Consultancy Manager (Strategic Projects) in London

UCL Consultants is seeking a Consultancy Manager for a full-time role within the company. A commercially focused business development role responsible for shaping bid strategy through robust financial modelling, ensuring proposals reflect commercial realities, supporting risk assessment on complex tenders, and providing ongoing financial and commercial oversight throughout contract delivery.

This is a stimulating and varied role which will support the growth and delivery of projects by UCL Consultants while working with world class academic experts. Through this role, candidates will bring UCL’s expertise to life and support the academic experts in making an impact for the benefit of business, government and society. The post holder will support UCL experts with commercial and financial leadership across the bid and contract lifecycle.

They will be responsible for developing financially sound bid submissions that reflect commercial realities, constructing detailed financial models to support investment and pricing decisions, and assessing financial and commercial risks associated with complex tenders. Post-award, the role supports contract delivery by monitoring financial performance, managing commercial risks, and ensuring contracts are delivered in line with agreed financial assumptions and objectives.

The post holder will also support development of processes and systems to ensure efficient operations in UCL Consultants’ Business Development team. The successful candidate will have strong commercial, financial and mathematical skills, familiarity with software and systems, strong interest and/or experience in the academic environment, aptitude to create and manage client relationships, identify resources to deliver, and support the development of proposals. Ideally, they will also have some specialist knowledge relevant to the research or teaching activities at UCL. They will be part of a Business Development team but must also be able to work independently.

Reporting to: Senior Consultancy Manager

Job Purpose: The role is to support UCL’s academic community to undertake large and complex consultancy activities with external clients in an efficient and effective manner by providing commercial and financial leadership. The candidate will support both bid development and delivery through commercial and financial modelling, commercial risk assessment, and stakeholder management, with the overall objectives of securing large-scale, high-impact consultancy projects. This role will span across the full multi-disciplinary range of the University.

The position holder will be responsible for supporting client relationships, liaising with leadership for decisions on pursuing opportunities, leading the development of proposals, managing commercial risk assessment and mitigation through the project life-cycle, managing internal compliance and approvals processes, and developing and overseeing financial and commercial models for projects. The role is a new specialism within an existing team at UCL Consultants, which is being established in response to the continuing growth of the business. The position holder will therefore have the opportunity to work with colleagues in similar roles in other academic areas and be part of a Business Development team led by UCL Consultants.

Key duties and responsibilities

• Provide commercial input to bid design, ensuring proposals are aligned with commercial, contractual, and market realities
• Develop and maintain robust financial models to support pricing, investment appraisal, and scenario analysis
• Support risk identification and mitigation, including sensitivity analysis and assessment of contractual, financial, and delivery risks
• Lead or support the financial components of complex tender submissions, including assumptions, pricing structures, and return analysis
• Partner with academic and UCL Consultants Legal and Project Management teams to translate commercial strategy into competitive, compliant bids
• Post-award, provide ongoing financial and commercial support to contract delivery teams
• Monitor financial performance against bid assumptions and support change control, forecasting, and commercial governance
• Support academic staff in client relationship management in line with the consultancy strategy.
• Develop a strong understanding of the academic capabilities and research objectives of UCL and how consultancy can support them, with a particular focus on areas of prioritisation which may change over time
• Obtain client feedback on completed consultancy projects as a part of a process of continuous improvement.
• Work with leadership and UCL Consultants’ Technology Working Group to continuously improve systems and processes supporting business development at UCL Consultants.

In carrying out the above duties the Consultancy Manager is expected to:

• Work expeditiously and with professionalism to ensure the business is organised efficiently
• Maintain absolute confidentiality regarding sensitive personnel, financial and commercial information
• Adhere to UCL Consultants policies
• Participate in staff meetings and training as required
• Maintain an awareness and observation of Fire, and Health and Safety Regulations
• To undertake any other duties that are within the scope, spirit and/or purpose of the post and its grading as requested by the line manager.

Note: The duties described above reflect the present requirements of the post. As duties and responsibilities change and develop, the job description will be reviewed and may be subject to amendment in consultation with the post holder.

Salary £45,000-£56,000 (dependent on experience)

The Company operates a hybrid working policy, with a minimum one day per week in-office attendance.

The closing date for applications is 5pm on 10th July 2026.