Senior/ Principal Consultant

Metro Dynamics is an independent consultancy that provides strategic advice to those who lead, do business or invest in local economies. We work with a range of clients including local government, Combined Authorities, private sector investors and developers across the UK.

Metro Dynamics is an employee-owned business, which demonstrates our commitment to independence and a strong social purpose, that will protect the interests of its employees, and work to increase our positive impact on places. It also means all our staff have a financial stake in the business, with access to many benefits, including a share of company profits.

We are looking to hire a Senior or Principal Consultant in our strategy team. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in public sector consulting in strategy and/or transformation, and a proven ability to work with local and regional government stakeholders at all levels. They should be looking to join a consultancy with a difference and a clear mission to support place.

This position is a lead role in our strategy team, working on a range of high-profile strategy development and implementation projects across regional devolution, economic growth, sector development and other key economic policy areas, leading and coaching our junior consultants and working closely with our team of directors to support our clients to affect change in today's complex and dynamic government environment.

Metro Dynamics was founded in 2015, having started life from the original devolution deals with Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, at this time focusing on core economic strategy development and devolution. Since then, we have grown to a team of just under 40 consultants, with a respected strategy team working across a range of broader strategic client initiatives from research and analysis of local economies, to developing strategies and strategic action plans, to supporting places to develop new devolution arrangements and implement devolution, and supporting clients to transform economic development delivery and implement growth projects in new ways.

We are looking for a Senior or Principal Consultant to join us on this continuing journey, supporting greater devolution across the UK and arming places with the evidence, priorities, projects and functions they need to drive local economic growth. What binds us as a team is our interest in how and why local economies grow, and we believe that strategic economic leadership and delivery at the local level will be essential to solving the national and international challenges of the 21st century. We strongly value intellectual curiosity in our team members as a core Metro Dynamics value, and welcome close engagement with and contributions to the major policy debates across every level of our team.

Candidates are expected to demonstrate:

• 4+ years' experience working in a consulting firm (6+ years for Principal Consultant), with a focus on local and regional government strategy or complex transformation projects.
• Strong interest in solving problems in a public sector or public-private environment, understanding of the current public policy environment surround local and regional government and interest in economic policy and local economies and politics in the UK.
• A strong understanding of the policy levers available for places to support economic growth, balancing theoretical insights with practical experience as appropriate
• Excellent understanding of core consulting approaches and methods for strategy development, transformation and change management
• A track record of leading and delivering a diverse range of strategic projects across various public sector policy areas, with deep experience in local and regional government
• Experience interpreting, critically interrogating and conveying data-led insights and working with socio-economic data
• Practiced skills in working with challenging public sector stakeholders and complex client environments
• Ability to work with ambiguity, navigating uncertain client requirements, changing landscapes and political dynamics, and supporting teams to do the same
• Evidence of working in and leading teams, managing clients, projects and consultants on time and to target end to end, from strategy to delivery
• Experience of leading pitch and bid development
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including a range of producing client deliverables, presenting formally and informally
• Commitment to personal development, on-the-job learning and strong self-leadership skills

Typical tasks include:

• Leading a range of strategic project work – e.g. developing approaches and plans to meet client requirements, leading and supporting regular client engagement, developing written outputs/ reports/ slidepacks, leading research and analytical work and recommendation development for our broad range of clients, ongoing risk and progress management
• Managing day-to-day relationships with clients, project leadership and project teams
• Supporting the development of other colleagues within and outside projects
• Leading and supporting proposal writing
• Contributing to shaping internal best practice around strategy development and delivery
• Supporting the management activities/ administration of the business as required

Principal Consultants are expected to be able to deliver a wider variety and complexity of projects more independently, with less direct supervision from Project Directors, and make a more significant contribution to business development.

The successful candidate could be based at either our Manchester or London office. There would also be a certain amount of travel around the UK to client meetings.

We offer a competitive salary dependent on experience and an excellent benefits package comprising:

• Annual profit share (dependent on company performance)
• 8% employer contribution to company pension scheme (after three months)
• 29 days annual leave which includes company closedown between Christmas and New Year and one day birthday leave
• Wellbeing benefits including life insurance, income protection insurance, cycle to work scheme
• Access to our employee assistance programme which provides various support services including 24/7 GP appointments
• Hybrid working with an expectation of at least 2 days per week in our London or Manchester office
• Access to training and personal development in line with career progression goals and business requirements

Our values

Metro Dynamics is proud to be an employee-owned business. We are a diverse team of people with different work backgrounds, skills and experience, but believe what joins us together is our commitment to our shared values. We are looking for candidates that share our values and are committed to our mission and purpose.