Consultant - Service Operations

McKinsey & Company; Madrid; Hybrid; EUR 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

McKinsey & Company seeks candidates for the two-year Operations Excellence Program (OEP) in Europe. You will work on client engagements, solve problems with structured analyses, and develop capabilities through coaching and a formal curriculum.

You will gain expertise in operations, manufacturing, and service operations while collaborating with colleagues across 65+ countries. The role offers mobility across European offices and exposure to GenAI-powered transformation.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree and exceptional academic performance.
• Experience or interest in AI-powered service innovation (GenAI, intelligent agents, AI-native models).
• Proven leadership in work or extracurricular activities.
• Willingness to travel to European assignments.
• Strong analytical and quantitative problem solving.
• Excellent written and spoken English and local office language.

Responsibilities

• Solve client issues by forming hypotheses and delivering analyses.
• Develop operations capabilities through on-the-job coaching and structured training.
• Shape service delivery strategy using AI, GenAI, and automation.

Skills

AI-powered service

Leadership

Analytical skills

English proficiency

Mobility

Education

Master’s degree

Job description

Who You'll Work With

Driving lasting impact and building long-term capabilities with our clients is not easy work. You are the kind of person who thrives in a high performance/high reward culture - doing hard things, picking yourself up when you stumble, and having the resilience to try another way forward.

Who You'll Work With

Driving lasting impact and building long-term capabilities with our clients is not easy work. You are the kind of person who thrives in a high performance/high reward culture - doing hard things, picking yourself up when you stumble, and having the resilience to try another way forward.

In return for your drive, determination, and curiosity, we'll provide the resources, mentorship, and opportunities you need to become a stronger leader faster than you ever thought possible. Your colleagues—at all levels—will invest deeply in your development, just as much as they invest in delivering exceptional results for clients. Every day, you'll receive apprenticeship, coaching, and exposure that will accelerate your growth in ways you won't find anywhere else.

When you join us, you will have:

• Continuous learning: Our learning and apprenticeship culture, backed by structured programs, is all about helping you grow while creating an environment where feedback is clear, actionable, and focused on your development. The real magic happens when you take the input from others to heart and embrace the fast-paced learning experience, owning your journey.
• A voice that matters: From day one, we value your ideas and contributions. You'll make a tangible impact by offering innovative ideas and practical solutions, all while upholding our unwavering commitment to ethics and integrity. We not only encourage diverse perspectives, but they are critical in driving us toward the best possible outcomes.
• Global community: With colleagues across 65+ countries and over 100 different nationalities, our firm's diversity fuels creativity and helps us come up with the best solutions for our clients. Plus, you'll have the opportunity to learn from exceptional colleagues with diverse backgrounds and experiences.
• World-class benefits: On top of a competitive salary (based on your location, experience, and skills), we provide a comprehensive benefits package to enable holistic well-being for you and your family.

Your Impact

You will work on client engagements in the same way as any other McKinsey consultant as a consultant in our two-year Operations Excellence Program(OEP).

You will play an active role in problem solving for clients including identifying issues, forming hypotheses, designing, and conducting analyses, and synthesizing conclusions into recommendations. You will gain leading edge operations and consultancy skills, primarily through on-the-job coaching, which will be complemented by the OEP’s structured capability-building program.

The OEP position is the start of a rewarding, challenging and highly flexible career with McKinsey and the Operations practice. During your first few years with the firm, you will serve as a consultant on multiple client engagements and work with several colleagues and clients in a range of industry and operations service lines. You will acquire the necessary knowledge and expertise to help companies achieve excellence in their operations.

Along with other members of the OEP community, you will dedicate many days to functional training and knowledge development under the leadership of our operations experts. You will follow a curriculum based on operations excellence themes and will receive advanced training in one of six specific areas of operations: manufacturing, product development, purchasing, service operations, supply chain management, or capital excellence.

Upon completion of the program, successful consultants will join our global group of leading experts in operational excellence. We already have OEP graduates working at all levels of the firm from associate to partner.

You'll be based in one of our European offices as part of the Operations Practice, which blends strategic thinking with hands‑on practicality to help clients achieve operational excellence.

In Service Operationsyou will shape clients’ digital agendas and lead them toward next‑generation operational models—digitally transforming end‑to‑end journeys using advanced analytics, intelligent automation, GenAI, and agile methodologies in service‑oriented industries. Additionally, you will assist our client teams in developing strategies and technology roadmaps for implementing processes and operating systems that support applications connected to digital service operations.

As part of your role, you will help clients imagine and implement the future of service delivery—where AI, GenAI, and agentic technologies are reshaping how services are designed, delivered, and scaled.

You will work with cross‑functional teams to explore AI-native operating models, integrate intelligent agents into service ecosystems, and help client's future‑proof their service strategies by embedding emerging technologies across front‑and back‑office operations.

Your Qualifications and Skills

• Master’s degree and exceptional academic performance
• Initial experience or strong interest in AI-powered service innovation, including digital solutions, robotics, and emerging technologies such as Generative AI, intelligent agents, and AI-native service models—ideally in banking, insurance, software, or consulting contexts
• Proven record of leadership in a work setting and/or through extracurricular activities
• Mobility and enthusiasm for taking on European assignments during the work week
• Exceptional analytical and quantitative problem-solving skills
• Ability to communicate complex ideas effectively, both verbally and in writing, in English and the local office language