Manager, public services consultancy

The PSC

Location London, UK, with travel to client sites (COVID notwithstanding)
Salary £55k-65k base salary plus 10% target profit share
  • Closing: 9:00am, 13th May 2021 BST

Job Description

About The PSC

The PSC (formerly 2020 Delivery) exists to improve public services - for organisations, society and individuals. We are a growing team of public service consultants united by the belief that better public services are the key to a stronger society.

We work closely and collaboratively with ambitious public sector leaders and teams to solve complex challenges and deliver high-value change. Recent work has included supporting rollout of the NHS’s flagship health infrastructure programme, helping a Local Authority rethink their economic vision for the future post-COVID, building business cases for new hospitals and working with the UK Space Agency to understand user needs.

Our team has deep expertise across performance, digital and strategy, and has been recognised by the Financial Times, The Economist, The Guardian, and the Health Service Journal. We thrive on challenge, we get our hands dirty and we're committed to delivering meaningful change that matters, to individuals and society.

About the role

We are looking for strong leadership qualities; ability to drive analytical and conceptual problem solving through a team, and to develop expert knowledge in their field, lead workstreams/programmes, and hold strong relationships with clients.

Successful candidates should expect to join a project straight away, leading workstreams to deliver complex programmes of work within public service organisations. Liaising closely with The PSC Directors and senior public service leaders, individuals will be expected to deliver high impact client-facing project work at pace, drawing on strong programme management, data analytics and problem-solving skills. You will use these skills to support our clients in many ways, including:

  • Structuring thinking to capture the client needs clearly and develop a plan to create the options and solutions required.

  • Design and delivery of qualitative and quantitative analysis and research, preparing evidence and insights and communicating these clearly.

  • Design, plan and facilitate events, workshops and interactive sessions to support engagement of stakeholders.

  • Manage team members in the efficient delivery of project work as a team, and supporting each of them in their development.

  • Use negotiation, influencing and communication to build buy in and momentum to initiatives.

You will also contribute to capturing our knowledge and our approach and apply this to developing our offer for new and existing clients, beginning to build your own client network and create demand for our work.

This role is for Managers ie. candidates who have have experience of consulting and/or public services but limited experience of managing teams. We are also recruiting for Senior Managers – take a look at this role if you have significant experience of managing consulting teams to deliver complex projects, ideally in public services https://app.beapplied.com/apply/dc7rhi6zgo.

All candidates must have the following:

  • A background in consultancy and/or equivalent experience of delivering complex change in the NHS or other public service.

  • The right to work in the UK.

Successful candidates should be able to demonstrate evidence of:

Client service & leadership

  • Leading a complex project workstream including developing the delivery plan and taking responsibility for deliverables.

  • Experience of working in politically complex or challenging environments, to deliver high-impact work despite scepticism or resistance.

  • Experience working within public services to drive improvement or manage complex change, and/or delivering successful business cases, ideally using the HM Treasury 5 case model.

  • Experience of developing, maintaining and managing strong working relationships with senior leaders, within and beyond a project.

Impact & insight

  • Strong hypothesis-led problem-solving skills, including experience developing and delivering solutions to complex challenges.

  • Strong analytical capabilities, with experience analysing complex data sets and developing predictive models to solve specific strategic and operational problems. Ideally also experience of applying advanced data science and analytical skills to solve complex problems, for example using R, Python or PowerBI.

  • An interest in and passion for improving public services.

Personal drive & effectiveness

  • Ability to thrive in a fast-paced working environment including taking initiative in ambiguous and fluid situations.

  • Excellent programme management and planning skills, with experience of delivering complex projects to tight timelines. Formal qualifications are also valuable (eg. PRINCE2, MSP).

  • Excellent written and verbal communication, with experience presenting work to groups of senior leaders, and developing communication materials through compelling slides (PowerPoint) and through excellent prose.

  • Strong influencing skills, with evidence of having built buy-in and momentum to programmes of work.

Teamwork, relationships & leadership

  • Leading teams to deliver high-impact projects, demonstrating an ability to delegate appropriately, provide quality assurance and support development of individuals.

  • Friendly and collaborative approach which helps clients achieve lasting change, ideally also employing coaching techniques with team members, clients and senior individuals to support personal development and decision-making.

Commercial skills

  • Sought out for follow-on work, building on your track record of success and your client relationships.

  • Interest in contributing to work beyond your projects: for example business units, development and implementation of company strategy, continuous improvement of our consulting approach and ways of working.

Application process 

We are proud to work with www.beapplied.com to offer a recruiting process which removes bias wherever possible. This means we don’t review your CV until we have assessed your skills directly using structured questions and a blind review process.

There are two stages to the initial application:

  • A timed “problem solving” test which asks 20 questions based on the type of work we do for clients, testing numerical and analytical ability through a case study. This is the best way we've found to help candidates understand the work we do and to help us to gauge candidates’ ability to do the job well. There are some example questions on our website at https://thepsc.co.uk/careers/how-to-apply/

  • Four short written responses which help us assess your drive, resilience and influencing skills.

Candidates who are successful in their initial application will then be invited to interview. We have a number of positions available and will be flexible in offering the most suitable role based on skills and experience of any successful candidate.

Candidates are welcome to contact us (recruitment@thepsc.co.uk) for a brief conversation to clarify any aspects of the role before applying

Our commitment to diversity & inclusion

Diversity creates excellence. Varied perspectives make our work more meaningful, and more impactful. Our team is becoming increasingly diverse and we’re taking direct action to widen access to consulting careers.

We’ve created a hiring process that ensures our unconscious biases do not get in the way of finding the best people.

We’re currently working on ways to make the company actively anti-racist. This will involve uncomfortable conversations, but we think it’s essential to make our company a better place to work, grow, and socialise.

For more information about our work on diversity & inclusion, and our innovative application process, please visit https://thepsc.co.uk/careers/  

Our commitment to sustainability

The PSC exists to create lasting change, so sustainability is at the heart of our decision making. We work to improve public services, for organisations, society and individuals.

To ensure we play an active role in society’s transition to a sustainable future, The PSC has committed to core sustainability goals. These goals will see us maximise the positive impact, and minimise the negative impact, of our business activities on society and the environment.

For more information about our sustainability goals, please visit https://thepsc.co.uk/about/our-mission/

Removing bias from the hiring process

Applications closed Thu 13th May 2021

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Removing bias from the hiring process

  • Your application will be anonymously reviewed by our hiring team to ensure fairness
  • You’ll need a CV/résumé, but it’ll only be considered if you score well on the anonymous review

Applications closed Thu 13th May 2021