The Principal Business Consultant is responsible for delivering high-impact consulting, advisory and implementation services to
customers while defining, improving, and driving best practices across Cornerstone OnDemand solutions. The role provides
functional and business leadership on complex engagements, supports pre-sales presentations and scoping, and works with cross functional teams, clients, and stakeholders to deliver business outcomes on time, within scope, and to high quality standards.
In This Role You Will Consulting, advisory and solution leadership- Lead business requirements and gap-analysis activities for complex HCM SaaS implementations.
- Develop and recommend functional strategies based on customer business outcomes, operating models, and existing workflows.
- Apply industry and product expertise to identify gaps, risks, and process pitfalls, and guide customers toward optimal solutions.
- Facilitate business-process, solution-design, and configuration workshops, including executive and stakeholder discussions.
- Provide functional and business leadership to customers and cross-functional delivery teams.
- Own testing and validation of business requirements and functional solutions.
Delivery, governance, and customer outcomes - Partner with the Cornerstone OnDemand Project Manager in defining the optimum delivery strategy and project plan.
- Lead complex workstreams and coordinate dependencies, decisions, risks, issues, and scope across the engagement.
- Partner with internal teams to define, deliver, and resolve post-implementation issues.
- Conduct post-go-live reviews, document lessons learned, and convert insights into repeatable delivery improvements.
- Facilitate and lead administrator training and customer enablement.
- Meet utilization expectations and other individual and practice performance KPIs.
Practice leadership and pre-sales- Act as a subject-matter expert across relevant Cornerstone OnDemand solutions and HCM domains.
- Provide solution consulting, advisory and industry best-practice guidance throughout the customer lifecycle.
- Support pre-sales discovery, solution presentations, scoping, and effort-shaping activities.
- Recommend and lead internal initiatives that improve operational efficiency, consistency, and delivery quality.
- Mentor and guide consultants and analysts through coaching, knowledge sharing, and quality review.
- Oversee and guide implementation projects with reduced dependency on Practice Managers and Directors.
You've Got What It Takes If You Have - 8+ years of consulting, advisory experience in the HCM space, including 6+ years supporting medium- or large-scale
implementation programs. - Demonstrated experience leading complex customer-facing workstreams from discovery through validation and go-live.
- Deep subject-matter expertise in one or more areas such as learning management, talent management, performance,
succession, compensation, recruiting, skills, or talent mobility. - Strong business analysis, process design, gap analysis, problem solving, and solution advisory capabilities.
- Ability to communicate complex topics clearly in writing, presentations, workshops, and executive discussions.
- Ability to establish trusted-advisor relationships and confidently guide customer decisions using product and industry best practices.
- Experience managing scope, schedule, risks, issues, decisions, and cross-functional dependencies.
- Ability to operate with minimal supervision, lead premier or strategically important customers, and prevent issues proactively.
- Proven collaboration and mentoring skills, including the ability to improve the quality and timeliness of team deliverables.
- High level of organization and the ability to coordinate the work of others without direct reporting responsibility.
Core Competencies Communication and executive presence- Clear, concise, professional communication; strong writing, presentation, facilitation, and stakeholder-management skills.
Problem solving - Logical root-cause analysis, insightful questioning, evidence-based recommendations, and
practical resolution of complex issues.
Customer leadership - Ability to earn customer confidence, build trust, navigate ambiguity, and maintain a strong focus on measurable customer outcomes.
Commercial and scope awareness- Ability to support discovery and scoping, protect delivery boundaries, and connect
recommendations to project outcomes.
Team and practice contribution- Ability to coach others, share reusable knowledge , strengthen delivery standards, and contribute in delivery and pre-sales scenarios.
Standard Pre-Requisites- Bachelor's degree in Business, Human Resources, Information Systems, Technology, or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant professional experience
- Hands-on experience with enterprise HCM SaaS implementation; experience with Cornerstone OnDemand solutions is strongly preferred.
- Working knowledge of implementation methodologies, requirements documentation, solution design, testing, data validation, administrator enablement, and go-live readiness
- Willingness and ability to work US shifts from Hyderabad office, in accordance with business requirements.
- Willingness and ability to travel based on customer and project needs.
- Professional proficiency in English and the ability to work effectively with global customers and distributed teams.
- Proficiency with AI tools , Microsoft Office applications and professional-services automation tools such as Kantata (Mavenlink) & Asana.
Extra Dose of Awesome If You Have - Current certifications in relevant Cornerstone OnDemand solutions.
- Industry certifications from TSIA, Prosci, IIBA, PMI, or a similar accredited organization.
- Experience with business transformation, change management, adoption strategy, governance, or value realization.
- Experience supporting proposals, statements of work, estimation, or solution demonstrations.
- Exposure to integrations, SSO, data migration, reporting, security roles, or enterprise application ecosystems.
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