Principal Consultant, Organizational Design

About Q5

Q5 is a global organisation transformation consultancy that helps to build better businesses across the world. Since our founding in 2009 we have had the privilege in partnering with some of the world’s leading businesses, providing them with expert analysis, creating dramatic new strategies, overhauling troubled operations and making sure the right people, were in the right place doing the right things for the business to thrive.

We work in three tightly linked domains to support organisational health: Strategy (setting the right direction), Design (creating operating models and cultures to deliver the strategy) and strategic change enablement (crafting the elements to make the change stick ). We work across different sectors, but our specialties are Government, Media & Technology, Retail & Consumer Goods, Infrastructure & Resources, Financial Services and NFPs.

What sets us apart though is not the what we do by the how. We take a partnership approach to our engagements, helping clients to come together to create tailored and holistic solutions that work for their business and context. Our working style is highly collaborative, which in practice means enabling client leaders with a facilitated approach and transformational expertise to define, design, and deploy the client’s vision.

Role overview

We need people who can bring organisational change excellence.  Deep knowledge expertise along with demonstrated success in delivering in the most complex of environments.  Our team is expanding to support some very exciting projects across a variety of industries. We need people who can quickly join our team and hit the ground running.  Specifically, we are looking for a Senior Principal Consultant.

Regardless of level the type of person we are looking for is:

• Highly adaptable and flexible in thinking style – We often find ourselves working across a variety of contexts and a ‘simple’ challenge turns out to be much more complex than it first appears. You need to be able to quickly understand the challenge a client is facing, join the dots together and develop a plan to move forward. You also need to be able to change that plan when it is not working.
• Collaborative in working style (both internally and with clients) – This is one of our key differentiators its not about being the smartest person in the room but instead helping to bring different stakeholders together to create the solution that works for their business.
• Genuinely care about your clients and colleagues and help them to succeed – When Q5 was founded it was to be more than a typical, transactional consulting firm. We are genuine partners with our clients, focused on their long-term success, which means we hire people who are wired to care, be empathetic and get joy from seeing others succeed.
• Can build trusted relationships and bring people on the journey – One of the things our clients say about us is that we are able to bring people together and take them on the journey. This requires building (and sustaining) their trust. Integrity is an essential, but so is being seen as a trusted advisor who knows what they are doing and are a safe pair of hands.
• Able to handle ambiguity and complexity – Often the biggest challenge is helping the client to bring together the core elements in messy, uncertain situations where there isn’t an easy answer to the problem, and then craft a meaningful narrative that helps people make sense of the situation and create practical meaningful change.
• Resilient in the face of stressful challenges, tight timelines and demanding clients – We continually strive to create a positive working environment, but the reality of our work is that it is hard, stressful and not for everyone. The people who succeed at Q5 can work under the pressure without losing their sense of humour or care for others.
• You get your hands dirty and step-up – We have a flat structure in our projects. If you think you can hand-off all the grunt work to a junior, you aren’t the right fit for us. Similarly, if you want to hide in your safe space while others do the talking you are not right for us. If you enjoy getting stuck into the challenge, pushing the team forward and solving problems with others we are on the same page.
• Unique and offers something special – We don’t do cookie-cutter, formulaic projects and we need people who think differently and stand-out from the crowd. We want to know what makes you stand out and prepare the ground so you can shine and enrich those around you.

Expected capability/experience

Must Haves:

• 10 – 15 years in relevant consulting or industry roles
• Demonstrated ability to think strategically about client challenges
• Ability to comfortably work and partner with the executive leaders
• Ability to facilitate senior teams to strategic outcomes, bringing both challenge and insight
• Experience shaping and leading complex culture and change programmes
• Evidence of bringing organisational psychology, codesign and change management together, to shape cut-through and strategic change
• Strong interpersonal skills, including stakeholder management and facilitation skills
• Ability to lead project teams, coach and mentor less experienced teammates
• Experience in leading business development activity, collaborating with other members of the Q5 team to win new work or grow existing accounts

Desirable:

• Experience in applying resilience and psychological wellbeing within organisational contexts
• Masters level degree, ideally psychology-based (e.g. positive psychology, coaching psychology, organisational psychology)