Engagement Lead / Engagement Director - Corporate Strategy in London

Alpha FMC is a leading global consulting firm focused exclusively on serving clients in the Financial Services sector. Our 1,500+ consultants work across 19 offices globally, combining deep FS sector expertise with high-quality consulting to support more than 970 clients across asset management, wealth management, insurance and broader financial services.

Our Strategy & Deals division advises the leadership teams of leading financial institutions and high-growth businesses on their most important strategic decisions. We are continuing to grow our Corporate Strategy practice and are recruiting experienced strategy consultants at Engagement Lead and Engagement Director level.

This is a senior corporate strategy role, combining complex problem-solving, engagement leadership, and practice-building. Our work spans corporate and business-unit strategy, growth strategy and market entry, value creation, and strategic operating model and cost questions for both corporate and sponsor-backed clients. Engagements require teams to structure complex problems into clear hypotheses and develop the market, customer, competitor, financial and operational evidence to validate them.

Alpha is a specialist consulting firm and Corporate Strategy is a priority growth area within our Strategy & Deals division. You will have scope to help build the practice by developing client relationships, establishing areas of market focus, shaping propositions, and building the team, with increasing responsibility at the Engagement Director level. You will also work closely with colleagues across Alpha's wider consulting business, combining strategy consulting capability with deep sector and functional expertise to bring clients integrated teams and distinctive advice.

We help leading financial institutions and sponsor-backed businesses make their most important strategic decisions. Our work spans financial services, with a primary focus on asset management, wealth management, insurance and fintech.

Engagements we typically lead include:

• Developing corporate, business-unit and growth strategies for established financial institutions and scaling businesses
• Assessing new markets, customer segments, products and distribution opportunities, and shaping market entry and expansion plans
• Reviewing propositions, commercial models and competitive positioning
• Evaluating inorganic and partnership routes to growth, including where they are a better answer than building organically
• Addressing strategic operating model and organisational questions
• Supporting sponsor-backed businesses with value creation strategy, including growth, pricing, commercial effectiveness, cost reduction, operating model and other post-close strategic priorities
• Translating strategy into clear priorities, investment cases and plans that management teams can act on

Key responsibilities

Both Engagement Leads and Engagement Directors are expected to lead complex strategy engagements independently. Engagement Directors additionally own senior client relationships and take increasing responsibility for originating work and building the practice.

Engagements:

• Lead corporate strategy engagements end to end, from problem definition through analysis and recommendation to senior client communication
• Structure ambiguous strategic questions into clear hypotheses, workplans and analytical approaches
• Direct the market, customer, competitor, financial and operational analysis needed to answer them, drawing on both primary and secondary research
• Exercise judgement in moving from evidence to clear strategic choices and practical recommendations, rather than simply presenting findings
• Own the storyline and quality of client deliverables, ensuring recommendations are analytically rigorous, commercially grounded and clearly communicated
• Integrate data-driven and AI-supported analytics to enhance the speed and depth of insight
• Manage engagement economics, resourcing, timelines and delivery risk

Clients & Business Development

Act as a trusted adviser to client leadership teams during and beyond engagements. Build and deepen senior client relationships across financial services. Identify emerging client needs and translate them into compelling strategy engagements. Lead and contribute to proposals, pitches and wider business development activity. Collaborate with colleagues across Alpha on go-to-market activity, bringing Corporate Strategy together with Alpha's deep sector and functional expertise.

Team & Practice

Lead and develop high-performing teams, providing clear direction while creating meaningful ownership for junior colleagues. Coach team members in problem solving, analysis, communication and client management. Develop perspectives, propositions and intellectual property in priority areas for the practice. Contribute to recruitment and to developing the practice’s tools, delivery standards, knowledge base and ways of working, with increasing ownership at Engagement Director level. Help sustain a collaborative, entrepreneurial and high-performance team culture.

We are recruiting at both the Engagement Lead and Engagement Director levels, depending on experience:

• Engagement Lead: Independently leads complex strategy engagements, owning problem solving, team leadership and senior client delivery, with the ability to oversee more than one engagement where appropriate
• Engagement Director: Combines strong engagement leadership with ownership of senior client relationships, increasing responsibility for originating work and an active role in building the practice as they progress towards Partner

What we are looking for

Successful candidates will be excellent problem solvers with strong commercial judgement, credible with senior executives and motivated by helping to build a business as well as advising clients.

You should have:

• Significant experience in corporate strategy consulting, ideally gained within a leading strategy consultancy or the strategy practice of a wider firm
• A track record of leading strategy engagements end-to-end
• Financial Services experience, ideally across one or more of asset management, wealth management, insurance, banking or adjacent sectors; a strong strategy skillset carries greater weight than breadth of sector coverage, provided there is genuine interest in developing it
• Excellent analytical skills, with the ability to move from evidence to insight, strategic choice and clear recommendation
• The credibility and confidence to advise senior executives on consequential decisions
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including experience presenting to and working directly with executive teams
• Demonstrated ability to lead, motivate and develop consulting teams
• Commercial appetite and a genuine interest in building client relationships and originating new work
• An entrepreneurial mindset and the appetite to help build a growing Corporate Strategy business
• A collaborative working style, and an interest in drawing on capabilities from across a wider consulting platform

For Engagement Director candidates, we additionally expect evidence of developing senior client relationships, contributing to winning new work and helping to build teams, propositions or consulting capabilities, alongside the appetite to take greater ownership of origination and practice growth.

What Alpha offers

Genuine C-suite corporate and growth strategy work on some of the most important questions facing leading financial institutions. A focused remit: corporate and growth strategy is the whole of the role, with the depth of expertise that specialisation brings. The opportunity to help build a fast-growing Corporate Strategy practice, rather than occupy a role within an established one. Support to develop your own client relationships and areas of market focus, drawing on senior sponsorship, Alpha’s existing client base and collaboration across the wider firm. The reach and client base of a global firm combined with the accessibility and entrepreneurialism of a specialist consultancy. The ability to work on projects for clients across Europe and North America. A highly collaborative environment with direct access to senior colleagues and clients, supported by training, coaching and mentorship. A clear path for career progression as the Corporate Strategy practice continues to grow. Competitive remuneration, benefits and annual profit-sharing.