Methods Looking for Managing Consultant at London, England, United Kingdom Full Time

Job Title: Managing Consultant

Reporting to: Head of Service

Job Type: Permanent, full time

Location: Home based (This role will require regular UK travel and at times need you to stay away from home)

Methods Business and Digital Technology Limited

Since our establishment in 1990, Methods has partnered with a range of central government departments and agencies to transform the way the public sector operates in the UK.

Our mission is to improve and safeguard public-facing services. We apply digital thinking to ensure the future of our public services is centred around our citizens.

Our human touch sets us apart from other consultancies, system integrators and software houses – we have a customer-centric value system whereby we focus on delivering what is right for our clients.

We passionately support our clients in the success of their projects while working collaboratively to share skill sets and solve problems. At Methods we have fun while working hard; we are not afraid of making mistakes and learning from them.

The Managing Consultant role has responsibilities for client delivery, business development and the development of approaches and standards within the Change & Innovation portfolio.

The post-holder will be part of the growing Change & Innovation portfolio, reporting to one of our heads of service, depending on specialism, and will be expected to work across the Change & Innovation Portfolio and the wider Methods group as required.

The Change & Innovation Portfoliocombines the skills and capabilities for designing and delivering digital transformation, combining tangible innovation, and emerging technologies to deliver sustainable value to our public sector clients. It brings together the change and technology capabilities to design and deliver innovative solutions and services that enable clients to understand and capture the practical benefits of emerging technology, with the project and programme management expertise to deliver them.

The Managing Consultant will be at the forefront of developing our offerings but will also work closely with clients on associated project or technical delivery projects. The role will involve market research, horizon scanning and providing intelligence to the Change and Innovation team Senior Leadership Team to inform the work and development of each of the practices within the portfolio.

The ideal candidate will have at least ten years’ experience working in public sector organisations and over five years’ experience of working in technology, digital and/or business change services.

Successful applicants will have experience of large-scale transformation programmes and a broad understanding of the UK public services landscape with experience in different sectors. In addition to demonstrable client engagement skills, they will have a good understanding about the challenges faced in public sector delivery and an interest in innovating with new techniques and technology to support the more efficient delivery of improved outcomes.

Requirements

The Managing Consultant responsibilities will require you to:

Client delivery

• Undertake client assignments to budget, time and quality
• Provide project leadership and direction, ensuring work is properly designed with sufficient client engagement
• Manage and monitor client projects and programmes through the delivery lifecycle, monitoring performance against milestones, and appropriateness and quality of work, and where necessary takes corrective action.
• Manage multiple assignments at once, prioritising between them to balance client needs and portfolio business requirements
• Lead project teams, both employed Methods staff and other resources
• Design and plan assignments in support of client objectives across the change lifecycle
• Advise clients on the design and implementation of portfolio, programme and project management, including application of appropriate methodologies and technologies
• Design approaches, frameworks and strategies for client programmes, identifying risks, outcomes and benefits
• Lead on planning, scheduling, controlling, assurance and reporting activities for strategic, high impact, high risk client projects and programmes.
• Build and manage mechanisms for knowledge transfer to client teams and ensure their successful application
• Identify ways to utilise available and emerging technology to optimise project / programme performance
• Be responsible for project budgets and margin performance
• Lead on specified client accounts, maintaining/ deepening relationships at a senior level
• Oversee project-related internal case studies and lessons learnt

Business development

• Lead on the development of selected service offerings within Change & Innovation
• Externally publicise the work of the team using social media, marketing and speaking events
• Proactively identify new client prospects and work with the sales team to develop and convert active opportunities
• Take responsibility for project-specific business development, i.e. extensions, further work opportunities
• Lead on proposal development, working collaboratively with the bid team in preparing and reviewing proposals
• Provide suggestions on new pre-sales approaches and work collaboratively in preparing marketing materials

Practice development

• Develop innovation related service offerings, alongside client and colleague understanding of related approaches and value
• Support the development of new products and services and evolve existing products and services in line with market knowledge and company capability
• Lead and support internal change projects
• Routinely contribute to portfolio and company knowledge base
• Keep up to date with national and local developments in specified markets/ service areas
• Publish thought leadership on specified market, product and service issues
• Actively participate in relevant events to gain and share industry knowledge
• Support other team members through knowledge sharing and mentoring where appropriate
• Take a leading role in developing Communities of Practice
• Maintain your own professional development

Ideal candidates will demonstrate:

• A proven track record of using developed professional and specialist knowledge to deliver results
• Significant experience of facilitating and managing change within and across public sector organisations
• The ability to manage large and diverse stakeholder groups and to communicate and represent the voice of these groups at senior stakeholder levels
• The capability to define outcomes-based deliverables and deliver them in complex programme environments
• Strong and effective change management experience ensuring effective quality assurance and the overall integrity of the programme
• Relevant experience in the priority domains, such as complex senior stakeholder management, digital transformation, innovation, business change and agile development programmes
• The ability to deliver at pace and under pressure
• Experience leading major change with experience designing and implementing a structured approach to delivery and take up of new ways of working that are underpinned by the introduction of new technology and associated business processes
• Ability to create an open and collaborative environment to work in, be flexible, adaptable
• Being a confident communicator carrying influence and authority
• Evidence of recent and on-going professional development

Desirable skills and experience:

• Previous experience directing large multi-disciplinary teams across disparate locations
• Effective negotiation and resource planning
• Experience of public sector programme management
• Experience of developing innovative solutions and applying emerging technology to deliver successful outcomes

Am I the right fit? We’re looking for:

• Resilience
• Strong collaboration and team working
• Good Communication skills
• Genuine passion/commitment to improving public services
• A determined and tenacious approach to work
• A creative approach to problem solving
• Good listening and comprehension
• Great stakeholder management

Benefits

Methods is passionate about its people; we want our colleagues to develop the things they are good at and enjoy.

Benefits

By joining us you can expect:

• Autonomy to develop and grow your skills and experience
• Be part of exciting project work that is making a difference in society
• Strong, inspiring and thought-provoking leadership
• A supportive and collaborative environment

As well as this, we offer:

• Formal training courses, a management development programme and access to online LinkedIn Learning
• Wellness 24/7 Confidential employee assistance programme
• Commitment to charitable causes and two paid volunteering days a year
• Time off 25 days a year
• Pension Salary Exchange Scheme with 4% employer contribution and 5% employee contribution
• Discretionary Company Bonus based on company and individual performance
• Life Assurance of 4 times base salary
• Private Medical Insurance which is non-contributory (spouse and dependants included)
• Worldwide Travel Insurance which is non-contributory (spouse and dependants included)