R&D ML software dev --> Implementations Consultant seems like a pretty drastic change in roles. You're going from a very technical role to something that is very fundamentally soft-skills based. You'll be a communication pipeline between your company's sales and product teams, and your clients. You'll need to learn how to deeply investigate a client and figure out their needs, in a short amount of time, and then translate that foreign data into your internal company "language" and goals framework. You'll be dealing with two sets of politics at once, and be expected to move and translate seamlessly between the two. You're fundamentally a diplomat. Your technical background will help you establish authority for what you're talking about, and your problem-solving skills will be invaluable when investigating new clients.
(disclaimer: This is all assuming that "implementations" works the way it has at the several B2B software companies I've worked at as a developer. It sounds the same from the short description given, but you never know with a new employer.)
(disclaimer: This is all assuming that "implementations" works the way it has at the several B2B software companies I've worked at as a developer. It sounds the same from the short description given, but you never know with a new employer.)