Change & Transformation Senior Consultant

Thistle Consulting, formerly Thistle Initiatives, is the alternative consultancy for financial services.

We are the award -winning specialists helping firms navigate regulatory change, transform their businesses, and meet their strategic growth objectives.

By combining deep sector expertise with practical delivery experience, we support firms across regulatory compliance, business transformation, financial crime, and M&A services.

Our partnership -led approach embeds best practice and compliance into the way businesses operate, enabling sustainable growth in fast -changing markets.

Founded in 2012 and part of the Thistle Group, we support ambitious firms across investments and wealth, payment services, digital assets, insurance, banking, and credit.

Our team of more than 80 consultants, former regulators and lawyers, and industry practitioners combines subject expertise with commercial understanding, helping clients grow with confidence in a complex and changing environment.

Role summary

We are looking for an experienced Change & Transformation Senior Consultant to join our growing consulting team, supporting the continued development of the Change & Transformation capability.

This role is suited to someone with 4+ years’ experience delivering change, transformation, business readiness, operating model, process improvement or implementation activity, ideally within financial services, regulatory consulting, or a professional services environment.

The successful candidate will support clients through periods of regulatory, operational, organisational and technology-led change, drawing on the wider team capability to help clients define clear plans, engage stakeholders, embed new ways of working and deliver sustainable outcomes.

They will be confident working directly with clients, managing workstreams, producing high-quality deliverables and contributing to the continued growth of the Change & Transformation practice.

The purpose of this role is to help clients successfully plan, manage and embed change.

Working as part of multidisciplinary project teams, the Senior Consultant will take ownership of defined workstreams, support the development of practical transformation solutions and ensure clients are equipped to realise the benefits of change across people, process, technology and operating model dimensions.

Key responsibilities

• Support the delivery of change and transformation workstreams, ensuring activity is well planned, coordinated and delivered to agreed timelines and quality standards.
• Work with clients to understand business challenges, assess current-state ways of working and identify practical opportunities for improvement.
• Support the design and implementation of target operating models, process improvements, business readiness plans, change impact assessments and stakeholder engagement approaches.
• Develop clear, structured and client-ready deliverables, including workshop materials, project plans, process maps, communications, training materials, status reports and decision papers.
• Facilitate meetings and workshops with client stakeholders, capturing outputs, driving actions and translating discussion into practical next steps.
• Build strong working relationships with clients, acting as a trusted day-to-day contact and demonstrating a proactive, solutions-focused consulting style.
• Support programme governance, including RAID management, progress tracking, benefits monitoring and escalation of risks or issues where appropriate.
• Contribute to internal proposition development, knowledge sharing and business development activity within the Change & Transformation practice.

This role is not limited to the above duties, due to the nature of the market you will need to be adaptable and open to change in this position.

Experience and technical knowledge

• Minimum 4+ years’ experience in change, transformation, business readiness, operating model design, process improvement, programme delivery or implementation roles.
• Experience gained within management consultancy, change consultancy, financial services, regulatory consulting, or a comparable professional services environment.
• Strong understanding of change management approaches, project delivery disciplines and transformation frameworks, with the ability to apply these pragmatically to client situations.
• Experience supporting or leading workstreams across regulatory change, operational transformation, digital or technology implementation, process redesign, business readiness, or target operating model programmes.
• Confident stakeholder management skills, with the ability to engage, influence and build credibility with clients and senior stakeholders.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to produce structured, polished and client-ready outputs.

Skills and behaviours

• Commercially aware and client focused, with the confidence to operate in a consulting environment and adapt to different client needs.
• Highly organised, able to manage competing priorities and deliver high-quality work within agreed timescales.
• Analytical and structured in approach, with strong problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
• Collaborative and proactive, with a willingness to support colleagues, share knowledge and contribute to wider team development.
• Comfortable dealing with ambiguity and able to bring structure, momentum and clarity to complex change environments.
• Professional, credible and resilient, with a positive attitude and a commitment to delivering excellent client outcomes.

What we offer

• Competitive salary and benefits package.
• 25 days’ holiday entitlement and company pension scheme.
• Hybrid working with a City of London base.
• Supportive team culture with regular social events.
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