[Hiring] Senior Director, Analyst - Physical AI and Autonomous Technologies @Gartner

Role Description

Gartner Analysts are industry thought leaders who create must-have insights, market predictions, and best practices for a broad range of world-leading organizations. A Senior Director serves as a leader within Gartner’s Business and Technology Insights (BTI) group, establishing oneself as a credible voice within their designated market at local, regional, and global levels. Utilizing exceptional research and analytical skills, a Senior Director plays a significant role in producing pragmatic and provocative insights which Gartner clients consume and apply to propel their business toward key objectives. They are a trusted source of advice for clients, reinforcing Gartner’s value every day by engaging them via in-person meetings, virtual meetings, sales support visits, and Gartner conferences to discuss complex client challenges and offer appropriate recommendations.

A Senior Director in Physical AI and Autonomous Technologies serves as a forward-looking leader within Gartner’s Innovation and Emerging Technologies Leadership team, combining hands-on experimentation with strategic insight to advance emerging technologies. This role draws on direct experience deploying Physical AI in real-world environments, supported by deep understanding of relevant markets and ecosystems. By staying ahead of shifts in technology, regulation, and operating models, the Senior Director translates foresight into actionable guidance for senior executives. Acting as a trusted advisor to CIOs, CTOs, and AI leaders, they engage on complex challenges, shape Physical AI strategies, advise on investment trade-offs and risk, and contribute the intellectual curiosity and energy required to challenge assumptions and help define new research agendas.

What you will do:

• Develop insights and frameworks for Physical AI and autonomous systems, enabling enterprises to orchestrate multi-modal AI, polyfunctional robotics, and advanced physical and 3D simulations through a systems-engineering approach that enables coordinated decision-making across people, processes, and technology.
• Advise enterprise leaders on evolving their operating models from static, siloed data architectures into dynamic 'knowledge cores' that connect data, analytics, and decision tools, enabling humans to understand, steer, and adapt the business in real time.
• Create innovative, thought-provoking, and highly leveraged “must-have insights” content.
• Develop new insights and ideas through thought leadership and offer compelling, actionable approaches to client's needs and requests that accelerate the client's ability to act.
• Develop in-depth analysis to identify the root cause of a client’s barriers or overall needs and reframe thinking to drive strategy forward.
• Demonstrate thought leadership in establishing Insights positions across a team of analysts.
• Bring provocative, independent insights to Gartner leaders that can evolve the course of a research agenda.
• Research, analyze and predict market trends and shifts to provide clients and vendors with actionable insights.
• Provide clients and prospects with actionable advice aligned to their designated content area via virtual or face-to-face interactions.
• Create and deliver high-value presentation materials on and off stage for Gartner events, industry and professional association conferences, and client briefings.
• Support BTI and Sales: Provide sales support serving as voice of the market to help Insights teams create content and to drive engagement with clients to make progress against their critical priorities to grow their business.
• Provide high quality and timely content peer review.
• Build credibility as an industry expert to represent Gartner insights, methodology, and strategy.
• Actively participate in innovation, ideation, and research discussions and collaborate effectively with peers in the Insights community.
• Identify research process improvements or develop new processes that help the team and BTI provide excellent service delivery.
• Be a mentor and a coach by supporting more junior team members.
• Be client-centric while actively seeking to help clients engage regularly and often with Gartner insights and interactions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience; Graduate degree preferred.
• 12+ years of relevant field or industry experience.
• Proven Physical AI practitioner and executive advisor, with experience deploying AI in real-world, edge and low-latency environments, and advising CIOs, CTOs, and AI leaders on Physical AI strategy, investment trade-offs, risk, and value realization across enterprise value chains.
• Familiarity across Physical AI architectures beyond LLMs, spanning world models, physics-based simulation, sensor fusion, IoT, and Earth intelligence to enable real-time, simulation-to-reality decision-making.
• Strong ecosystem, market and future-focused perspective, with credibility across vendors, platforms, infrastructure, and standards, and the ability to challenge assumptions, reframe business problems, and define forward-looking research agendas.
• Demonstrate executive presence; can immediately establish credibility with executives and additional stakeholders.
• Strong organizational skills; ability to work under tight deadlines and produce high-quality deliverables.
• Demonstrate excellence in research and writing ability.
• Strong written and verbal proficiency, analytical and presentation skills; ability to engage clients and respond effectively to questions.
• Proficient in analyzing and synthesizing data; can effectively apply patterns and frameworks while drawing and defending conclusions to client challenges.
• Strong communication skills - able to explain complex concepts concisely and simply.
• Subject matter expertise; comfortable presenting at large and small-scale speaking engagements.
• Strong business and financial acumen.
• Deep knowledge of the global and competitive landscape within subject area as well as the interplay in that market.
• Ability to work independently, while also being intrinsically motivated to collaborate across teams and support the workflow of others, in a multicultural global team.
• Learning agile and adept with navigating highly matrixed environments.
• Ability to represent Gartner's research methodology and strategies effectively at all levels.
• Willingness and ability to travel up to 25% (where applicable).

Benefits

• Gartner offers world-class benefits, highly competitive compensation, and disproportionate rewards for top performers.
• In our hybrid work environment, we provide the flexibility and support for you to thrive — working virtually when it's productive to do so and getting together with colleagues in a vibrant community that is purposeful, engaging, and inspiring.