Principal Consultant

Job Description

Job Role: Principal Consultant, Financial Planning & Analytics (FP&A)

Location: Hybrid – London & Remote

Career Level: Senior

Your opportunity

Decision Inc. is a global digital services business operating out of the United Kingdom, Australia, and South Africa. We drive progress through technology and help our clients scale their operational capability, redesign their modern workplace, and put Decision Intelligence at the heart of the operating model. You’ll be part of a team where amazing people can do their best work and achieve something significant in the world. In joining our UK team, you’ll be joining one of the UK’s leading independent implementers of SAP EPM solutions. We provide clients with Data, Analytics and AI capabilities, leveraging the best cloud platforms in the market.

We are an ambitious company and we are looking for people who share those same aspirations. Our energy, collaboration and entrepreneurial spirit are a big part of what makes Decision Inc. successful and a great place to grow your career.

See more about who we are: About us

What we are looking for in a Principal Consultant

As a Principal Consultant you should have experience of delivering multiple end-to-end / full life-cycle SAP BPC projects. You should have extensive implementation experience and have experience in leading and managing projects. You should have excellent communication, project management and interpersonal skills, coupled with a thorough understanding of SAP BPC (or BW/HANA). Principals are expected to nurture relationships with our clients and develop opportunities within those environments. Principals can expect lateral progression across functional / finance / technical / project management / people management areas. The Principal Consultants form part of Decision Inc. UK’s delivery team and fulfils roles across the four core competencies: people leadership, knowledge, client leadership, and delivery effectiveness.

Your role and responsibilities as a Principal Consultant

People leadership: Having an established presence in the industry with an ability to network is a key functionality of the Principal Consultant. You will leads by example and play a key role in building team culture. You will be expected to be sought out as mentor and coach and models our values and standards;  inspiring others do the same.

• A role model to other team members who always promotes professional behaviour.
• Knows the company values and policies, follows them to the letter and provides guidance to more junior consultants in adhering to these.
• Seeks ways to improve the skillsets of others in the team and works towards developing them, including sponsoring junior team members, coaching and mentoring them, and guiding them through goal setting and performance reviews.
• Can give functional and technical guidance to the team, when required.

Knowledge: Known technical leader across the business impacting beyond the current client project. As a Principal Consultant you should actively grow Decision Inc.’s credibility, knowledge assets and client relevance. You should lead/advance technical capability and innovation of the team.

• Leverages previous experience to propose best practice solutions to fulfil business requirements.
• Is seen and respected as a clear content leader in a particular functional or technical area. Is aware of latest knowledge developments and can communicate the main improvements and constraints to clients and team.
• Understands accounting, budgeting, and forecasting principles and able to lead functional design activities.
• Takes ownership for overall solution architecture and documents solutions with the right level of detail. Capable of delivering strategy documentation for key elements of the project delivery where required.
• Actively leads and contributes to the development of best practices and methodology, and shares knowledge and expertise throughout the team leaning on best practice knowledge repository, internal training etc.
• Is able to write articles, lead conferences and conduct research in their area of expertise.

Client leadership: Strong relationships with senior, high-profile clients. Trusted client thought partner with a rich understanding of their business context. Leverages personal expertise and network to deliver high impact solutions and ROI.

• Builds immediate credibility with clients and develops trusted relationships with clients at the most senior levels. Is seen as the “go to” expert in projects and is regularly requested by clients.
• Demonstrates the use of facilitation, negotiation and influencing skills with the client and within groups.
• Can advise clients/write business cases to support proposed BPC implementations and Finance & IT strategy.
• Maintains senior management and other stakeholder interests and buy-in for projects.

Commercial leadership: Direct contributor to team commercial success by maintaining high client satisfaction and unlocking client opportunities, providing presales support and maximising personal utilisation. Drives team to minimise any overruns.

• Identifies ways to increase the value of Decision Inc. For example, refers new employees, wins new business opportunities, creates methodologies, leverages their network to generate new business.
• Fully understands commercial and legal components of a bid and can contribute to and/or review bids. Supports the commercial team in the preparation of complex proposals ensuring that client needs are met, and occasionally leads the preparation and negotiation of commercial proposals.
• Constantly looks for ways to increase account values of the projects under his / her management.

Delivery effectiveness: Excellent consulting track record. Is able to architect best practices solutions and guides the team to ensure successful delivery of complex projects. Highly skilled and adaptable communicator and problem-solver.

• Can lead large, fixed cost and T&M implementations, and manages the achievement of build on time, to budget and with the expected quality. Defines project roles and responsibilities and identifies and secures required resources.
• Guarantees project documentation is prepared with the required level of quality, takes full ownership for documentation sign-off, and manages the resolution of issues and identification of change requests.
• Manages project issues and risks and takes ownership for the implementation of mitigation initiatives.