Senior Manager in London

Location: Flexible, with UK travel required

Contract type: Permanent, full-time or part-time

Salary: Competitive, starting from £85,000 per annum + benefits

About us

IMPOWER is the country’s largest independent management consultancy, focussed exclusively on helping our public sector clients improve services for their local communities - and getting the best use of the public pound. We understand that impactful and meaningful change cannot be solved sustainably through traditional, linear project management approaches. Our unique EDGEWORK methodology provides our clients with the skills, techniques and mindset to collaboratively solve the complex problems they face – and we have shown that IMPOWER’s way of approaching change has provided better outcomes for service users that have cost our clients less to deliver. Our team of highly skilled consultants use applied behavioural science, insight, creativity and a talent for building strong relationships to transform public service delivery. If you have a passion for improving public services and the energy to tackle some of our clients’ most difficult challenges, we hope you will be inspired to join our team.

About the role

Our Senior Managers are responsible for the day-to-day delivery of our larger and more complex delivery projects, and use their expertise and EDGEWORK approach to make impactful changes that benefit our client’s needs. They are responsible for drawing out insight from our projects to share across the business, and they generate ideas for how we can develop our offer and methods of change delivery. Our Senior Managers play a key role in developing trusted relationships, and delivering impact to support account growth and account planning. Our Senior Managers are emotionally intelligent – and know how to develop and manage a team of exceptionally talented and high performing staff. They are responsible for the day to day and longer‑term performance management of our project and internal teams, ensuring that our staff are trained, developed, retained, and well cared for.

About you

• Skills and Experience
• Significant experience working in a project management role within a Management Consultancy – with project delivery expertise focused on achieving enhanced outcomes, maximising financial value and organisational change.
• Evidence of previous experience in the management and delivery of complex, long‑term projects, within resource constrained environments to achieve demonstrable impact.
• Experienced in managing senior client and account relationships, with the ability to manage resistance and challenge to build consensus.
• Experienced in supporting business development and account growth, with an understanding of the sales process and commercial considerations.
• Experience of public sector consulting, with a deep knowledge of local government, social care, health and/or housing.
• Evidence of strong emotional intelligence, with a clear understanding of how to work in values‑based organisations and environments.
• Ability to develop and manage high performing teams, achieving effective results, applying the appropriate management style according to individual needs.
• Commercial mindset with a clear understanding of the commercial requirements of running a consulting business, their contributions in supporting these and in ensuring consulting staff are delivering against their commercial responsibilities.
• Must be comfortable with nationwide travel and be prepared to stay overnight local to client site when necessary.

About the responsibilities

• Project Delivery
• Responsible for managing larger, complex delivery projects across local government and/or health, ensuring clear plans are in place and milestones achieved according to client expectations and contractual requirements.
• Ability to manage multiple projects across different service areas or clients, delivering on budget and at a high quality, as demonstrated through client feedback.
• Understand the conditions of success required to deliver complex change and drive out impact (financial and outcomes), supporting the Delivery Director and Director in ensuring clients respond to these.
• Manage a team of delivery consultants (including associates), ensuring clarity about individual roles and collective targets, developing a collaborative culture to achieve client goals.

• Relationship Management
• Manage multiple client relationships, being recognised by various stakeholders as a trusted advisor (including Directors of Adults and Children’s Services, Delivery Directors and relevant senior leaders when working in health).
• Delegate relationship management across delivery teams appropriately, ensuring clear stakeholder plans support project delivery with clarity on relationship ownership.
• Support and coach delivery teams in client relationship management, adopting an agile approach to solving challenges and using relationships to advance delivery positively.
• Ensure the Director and Delivery Director are included in key stakeholder meetings and briefed on project delivery and any risks to driving impact.
• Build collaborative relationships across the company, utilising others' expertise to support successful project delivery and account growth.

• Team Management and Development
• Demonstrate understanding of their own development needs and identify and undertake learning and development accordingly.
• Effectively manage consultancy staff in director teams, setting clear performance objectives that support development.
• Provide coaching and development to consulting staff, including new recruits and internally promoted staff, ensuring smooth transitions into the business or new roles.
• Be seen as approachable and set delivery standards across the business, ensuring they are clear, understood, and delivered to a high quality, achieving impact.

• Internal Business Development
• Understand the commercial activities required to ensure projects are delivered on budget, to time, and staff complete appropriate commercial reporting.
• Share impact and insights from projects, recognising where and how this can support new sales and business growth.
• Support the development of new value propositions and advocate for IMPOWER’s work, including through networking, social media, and blogs to increase the IMPOWER brand.
• Contribute to drafting proposals, responses to ITTs and support sales meetings/pitches with current and prospective clients.
• Develop strong understanding of IMPOWER’s EDGEWORK methodology, improving methods and coaching staff on how to apply them.

• Personal development
• Use self‑awareness, reflection, and 360 feedback to establish clear personal development objectives.
• Seek assistance from colleagues when facing new challenges and situations.
• Proactively address areas requiring improvement as necessary.
• Share individual strengths with teams and colleagues to foster personal growth and development.

About our commitment to Inclusion

At IMPOWER, whilst we are committed to being an equal opportunities employer - our commitment to facilitating a safe, inclusive working environment doesn’t just stop at an Equality and Diversity Policy. We have recently signed up to the Disability Confident scheme and we are an organisation that is actively working towards anti‑discrimination of any kind against race, gender, gender identity, sexuality, disability, age, religious belief, parental or carer commitments, marital status or civil partnership. We do this through our D&I strategy, through constant review our policies and procedures, through our recruitment processes, and through the training and development of our staff.