Principal Industry Strategist – State and Local Government Transportation

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Illinois.

📋 Description

• Establish and nurture trustworthy relationships with customer executives, program leaders, operational stakeholders, and technical teams.

• Steer strategic conversations that shape customers’ long-term vision, technological stance, and organizational maturity.

• Create, present, and demonstrate strategies, solutions, architectures, and partner technologies aligned with industry standards.

• Engage in onsite meetings, executive briefings, business reviews, and advisory sessions.

• Influence customer needs and assist in defining the direction of solutions.

• Guide and mentor associate and staff-level industry strategists.

• Act as a subject matter expert during customer presentations, sales cycles, solution briefings, and major opportunity pursuits.

• Clearly communicate CDW’s value proposition to customers, partners, and sales teams.

• Educate and mentor CDW sales personnel on industry trends, competitive insights, solution messaging, and customer engagement strategies.

• Assist sellers in navigating complex procurement environments and identify additional opportunities.

• Engage in webinars, conference calls, and internal training activities.

• Transform customers’ board-level vision into strategic sales opportunities.

• Convert industry challenges into scalable, repeatable solution offerings that align with CDW’s portfolio.

• Collaborate with engineering, services, product, and logistics teams to create comprehensive solution packages.

• Coordinate technology partner involvement and integrate capabilities for industry-specific use cases.

• Assess and scope solution opportunities within target accounts.

• Aid in the development of offerings that incorporate emerging technologies, regulatory requirements, and customer demand patterns.

• Keep abreast of industry trends, regulatory changes, competitive movements, and technological innovations.

• Formulate strategies for introducing new technological approaches to the market.

• Identify target markets and high-value account segments.

• Represent CDW at conferences, industry events, briefings, and professional forums.

• Take part in and facilitate industry briefing sessions and panels.

• Assist in designing briefing agendas, recruiting attendees and partners, developing content, delivering sessions, ensuring compliance, and reporting on status.

⛳️ Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or 15+ years of relevant industry experience or equivalent qualifications.

• Exceptional customer-facing skills with a track record of building trusted relationships with executives.

• Understanding of and influence over technology trends and solution architecture within the industry.

• Experience in leading enterprise-wide technology implementations, including integration, configuration, troubleshooting, training, and adoption.

• Strong leadership, facilitation, strategic planning, and problem-solving capabilities.

• Excellent communication, presentation, negotiation, and collaboration skills.

• Proven ability to influence across organizational boundaries and manage multiple priorities effectively.

• Experience in navigating procurement processes and discovering new opportunities.

• Willingness to travel as required.

• Background as an IT C-Level executive or IT Vice President is advantageous.

• Over 5 years of consulting experience is a plus.

• Experience in leading IT strategy and operations within a regulated, complex ecosystem is also a plus.

• 15 or more years of experience in assessing business drivers and translating them into measurable, actionable solutions is a plus.

• Familiarity with technologies and the challenges of implementing new technologies in a highly regulated and complex tech ecosystem is a plus.

• Industry-relevant or technology-specific certifications are a plus.

• Strong knowledge and understanding of standard industry regulations, including FERPA, HIPAA, GDPR, and CPRA, is a plus.

🏝️ Benefits

• Annual bonus target of 43% subject to the terms and conditions of the plan.

• Comprehensive benefits package (details available at https://cdw.benefit-info.com/).