Specialist, Strategic Market Insights and Thought Leadership (TMT- AI Data Centers, Semiconductors, and Tech Hardware Research)
Deloitte’s Center for TMT is one of the industry teams within the Research & Insights (R&I) group, focusing primarily on the TMT industry. The Center's goals are to:
- Assess opportunities and challenges facing companies in the TMT industry
- Provide practical and actionable insights - whether they are strategic, technical, operational.
- Bring together a range of stakeholders to address issues impacting the health and evolution of the TMT industry.
- Make extensive use of leading practices from TMT professionals across diverse disciplines, including content strategy, digital distribution, advertising and monetization, consumer analytics, rights management, finance, risk management, regulation, and human capital, to identify innovative steps they have taken to address critical challenges.
Learn more about the TMT Center and have a peek into our work here.
This role involves contributing to thought leadership and research projects across the full lifecycle—from design to delivery—examining critical challenges and opportunities in the Technology sector with particular focus on the Software, Services and Platforms (SS&P) sub-sector.
The candidate will contribute to advancing the quality of the Center's research and thought leadership work in Technology sector, with a focus on AI agents and it’s integration in enterprises, AI native software development, platform engineering, future of enterprise software (e.g., emerging business models, workforce and operating model changes, shifting pricing models etc.), SaaS incumbents vs. AI native companies, cloud, cybersecurity, trust & governance and mergers, acquisitions and divestitures in the software space. These include whitepapers, in-depth research reports, case studies, articles, data-based research tools, client presentations, and collaterals for specific client accounts. These deliverables would integrate information from a range of primary and secondary sources, including Deloitte subject-matter experts, primary research (surveys), publicly available data, third party research, analyst reports, presentations, industry commentaries, and news articles.
Responsibilities:
As a Specialist, focused on developing thought leadership, you will be required to –
- Work across diverse Tech sector (with a focus on semiconductor and enterprise hardware) topics, quickly build subject-matter familiarity, synthesize complex information, and deliver high-quality research insights.
- Develop and maintain subsector-level expertise across tech (and specifically hardware, semiconductor and consumer tech) landscape, including emerging technologies, business models, and financial drivers. This includes proactively researching companies, trends, themes, underlying technologies, and potential disruptions through direct study of industry reports, company disclosures and other credible sources.
- Identify novel topics, areas and trends to focus on, based on extensive analysis of competition thoughtware/articles and importance of issues based on market studies, industry reports and tracking.
- Design research proposals, build consensus, and formulate a research plan. Execute structured research plans by translating business objectives into clear research questions, identifying areas of investigation, and conducting thorough secondary research using relevant and trustworthy industry, company, and news sources.
- Interact with internal and external subject matter experts on industry topics and synthesize takeaways and findings into concise and well-structured narratives, assisting senior research leads to shape internal/external thought-leadership content and collaterals – through a combination of expertise and direct study, complemented by AI tools.
- Liaison with U.S. colleagues and senior researchers to understand, refine, and manage internal client expectations and priorities.
- Apply established research tools and methodologies to support business decision-making.
- Work on varied data sets (e.g., survey data, publicly available data sets) to derive data-driven insights.
- Identify and use the relevant data analysis methods and work with the relevant data science and analytics professionals to analyze voluminous and complex datasets.
- Demonstrate strong writing skills as required for thought leadership reports.
- Display strong consultative and engaging presentation skills.
- Being largely autonomous (with minimal supervision) and managing the projects to ensure outcomes and
- meet deadlines, demonstrating a high level of ownership and accountability.
- Assist senior researchers and practice leaders with internal briefings and external client meetings/webinars – by performing customized data analysis and presenting results and insights into client-ready briefing decks.
- Ability to apply sound research judgment by grounding outputs in direct study and critical thinking, while using generative AI tools to enhance efficiency (and not as a substitute for independent synthesis.)
- Develop an understanding of Deloitte’s solutions, services, and offerings
Requisite experience and skills
Experience
- 3-6 years of experience in supporting/managing research projects, preferably in Technology industry related topics and areas as noted earlier in this document.
- Experience working with US/global clients and teams is preferred. Since the job requires working closely with US-based colleagues, the ability to work across cultures is important.
Industry/sector/subsector skills
- Business research/thought-leadership development in Technology sector is preferred. Knowledge of AI[1]driven chip demand, AI chips and accelerators that support data centers, role of AI in chip design and manufacturing, chip hardware and integrated systems’ time-to-market, and fab efficiency.
- Familiarity with architectural innovation, heterogeneous compute. (CPU/GPU/NPU/memory/interconnects), chiplet-based designs, co-packaged optics, advanced chip packaging and their role in performance and cost curves.
- Awareness about strategic chokepoints and importance of supply chain resilience for hardware and semiconductor components; Geopolitical and operational risks in this space.
- Consumer and end-user needs and attitudes towards AI and agent-powered devices and applications for work, education, and personal reasons – including AI at the edge.
Technical skills
- Proficiency in using one or more of the research tools/databases, including S&P Global, Factiva, Thomson Research, Refinitiv Workspace, and Gartner.
- Sound analytical skills with experience in one or more of the following research methods: Primary research (surveys), secondary research, academic research, and case study research.
- Strong data analysis skills with the ability to work with quantitative and qualitative data – interpret, analyze, visualize, and provide data-driven insights.
- Ability to use statistical and advanced data analysis methods to analyze large and complex datasets, including surveys.
- Ability to develop compelling and analytical data visualizations using one or more tools like Excel, Tableau, Power BI, or others.
- Strong verbal and written communication skills.
- Problem-solving and critical thinking skills to generate meaningful analytical insights.
- Broad understanding of strategy models and frameworks, and the ability to apply them to research
- problems.
- Ability to understand the impact of marketplace changes on the industry, sector, or sub-sector.
- Proficiency in using generative AI-based platforms and tools in a responsible and transparent way to
- elevate research discovery, data insights, analytical rigor, and business writing.
- Proficiency in using generative AI and related tools to identify early signals and trends shaping the
- market through continuous sensing will be preferred.
- Familiarity with building custom GPTs and custom gen-AI research tools will be an added advantage
The Deloitte Research and Insights teams’ mission is to conduct research and analysis to develop compelling, forward-looking perspectives that enable clients to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to “what’s coming next.” The team plays an integral role in strengthening the firm’s strategic positioning by developing high-quality thoughtware from end to end, published on Deloitte Insights and Deloitte.com.
Their work includes:
- Managing relations with internal stakeholders.
- Using advanced data science and survey advisory capabilities to strengthen the credibility of insights.
- Using editorial and visualization capabilities to improve the stickiness of firm thoughtware.
Qualifications, experience, work location, and timing
- Academic qualification: Master’s Degree like MBA, or Post Grad degree in Management / Economics / Finance
- Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Sciences / Tech / Software Engineering and related areas [preferred/recommended]
- Work experience: 3-6 years
- Location: Hyderabad or Bengaluru
- Work hours: 11:00 AM – 8:00 PM IST (expected to stretch during busy periods)