EY Parthenon Strategy Engagement Manager Education Sector (Assistant Director) | London, UK

Location: 1 More London Riverside, London, SE1 2AF

At EY-Parthenon, you will have the opportunity to build a career as unique as you are, with the global scale, support, inclusive culture, and technology to become the best version of you. Join us, build an exceptional experience for yourself and shape the future with confidence.

About EY-Parthenon

EY-Parthenon is a global strategy consultancy. We challenge assumptions to design and deliver strategies that help improve profitability and long-term value. We have more than 9,000 professionals around the globe, working across three areas of focus:

• Corporate & Growth Strategy: Developing growth strategies by providing in-depth market, competitor and customer insights.
• Transaction Strategy & Execution (TSE): Developing, evaluating and executing transaction strategies across the whole M&A and investment lifecycle.
• Turnaround & Restructuring Strategy: Rapidly creating, preserving and recovering value in urgent and complex situations.

This particular job opportunity relates to Corporate & Growth Strategy UK only. In the UK, we are also recruiting for roles in our Transaction Strategy & Execution team.

About EY-Parthenon Corporate & Growth Strategy

At EY-P Strategy, we put our purpose - Building a better working world - at the heart of everything we do. We are committed to using unconventional yet pragmatic thinking to deliver actionable strategies to help our clients navigate the ever-changing business landscape.

You will be a part of a collaborative team that contributes to transforming client businesses using cutting-edge research, analytics and AI powered tools. We tackle complex challenges and shape the future of the working world with confidence.

The Work

Our current work is typically focused on applying our deep sector & strategy knowledge to various types of projects, including:

• Commercial due diligence
• Strategy development and assessment
• Market entry strategy and opportunity sizing
• Product and business unit strategy development
• Divestment options analysis

You will work with a high-performing, integrated team which focuses on a variety of global and local corporate clients and private equity clients. You will have a diverse range of stretching experiences which will give you continuous learning and development opportunities as well as a great sense of achievement.

The Opportunity

The EY-Parthenon Strategy team is currently seeking to expand their team and recruit Education Practice Engagement Managers who will be able to build on their current strategy development, transaction and commercial experience, and work on a number of diverse and demanding projects for private equity as well as blue chip corporate and entrepreneurial clients.

Education is a large and rapidly growing sector at EY. Within this sector, we are building on our past success and are further expanding our team, with a clear ambition to maintain our leading Education sector strategy practice.

We are hiring Engagement Managers to lead on buy- and sell-side commercial due diligence and strategy engagements spanning a range of Education sub-sectors, including: early years, schools, higher education, vocational education, corporate & professional training, education services, education technology including software, government - across a variety of B2B, B2C, B2G models.

Joining this team as an Engagement Manager gives the right candidates the opportunity to accelerate their career in Education sector strategy. The nature of the role demands a skill set that combines commercial diligence, strategy, qualitative and quantitative rigour to problem solving, with strong creative intuition and a can-do mindset. A genuine and deep passion for Education sector topics is a clear advantage.

Your Key Responsibilities

As an Engagement Manager, you will typically be responsible for leading client projects, shaping deliverables, developing client relationships, and the wider team, with the support and coaching of our directors and partners. This will include:

• Managing project teams of between 4 - 10 consultants
• Creating an inclusive culture throughout the team and within engagements
• Developing our business - identifying opportunities within existing clients and driving sales activity
• Working closely with wider EY teams - across Business Consulting, Tax, Strategy & Transactions and Assurance to bring the best of the firm to our clients
• Developing a community within the team - owning / developing an offer, or other internal practice build initiatives such as Training, Professional Development, Innovation, Recruitment, etc.
• Counselling of Consultants to provide career direction and advice
• Developing your own skills and experience and having fun with the team

Skills and attributes for success

Successful candidates are intellectually curious, passionate about solving complex problems, hardworking, have an enthusiastic and approachable demeanour with an entrepreneurial mind-set, combined with a passion for Education sector topics. We want people who are great communicators, who collaborate well with people and teams, and who have a real desire to both learn and coach others.

To qualify for the role, you must:

• Have a minimum of 5 years working experience
• Have prior experience of strategy consulting, preferably with commercial due diligence experience, or have strong commercial experience and/or relevant transaction experience
• Have credible project management experience and demonstrate an ability to plan, deliver, structure, write and present work against tight deadlines
• Have analytical work experience
• Have proficiency in MS PowerPoint and Excel
• Be willing to share your technical and other knowledge with your team
• Have a passion for Education sector topics, relevant work experience within the Education sector, and an interest to focus on sub-sectors within Education as your career develops

Ideally, you will also

• Have a relevant Education sub-sector focus
• Be an excellent communicator, both oral and written
• Have business development experience
• Have a drive to solve complex problems with senior stakeholders
• Be an effective time manager, able to keep calm when under pressure to meet deadlines
• Be a coach to junior team members helping them with on-the-job training, informal discussions and formal EY-Parthenon training modules
• Be a team player with the ability to build effective relationships at all levels in EY and with clients, both in the UK and internationally