Client Engagement Manager - C&M - Manufacturing Innovation - UK

PA Consulting; Melbourn; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading consulting firm in Melbourn is seeking a Client Engagement Manager to drive innovation and growth in Consumer & Manufacturing sectors. The role focuses on building relationships with key decision-makers, developing strategic sales plans, and leading opportunities in early stages of the sales pipeline. Ideal candidates will have a strong sales background and an extensive network in the industry. This full-time position offers a chance to make a significant impact in a dynamic environment.

Qualifications

• Extensive network in Consumer Products, Industrial Processing, and High-growth Manufacturing businesses.
• Strong track record of driving business growth and building trusted client relationships.
• Experience in selling consultancy and product development services.

Responsibilities

• Develop account plans for target Foundation Accounts.
• Map existing and grow new relationships with senior prospective clients.
• Deliver capability presentations about PA's offerings.
• Monitor and analyze competitor activities.
• Lead qualification of early opportunities within CRM.

Skills

Sales leadership

Business development

Relationship management

Market insight

Job description

Client Engagement Manager - C&M - Manufacturing Innovation - UK

• Full-time

We are PA Consulting, and we are not a traditional consulting firm. We are different in what we do and how we do it. We believe in the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future. As strategies, technologies, and innovation collide, we create opportunity from complexity. Our diverse teams of experts combine innovative thinking and breakthrough technologies to progress further, faster. Our clients adapt and transform, and together we achieve enduring results.

We are over 4,000 strategists, innovators, designers, consultants, digital experts, scientists, engineers, and technologists. And we have deep expertise in consumer and manufacturing, defence and security, energy and utilities, financial services, government and public services, health and life sciences, and transport.

Our teams operate globally from offices across the UK, Ireland, US, Nordics, and Netherlands.

Job Description / Responsibilities

At the forefront of our growth engine, our Client Engagement Managers are not just sales leaders — they are trailblazers, hunters, and relationship architects, passionate about unlocking new possibilities in markets hungry for innovation. With deep expertise in sales and business development, you’ll play a pivotal role in uncovering and capturing high‑potential opportunities across the Consumer & Manufacturing landscape.

In this highly creative environment, you’ll actively partner with visionary manufacturing innovation teams, translating client inventive ideas into compelling market solutions. Your role will centre on sourcing, qualifying, and accelerating exciting new manufacturing innovation opportunities. You’ll also chart bold new routes to market and bring novel concepts to life.

You’ll leverage your established industry network across CPG, industrial processing, and manufacturing start‑ups, to spark conversations with key decision‑makers, opening doors for collaborative ventures and strategic growth. Your flair for engagement and sharp market insight will help position PA as the go‑to partner for organisations seeking to pioneer the next generation of products and technology.

The successful candidate for this role will operate across the early stages of our sales pipeline to develop product innovation opportunities. This will include:

• Defining and developing account plans for target “Foundation Accounts” which will focus our attention and sales effort for the coming year
• Incubate, develop and maintain our client engagement plans to map existing, and grow new, relationships with senior prospective clients and buyers. Further creating “leads” (named clients) who we can manage through PA’s CRM platform
• Work with marketing colleagues to successfully co‑develop the best market material to drive further sales to pursue industry recognition of PA as an ingenious technology solutions leader within Consumer Products, Industrials & Manufacturing, and High‑Tech sectors with Design, Engineering, and Innovation leads, while embodying the values and purpose of PA.
• Delivering capability presentations about who we are at PA and what we can offer across our DES and wider consulting capabilities
• Continuously monitor and analyse competitor activities within the market and our customers. Provide market intelligence and clearly defined customer‑needs to Design and Engineering teams to support associated product and proposition development
• Leading the qualification of “early opportunities” and managing early stages of our sales processes within our CRM tool and sales network. This will include leading and progressing a qualified sales pipeline that underpins revenue and profit targets within the Foundation Accounts and the industry
• Support the set‑up of bid and pursuit teams, leveraging wider PA capabilities to progress sales opportunities into proposals. This includes supporting the introduction of PA SMEs to clients where and when appropriate to carry discussions forwards to further consolidate relationships and bid opportunities.
• CEMs may support initial stages of bid management but will, in the main, transition from the point of bidding to turn their attention to the next contact in need of nurturing into a sales opportunity.

While not exclusive, one of the primary focus areas for this role will be the identification, outreach, and contact initiation for individuals in CPG, industrial processing and high‑growth manufacturing businesses, whose role is focused on innovation, manufacturing, operations, and supply chain. This includes COO, Chief Innovation Officer, VP/SVP of Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Operations, and their respective teams across CPG and manufacturing markets.

Ideal Candidates

Individuals must have solid understanding of the industry needs, trends, and solution spaces. They must be able to speak with confidence and conviction to what we as a firm see in the market to build trust and rapport with prospective clients. As they will be the first impression some prospective clients have of us as a firm, they must be able to present PA in an articulate positive light with a polished approachable manner.

Having an existing network they can tap into for outreach as a source of potential work for the firm is necessary to enable their effectiveness.

And finally, a personal work ethic driven by the attainment of a realistic with stretch sales goal evaluated on a quarterly basis. This requires the ability to plan, execute, and manage conversations on a daily basis with the flexibility and understanding that pivots are needed and failure to connect with clients is a reality.

Experience Required

• Extensive network in Consumer Products, Industrial Processing, and High‑growth Manufacturing businesses
• Experience in business development with strong track record of driving business growth and building trusted client relationships
• Track recording of developing and implementing a strategic sales plan that takes into account the changing needs of the consumer industry and the competitive landscape.
• Understanding of the industry, including the current regulatory environment, policies, and trends.
• Experience of selling consultancy and product development services
• Experience and understanding of the development process for manufacturing innovation and internal transformation initiatives

General Professional Expectations of the Client Engagement Team

Deliver Business Growth – mastery of our focus area value props and transition of the number of expected contacts, which should be developed into types and transferred to MC/AP/P, will be proof positive of this impact. They will be expected to supply CRM content in notes for populating an executive summary for a bid.

Build & Maintain Great Relationships – to execute on the number of discovery calls and meaningful engagements that filter through to types the prospector must constantly be building, nurturing, and maintaining strong relationships with contacts. Type creation will be used as a corollary to their effectiveness in executing on this point.

Developing Insight & Innovation – Prospectors must find and share new ways of using CRM to make us more efficient and sales tactics to get to decision makers faster. They will also own new TR creation with marketing so we have a constantly growing pipeline year in and year out.

Managing & Developing My Self & Others – managing their own pipeline and the upskilling of PA per the activities below will be something that is expected of them each quarter.

Developing Technical & Craft Excellence – their craft is sales and their expectation will be to each own a facet of the commercial process and develop best‑in‑class playbooks to deliver on this in C&M. This will be something they will then teach to others in C&M to raise the overall tide.

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