London (Hybrid) | Permanent | Typically 15 plus years
Our client, a global tier-1 IT services and consulting firm, is building a new omnichannel consulting capability inside its retail strategic initiatives practice. This is a founding Director seat. You will not inherit a practice, you will help build one, with real ownership, senior visibility and access to global technology, engineering and AI scale behind you.
The role
- You will work with some of the best-known retailers in the UK, Europe and beyond across the full omnichannel agenda. One engagement may be shaping a client's channel and operating model strategy, the next diagnosing where value leaks across a fulfilment network, the next scoping how agentic AI reshapes customer experience. You will operate in small, senior-led teams that span strategy through to execution and never hand off. At Director level, origination and practice P&L contribution sit alongside delivery as core parts of the seat.
- What you will do
- Lead client engagements across the omnichannel agenda: channel strategy, channel economics, operating model, connected commerce, AI, supply chain and store
- Structure and solve ambiguous, board-level problems using hypothesis-led, structured problem-solving
- Own senior client relationships and become the go-to advisor for the accounts you lead
- Translate analysis into clear recommendations and executive-ready storytelling
- Originate and shape new work: proposals, diagnostics, workshops and buyable plays
- Contribute to practice P&L growth and manage engagement commercials
- Build reusable IP, frameworks and accelerators that let the practice scale
- Publish points of view and represent the practice at industry forums
- Coach and grow the team as it builds out
What you bring
- Proven management or strategy consulting experience at Director, Principal or Partner level, or equivalent seniority
- Retail or consumer sector depth, whether earned in consulting, in industry, or both
- Genuine command of channel economics, operating model design and the commercial pressures reshaping retail today
- Structured problem-solving and analytical rigour, including comfort interrogating data directly
- Origination track record: proposals won, whitespace opened, multi-year relationships built
- Executive-level communication and storytelling, credible in the boardroom
- Ability to define strategy and plans independently and traverse unfamiliar domains at pace
- Commercial acumen and a builder's instinct, someone who wants to create the practice rather than join a finished one
- Willingness to travel to client sites as business needs require
- Right to work in the UK; sponsorship is not available
- Valuable but not essential
- Depth in one or more of: omnichannel and operating model, connected commerce (OMS, POS, CDP), AI and personalisation, supply chain and fulfilment, store reinvention, or change and capability
- Experience of AI or agentic commerce in a retail context
- Practice-building or new-capability track record
- EMEA or international retail market experience
- Published thought leadership or a recognised external profile
Who this role is NOT for
- Delivery, platform or implementation leaders without a strategy consulting motion
- Client Partner or account management profiles without hands-on engagement leadership
- Organisation design, change management or PMO specialists without commercial and channel depth
- Strategy generalists with no retail or consumer grounding
- Manager or Senior Manager level candidates seeking a step up into this seat
- Candidates requiring visa sponsorship or seeking fully remote work
- Process note: selection includes a case study and a written exercise alongside interviews
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