Senior Consultant

Overall job purpose: Senior Consultants fulfil a number of functions within Education Development Trust. They provide both generalist and specialist technical expertise for the development of our education solutions and methods. They support our engagement with clients, helping to develop our profile and ensure we are suitably positioned for new opportunities. They deliver commercial work through the consultancy team. They also take a technical and strategic lead on business development for both large-scale and consultancy opportunities. Senior Consultants may sit substantively within either the Development Centre, with a focus on large-scale opportunity development, or within Consultancy team, with a focus on consultancy delivery or Research and Development projects. However, we expect Senior Consultants in either team to support all four key purposes, and for them to spend a proportion of their time supporting both large-scale delivery and consultancy, regardless of their substantive base. A significant focus for Senior Consultants will be skills development, and each Senior Consultant will have a personal development plan to help guide and support their growth.

Specific Job purpose within the Consultancy team: The post holder will be part of a team of consultants and will play a key role in delivering high quality consultancy services, including research, advisory services, training and facilitation to a portfolio of clients internationally, including donors, governments and charities; as well as making a significant contribution to the business growth of the team through identifying and sourcing new business opportunities. They will also support corporate wide business development activities when required, as well as Research and Development projects to develop our education solutions and new business offerings, to drive long term business growth and improved educational impact.

Core job objectives

1. Lead or support the conceptual design of education solutions underpinning both high-value Education Service Group or smaller consultancy opportunities, drawing from and contributing to the Trusts intellectual property and service offerings.
2. Deliver high quality education research and consultancy services that meet the requirements of clients.
3. Represent the Trust with key clients, providing excellent Client Relationship Management to ensure we have a positive reputation and are well positioned in our key geographies.
4. Play a significant role in identifying and sourcing new business for the Organisation through opportunity tracking and management, ‘blue skies’ thinking and proactive positioning of Education Development Trust with key existing and prospective clients.
5. Develop and deliver market plans for new consultancy offering, working collaboratively with team members to grow our business with target clients and to position Education Development Trust as high value, high impact educational thought leaders.
6. Provide high-quality and high-scoring text for bid-submissions.
7. Influence and contribute to the Organisation’s research and corporate knowledge management strategy on international education issues.
8. Develop and maintain highly effective working relationships with key internal stakeholders, e.g. Regional Directors, Research and Consultancy colleagues, Business Service leads, etc.
9. Support general business improvement projects where required.

Core job objectives for the Consultancy team:

1. Initiate, undertake and maintain a portfolio of consultancy, advisory work, research and knowledge capture against specified utilisation targets to achieve business growth and educational impact in line with the annual plan, and be a lead specialist in a particular area related to education reform guiding the work of the Organisation in this area.
2. Build and maintain a positive reputation for the Organisation as a result of winning and delivering externally funded consultancy contracts in relation to specialist area(s) and through the management and implementation of appropriate account plans.
3. Provide mentoring support to other Consultants to ensure that the team is developed into high-value, high-impact education thought leaders and take responsibility for the formal line management of Consultants where required.
4. Support Education Services Group business development, by providing expertise and or through placements in the Development Centre team as agreed with your line manager.
5. Lead the development of selected corporate and consultancy offerings, working collaboratively with the Research team, Research and Development, technical experts and business development colleagues to develop corporate methodologies, including the development of value propositions, market plans, and technical methods.
6. Manage project budgets for a given consultancy portfolio, ensuring target margins are met, high quality on-time reporting to Senior Management of spend against budget, and working with Consultancy Team to ensure timely client invoicing.
7. Act as the lead for specific assignments, successfully manage a team of internal and/or external consultants to ensure deliverables are met to client satisfaction and any necessary internal impact measures achieved.

Core job objectives for the Development Centre:

1. Lead, manage and quality assure new business opportunities, being responsible and accountable for the successful production of high-quality bid submissions.
2. Manage complex, international multi-disciplinary bid teams – including internal business unit colleagues and external partners.
3. Lead or support negotiations with external partners for new business opportunities, representing the Trust appropriately.
4. Support the Regional Director for an agreed geography to achieve their strategic growth with identified key clients and large-scale opportunities.
5. Lead the development, regular review and implementation of Regional Business Growth Strategies, based on market and competitor analysis and working with the Regional Director.