Principal Consultant – Healthcare Operational & Financial Improvement

We believe in the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future. As strategies, technologies, and innovation collide, we create opportunity from complexity. Our teams of interdisciplinary experts combine innovative thinking and breakthrough technologies to progress further, faster. Our clients adapt and transform, and together we achieve enduring results.

Hybrid working - our approach is to be in the office or on client site a minimum of 2 days per week. However, the actual time you spend and where you spend it will vary by role or assignment, including up to 5 days per week on a client site. This role can be based in our London Victoria or Manchester locations.

We are looking for an experienced Principal Consultant to join our Healthcare Operations & Improvement team. Someone who combines deep NHS operational expertise with consulting delivery experience and is motivated to deliver tangible, system-wide impact. In this role, you will lead complex, high-impact engagements across NHS Trusts, Integrated Care Systems and national bodies, helping clients address some of their most pressing challenges in productivity, workforce, financial sustainability and service transformation. This is an opportunity to move beyond advisory work and play a hands-on role in delivering measurable operational and financial improvements that directly impact patient outcomes.

What You Will Do

• Lead delivery of large-scale NHS transformation programmes.
• Operational and financial productivity improvement.
• Cost Improvement Programmes (CIPs) and efficiency portfolios.
• System-wide transformation across ICs and provider collaboratives.
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior NHS stakeholders.
• Engage at Board / Executive level within Trusts and systems.
• Navigate complex stakeholder environments and competing priorities.
• Drive delivery of measurable outcomes.
• Translate analysis into actionable change.
• Ensure benefits realisation and sustainability of improvements.
• Lead and develop project teams.
• Provide direction, coaching and quality assurance.

Qualifications

We are seeking experienced professionals who bring a powerful combination of NHS operational expertise and consulting delivery experience, with a track record of leading complex improvement programmes and delivering measurable impact. You will be someone who is equally comfortable rolling up your sleeves to drive delivery as you are advising senior stakeholders and shaping direction.

You Will Bring Experience In

• Leading and delivering measurable operational and financial improvement within NHS organisations (from frontline service redesign through to system-level transformation).
• Driving large-scale Cost Improvement and Productivity programmes within a consulting environment, with clear evidence of benefits realised.
• Working extensively across the UK healthcare system, including Trusts, ICs and/or central bodies.
• Delivering outcomes, not just recommendations taking accountability for real, sustained improvement.
• Applying a range of improvement approaches, including digital enablement, workforce and capacity optimisation, and change transformation.
• Leading and inspiring multidisciplinary teams, often in complex, high-pressure delivery environments.
• Partnering effectively with clinical and operational leaders to drive performance improvement.
• Operating confidently at senior levels, with the ability to influence, challenge and build trust with Exec and Board stakeholders.
• Bringing creativity and pragmatism to solve complex operational challenges.
• Demonstrating strong consulting fundamentals, including structured problem solving, clear storytelling, and stakeholder management.

In Addition, We’re Particularly Interested In Individuals Who

• Have built their career within a consulting environment, delivering across NHS providers, systems or national bodies (e.g. DHSC, NHS England).
• Combine analytical rigour with practical delivery instinct, translating insight into action at pace.
• Are comfortable working independently and stepping into leadership roles on engagements, setting direction and maintaining momentum.
• Can move seamlessly across system finance, care model design, workforce, governance and operational performance.
• Have a natural ability to facilitate senior conversations, lead workshops, and align diverse stakeholders around a clear plan.
• Take pride in partnering with clients to deliver lasting change, not just short-term outputs.
• Are motivated by continuous development, both for themselves and the teams they lead.

Our Operations and Improvement consultants are expected to be hands-on, working together with our clients to bring energy, direction and expertise in helping to solve the most difficult operational and supply chain challenges.

Security Clearance: Please be aware that some of our UK roles at PA Consulting require a UK security clearance. All PA people are required to undergo background checks and to achieve the Baseline Personnel Security Standard; however, some UK roles also require higher levels of National Security Vetting, where applicants must have at least 5 years of continuous residency in the UK. We therefore ask that you only apply if you meet the residency requirements (i.e. you are a British citizen or have been resident in the UK for the past 5 years), as this is the prerequisite for a security clearance.

Equity and Inclusion: We’re committed to advancing equality. We recruit, retain, reward and develop our people based solely on their abilities and contributions and without reference to their age, background, disability, genetic information, parental or family status, religion or belief, race, ethnicity, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity (or expression), political belief, veteran status, or any other range of human difference brought about by identity and experience. We welcome applications from underrepresented groups.

Adjustments or accommodations: Should you need any adjustments or accommodations to the recruitment process, at either application or interview, please contact us on recruitmentenquiries@paconsulting.com.