Principal Consultant in London

Location: London

Education: Postgraduate degree

Position Summary: Our Principal Consultants are responsible for running whole project workstreams which deliver great outcomes for our clients.

Key Responsibilities

• Business & Commercial Acumen: Is business savvy and has the ability to take a ‘big picture’ view of a situation through business knowledge, and awareness of a situation. Commercially minded from a project margin perspective and able to develop the right commercial approach, understanding the commercials and resource needs for an individual piece of work. Manages the commercials of a live project to be on budget. Balances commercial and client needs with "doing the right thing", including seeking input where needed, to make values‑led decisions.
• Gaining & Developing New Business: Able to build and identify potential opportunities within existing clients and projects. Can evaluate the client brief into a strategy for gaining new business and shape an opportunity from client ask through to winning the work. Has a strong understanding of Q5 Offerings and able to identify how they might play into existing projects or proposals. Over time, will build capability to identify opportunities across larger accounts and manage commercials and scope. Acts as a thought partner to clients, consistently demonstrating Q5's value to the client and creating opportunities to extend/expand on a project. Ensures BD work reflects Q5’s values, prioritising impact, trust and collaboration over short‑term wins.
• Relationship Building & Management: Proactively builds & nurtures relationships within their network for both current and previous clients, building our reach and influence. Seen as a valued and confident trusted partner and able to manage complexities and noise. Proactively seeks new relationship opportunities and continuously seeks to build new & existing relationships in organisations. Able to take a leading role in the development and shaping of high‑quality client proposals to deliver additional value to the client over time. Leads teams that show up with clients in a way that reflects Q5's values, including role modelling behaviours for other team members.
• Critical Thinking & Problem Solving: Able to leverage and apply Q5 tools and methodologies in a nuanced way to address client challenges. Able to intellectually interrogate, question, analyse, interpret, evaluate and make judgements that solve client problems. Can apply skills and expertise to define, present and articulate a problem clearly. Able to intellectually architect a client solution across a variety of Offerings and present the “so what” to move forward. Experienced & adept at managing difficult conversations with both the client and the team. Is open to different points of view and able to bring team members on the journey when thinking through a problem.
• Influential Communication & Engagement: Can take a challenge and provide a clear, compelling, and concise narrative aligned to addressing the challenge. Removes complexity through synthesising detail and complex context into a simple and easily digestible narrative. Able to understand a situation / argument and frame different points of view and recommendations to help reach the outcome or goal in mind. Involves, inspires and listens to understand the needs and actively keeps stakeholders / team members engaged and informed. Applies influencing skills in a range of situations, adapting style and leading others. Shows strong awareness of the impact of tone and timing when engaging with others, communicating with respect, curiosity and care and adapting approach to support shared progress.
• Leading a Room: Able to read a room and know when to intervene, ask the right questions, or offer an informed opinion. Able to plan and lead a session with confidence and can present, provide advice and facilitate with impact during meetings and presentations with senior stakeholders and members of the team. When facilitating sessions, stakeholders feel engaged, energised and able to follow the narrative of the session. Creates a safe and open environment in sessions to encourage others to contribute and challenge.
• Programme & Project Management: Effectively manages and executes the project including scoping, mobilising and delivering the project on budget and on time. Able to effectively manage the team both internally and externally to ensure milestones and deadlines are met. Ensures the work delivered is to a high quality and standard, spots and flags risks early to mitigate any further issues arising. Ensures project management fundamentals are in place across a project, delegating responsibility where appropriate. Brings clarity and calm to delivery, especially when under pressure, keeping the team motivated, focused and healthy.
• Analysis & Tooling: Demonstrates strong analytical capabilities to address complex problems, applies a mixture of analytical and creative thinking to ‘join the dots’ and ensure innovative, robust solutions with recommendations demonstrated through a clear analysis driven approach. Has the skills in the qualitative and quantitative tools needed to do the analysis, support others to do the analysis, and/or interrogate complex data and analysis in a fast paced environment while working alongside the team owning the data.
• People Leadership: Leads teams on day‑to‑day client engagement and delivery, supports the team across development, performance and wellbeing, proactively providing and receiving feedback from the team. Demonstrates our ‘we not I’ leadership behaviour and works as a team player. Sets clear direction and is outcome driven. Manages ambiguity well, making it simple and easy for team members to work with them, setting the tone from the outset and driving team morale. Leads teams with care, balancing stretch and support in how they lead and using feedback to grow others with care. Plays an active role in mentoring, coaching & developing our Consultant and Senior Consultant community, managing performance conversations with confidence & clarity. Contributes to the Q5 ecosystem for training and onboarding.
• Values & Behaviours: Role models our values in their work, building trust and collaboration with Q5ers and clients. Takes ownership of their own and others' development by proactively and regularly seeking and giving feedback, taking actions to grow and learn and driving their mentoring relationship. Able to recognise, flag and challenge behaviours - in both Q5ers and clients - that do not meet the standards we expect. Contributes to the Q5 ecosystem beyond project work (including Sectors, Services, Recruitment, Q5 Foundation etc.)

Requirements

• Significant demonstrable experience of leading and delivering projects in a similar consulting environment (7+ years experience, ideally with Organisation Design experience)
• A good Bachelor’s degree or above
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrable ability to lead projects.
• Strong facilitation and presentation skills to develop and deliver engaging workshops with complex and detailed subject matter.
• Keen attention to detail.
• Intellectual curiosity, be able to learn as you go, and problem solve challenges you come across.
• Drive and be self‑starting and a keenness to get the best outcomes for clients.
• Demonstrable confidence and credibility with senior stakeholders and the ability to foster genuine client relationships quickly.
• Demonstrable ability to supervise and mentor others and help to foster a learning mindset in other members of the team.

Ideally you will also have

• A good understanding of other project delivery tools.
• Proven experience in one or more of the sectors that Q5 operates in.
• Proven experience in one or more of Q5’s offerings.

The sort of person we are looking for at Q5

• Highly adaptable and flexible in thinking style.
• Collaborative in working style.
• Genuinely care about your clients and colleagues and help them to succeed.
• Can build trusted relationships and bring people on the journey.
• Resilient in the face of challenges, tight timelines and demanding clients.
• You get your hands dirty and step‑up.
• Unique and offers something special.

Benefits

• Finance: Performance Related Bonus, Contributory Pension Plan, Life Assurance and Income Protection, New Starter Loan.
• Health & Wellbeing: Private Medical Insurance, Employee Assistance Programme, Access to Digital GP and Wellbeing Apps, Internal Wellbeing Programme.
• Family & Lifestyle: Electric Car and Cycle to Work Schemes, Enhanced Parental Leave, Subsidised eye tests and support with the cost prescribed glasses for DSE use.