and recommending potential digital tool vendors for clients to work with. The position will require working with clients to pilot / prototype a proof of concept for identified digital solution(s). The position may require helping clients to design and implement internal organizations, such as Centers of Excellence or dedicated teams, to identify and deploy digital / automation solutions and client capability building in this space. Finally, the position will require working with clients to develop detailed project plans to implement digital solutions either in-house by the client and/or with a System Integrator partner selected by the client.

This individual should first have depth of knowledge and experience in various digital technologies, both mature and emerging technologies. This individual has experience working in software development teams to deploy automation, such as, but not limited to, RPA, machine learning, and other forms of AI, and advanced analytic solutions. This individual has both developed proof of concepts / pilots / demos and scaled these into larger scale implementations. This individual has strong knowledge of Agile software development methodologies. In addition, this individual carries at least one or more certifications in relevant software platforms.

This individual may or may not have deep functional knowledge of service operations or support functions initially and can acquire this knowledge while in the position. There is not an expectation that this individual will have full proficiency across every function. Ideally, this individual will have worked with clients in the past in piloting and/or implementing digital technologies. This individual will likely come from industry (e.g., IT in a corporation or supporting Finance or HR systems in a Finance or HR department), consulting companies, or System Integrators.

The general scope of the role will include approximately 80% of time focused on client activities with the remaining 20% focused on Automation Center of Excellence capability building.

Specific Responsibilities

Client Serving and Development

• Identify and prioritize opportunities (or use cases) to apply digital technologies (mature and emerging) and automation at the process level across business processes
• Analyze, document and redesign business processes in scope for automation
• Benchmark client adoption of technologies against other companies
• Interview, facilitate workshops with client employees, management teams and other stakeholders
• Profile vendors in various digital technologies (both traditional and emerging), including understanding the current product functionalities and roadmaps and future direction; recommend vendors that clients should consider using
• Support clients in conducting pilots / proof of concepts for select digital solutions (e.g., Robotic Process Automation pilot / PoC)
• Develop project plans, including key activities, milestones, and timelines, to translate identified digital solutions into plans that can be executed upon by client’s IT departments and/or System Integrators
• Support clients in their capability building to sustain their automation program in the long ter

Capability/Practice Building

• Support head of Automation CoE in developing and updating artifacts and intellectual property for the CoE

Team Engagement

• Collaborate effectively with clients and Bain stakeholders to move the client to action
• Help position the Automation CoE – and Bain more broadly – as a “great place to work”

Key Candidate Qualifications

The successful Automation Specialist candidate will have a track record of successfully building and deploying high quality automation solutions and alignment to the key requirements for the role.

Candidates will possess the following professional expertise:

Technical Expertise

• Knowledge of many digital technologies, including traditional technologies (e.g., planning software, electronic invoicing, workflow tools) and emerging technologies (e.g., Robotic Process Automation, Machine Learning)
• Knowledge of Robotic Process Automation – typical use cases, leading vendors, examples of what other companies are doing
• 5+ years of work experience in a relevant role in either industry or professional services
• 2+ years of work experience with relevant automation technologies
• Experience delivering at least two RPA engagements through all phases of the life cycle, including diagnostics, pilot implementation, setting up a COE, architecture and system design, development and production release, and client capability building
• Knowledge of typical opportunities (or use cases) to apply digital technologies / solutions
• Hands-on experience with automation software like Blue Prism, Automation Anywhere and/or UiPath
• Hands-on experience with advance automation tools for OCR (Eg.Abby), AI/ML (Eg. Google Dialogflow, AzureML)
• Hands-on experience with implementation of Agile methodologies or robotics tool-specific technologies and comfortable operating with and coaching Agile Teams
• Knowledge of at least one of the programming tools/languages (e.g., C, Web, .Net, VB, Java)
• Familiarity with leading on-premise and/or cloud/SaaS-based vendors in leading digital technologies
• Experience and knowledge setting up an automation team and/or Center of Excellence
• Technical skills such as ability to use automation studios, build a robot, or develop machine learning algorithms
• Familiar with data sourcing, data capture, data transformation and data preparation techniques
• Hands-on experience automating in Windows, mainframe or browser-based platforms
• Ability to work closely with other cross-specialty internal support teams and resources
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering or related fields

Preferred Technical Expertise

• 1+ years of working experience in business process management and business process reengineering
• Knowledge of service operations or support functions (Finance, Human Resources, IT, Legal, Real Estate & Facilities Management) – what the key processes are, how digital technologies are specifically applied at the process level in a function such as claim management in insurance or Finance
• Knowledge of relational databases, web services, data and information security
• MBA or other advanced degree with relevant focus and prior industry experience

Commercial Acumen

• Ability to build strong and collaborative client relationships and work well in teams
• Good communication skills; ability to translate technical language into a business context
• Slight preference for relevant expertise in sectors including Industrials (e.g., Chemicals, Aerospace,
• Automotive, Logistics, Machinery, etc.), Technology, Retail, Healthcare, and/or CPG. Candidates with generalist industry backgrounds will also be considered
• Functional experience in service operations and/or G&A
• Experience supporting client and internal team workshops and brainstorms

Additional

• Passion to build deep expertise in automation
• Deadline-driven, organized and able to multitask
• Strong verbal, written and presentation skills
• Strong analytical skills and problem solving capabilities
• Mindset and adaptability for integration

Personal Attributes

• Irrespective of an individual’s specific background, the successful candidate will be:
• Credible in steering clients on automation-related topics
• Able to step back and frame digital/automation issues in a bigger picture
• Pragmatic with a practical, “real-world” sense of what is actually “do-able.” Will have a bias to approach problem solving in a structured way, and combining it with sound practical business judgment to arrive at realistic solutions
• Entrepreneurial, proactive and productive
• Able to forge strong people relationships at all levels
• A solid team player who's also an independent thinker
• A great colleague and teammate; passionate about the task at hand and fun to be around; someone with whom Bainies and clients go out of their way to work
• Able to self-manage time, balance across competing demands