Consultant - Delivery

Pact Solutions; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

PACT Solutions, a specialist management and digital transformation consultancy focused on UK higher education, seeks a Consultant to lead delivery workstreams and support transformation programmes across partner universities.

You will operate with autonomy, establishing governance, managing risks and dependencies, and collaborating with Lead Consultants, Programme Directors and multidisciplinary teams to ensure outcomes are delivered.

Qualifications

• Strong experience in project delivery, programme delivery or transformation delivery.
• Experience leading workstreams in complex environments.
• Excellent governance, planning and RAID management.
• Ability to translate delivery issues into clear recommendations.
• Experience with senior stakeholders and multi-party delivery.
• Experience in higher education and student systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead delivery workstreams, project components or small-to-medium projects.
• Define delivery plans, milestones and governance structures.
• Manage risks, issues, dependencies and decisions with clear actions.
• Maintain delivery reporting and governance for steering groups.
• Coach Consultants and Analysts to strengthen delivery capability.
• Contribute to bids, proposals and account development.

Skills

Delivery leadership

Stakeholder management

Governance planning

Risk management

Commercial awareness

Team coaching

Multi-party delivery

Education

PRINCE2/MSP/AgilePM/APM training

Job description

Location: Bristol or Manchester hybrid (regular travel to partner sites across the UK and Ireland as needed)
Role Type: Permanent (full-time preferred, flexible working considered)

About PACT Solutions:

PACT Solutions is a specialist management and digital transformation consultancy working exclusively with higher education institutions across the UK.

We help universities solve complex challenges across strategy, student records, data, change and delivery. Our work often sits at the heart of major institutional transformation, helping partners improve the student journey, modernise operations and deliver change more effectively.

PACT has grown quickly and is now entering its next phase. We are moving from a founder-led boutique consultancy into a more scaled and structured business, while protecting the quality, culture and partner focus that have made us successful.

Our culture is crucial to our success. Each day, our team significantly contributes to our business and that of our partners.

We combine the agility and collaborative spirit of a close-knit consultancy with the credibility, structure, and professionalism needed to deliver meaningful digital transformation.

Our values sit at the heart of everything we do and are core to our business.

Partnership: We work with you, not for you. Integrity: We do the right thing, even when it requires difficult conversations. Curiosity: We dig deeper to uncover what will truly deliver value. Transformation: We focus on outcomes that create lasting, measurable improvement.

The Role

We are looking for a Consultant to join our Delivery capability to lead delivery workstreams, manage small-to-medium projects and support the successful delivery of transformation programmes across our higher education partners.

This role combines delivery leadership, consulting judgement and stakeholder management. You will operate with a high degree of autonomy, taking ownership of project workstreams while working closely with Lead Consultants, Programme Directors and multidisciplinary teams.

You will help partners move from ambiguity to well-managed delivery by establishing clear governance, managing risks and dependencies, and ensuring programmes remain focused on delivering agreed outcomes.

This is a hands‑on consulting role that balances project leadership with practical delivery, governance and commercial awareness.

Purpose of the role

To lead delivery workstreams and small-to-medium transformation projects across PACT partner engagements, ensuring structured, well-governed and outcome-focused delivery while contributing to the continued development of PACT's Delivery capability.

Key Responsibilities

1. Delivery leadership (primary focus)

• Lead delivery workstreams, project components or small-to-medium projects across transformation programmes.
• Define delivery plans, milestones and governance.
• Manage risks, issues, assumptions, dependencies and decisions.
• Maintain delivery reporting and governance.
• Support mobilisation, testing, transition and go-live activity.
• Escalate delivery risks early with clear recommendations.

2. Delivery planning and governance

• Establish appropriate governance for each engagement.
• Maintain RAID, dependency and decision logs.
• Produce reporting for steering groups and project boards.
• Support discovery and mobilisation activities.
• Translate partner needs into practical delivery plans and roadmaps.

3. Stakeholder leadership

• Build trusted relationships across partner organisations.
• Work confidently with sponsors, Heads of Service and workstream leads.
• Facilitate workshops and planning sessions.
• Present delivery options and recommendations.
• Provide constructive challenge where required.

4. Commercial contribution

• Manage delivery within agreed commercial parameters.
• Support forecasting and resource planning.
• Contribute to Statements of Work and proposals.
• Identify opportunities for additional value.
• Support account growth.

5. Team leadership

• Coach Consultants and Analysts.
• Review delivery outputs.
• Support development of delivery capability.

6. Internal contribution

• Support recruitment and capability development.
• Contribute to continuous improvement across the Delivery practice.

You will have the opportunity to:

• Lead delivery across complex university transformation programmes.
• Work alongside experienced colleagues across Strategy, Systems, Data, Change and Student Records.
• Develop your project leadership, consulting and stakeholder management capability.
• Contribute to the continued growth of PACT's Delivery capability.
• Progress towards Lead-level roles with increasing responsibility for programme leadership, commercial contribution and people development.

Requirements

• Strong experience in project delivery, programme delivery, transformation delivery or consulting roles.
• Experience leading workstreams, project components or small-to-medium projects in complex environments.
• Strong practical understanding of project governance, planning, reporting, RAID management, dependency management and escalation handling.
• Experience working with senior stakeholders and translating delivery issues into clear recommendations and decisions.
• Experience operating in multi-party delivery environments involving clients, internal teams, suppliers or implementation partners.
• Experience supporting or leading mobilisation, discovery, delivery recovery or structured planning activity.
• Strong commercial awareness, including understanding of scope, assumptions, effort, forecasting, change control and delivery risk.
• Experience coaching, coordinating or supporting the work of other delivery colleagues.
• Excellent written, verbal and facilitation skills.
• Strong analytical, organisational and structured problem-solving capability.
• Experience within higher education.
• Experience working on student systems, ERP, CRM, data, organisational transformation or major business change programmes.
• Experience working with major student systems providers, implementation partners or strategic suppliers.
• Experience in a consultancy or professional services environment.
• Experience contributing to bids, proposals, statements of work or account development.
• Experience managing associate or subcontractor delivery models.
• Knowledge of university operating models, governance and the student lifecycle.
• Familiarity with public sector or higher education procurement environments.
• Relevant project or programme management qualifications or training, such as PRINCE2, MSP, AgilePM, APM or equivalent practical experience.