Principal Consultant – Transformation

Job type: Permanent, full-time (with flexible working options available)

Job location: Edinburgh (Hybrid)

Direct reports: None

We are seeking a Principal Consultant with significant Financial Services experience to lead the design and delivery of complex technology- and AI-enabled client engagements focused on improving processes and customer experiences. This is not about incremental improvement or building faster horses – it’s about helping our clients engage with the art of the possible, guiding them through the policy, process, business, and technology changes needed to realise genuine commercial impact. This is a senior, client-facing role suited to someone with 8+ years’ experience in consulting or impact-led transformation. You must be comfortable operating with senior stakeholders, shaping solutions, and taking accountability for both delivery and commercial outcomes.

As Principal Consultant, you will play a key role in bridging user and business needs with implementable technology capabilities (including data, automation, and AI), coordinating delivery across internal teams – including human-centred designers – and multiple external technology partners. The role combines advisory, delivery leadership, and commercial responsibility. This role is based in our Edinburgh office, with an expectation of regular in-office presence to support collaboration with colleagues and clients.

Key responsibilities

• Client & Stakeholder Management

• Build and maintain trusted relationships with senior client stakeholders (Director / VP / C-suite level).
• Act as primary point of contact for clients, owning day-to-day engagement management and senior-level escalations.
• Lead workshops and stakeholder discussions to understand client challenges, strategic objectives, and regulatory constraints.
• Help clients see beyond current-state limitations to engage with what’s genuinely possible with available technology.
• Provide clear, confident advice and challenge clients constructively to achieve better outcomes.
• Lead the definition and design of the business target-state that reimagine how work gets done – not just optimise existing processes.
• Help clients understand the art of the possible, translating existing and emerging technology capabilities into practical opportunities for their business.
• Work closely with human-centred designers and client subject matter experts to fundamentally rethink customer and colleague experiences.
• Navigate and shape end-to-end change across policy, process, organisation, and technology.
• Build compelling business cases that articulate genuine commercial impact, including (but not limited to) efficiency savings.
• Develop target operating models, roadmaps, and delivery plans that connect vision to value realisation.

• Plan, manage, and oversee end-to-end delivery, ensuring scope, time, cost, quality, and risk objectives are met.
• Coordinate and integrate the work of multiple technology vendors alongside internal design and delivery teams.
• Guide clients through the interconnected policy, process, and technology changes required to realise benefits.
• Take accountability for delivery outcomes across multiple workstreams and delivery teams.
• Establish and maintain effective delivery governance, reporting, and controls.
• Proactively identify delivery risks and issues, driving mitigation and resolution.
• Lead technology- and AI-enabled delivery teams, ensuring solutions are implemented responsibly and effectively whilst prioritising business outcomes.
• Take commercial accountability for client engagements, including budget ownership, forecasting, and margin management.
• Develop and manage engagement financial plans, ensuring delivery remains within agreed commercial parameters.
• Monitor financial performance throughout the engagement lifecycle and proactively manage risks to revenue, cost, and margin.
• Work closely with finance and leadership teams to provide accurate financial reporting and forward-looking forecasts.
• Manage contract scope, change control, and commercial discussions with clients and delivery partners.
• Lead, mentor, and manage teams of consultants, including both permanent staff and contractors.
• Set clear objectives, expectations, and delivery standards for team members.
• Support the development, coaching, and performance management of junior consultants.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performance team culture.
• Manage and coordinate multiple third-party technology vendors across concurrent workstreams.
• Ensure effective collaboration between internal human-centred design teams and external technology partners.
• Hold partners accountable for delivery commitments, outcomes, and quality standards.
• Manage commercial and delivery relationships to ensure successful project outcomes.