Principal Consultant

Role Overview

The Principal Consultant is a senior leader at DevelopWell. Principals lead complex client engagements and contribute to the firm’s growth and culture.

Responsibilities

• Lead complex client engagements, ensuring alignment and delivery of high-quality outcomes.

• Design and facilitate executive retreats, leadership meetings, trainings, and other group processes that foster alignment, decision-making, and organizational change.

• Advise on people operations, HR, DEIJ, and organizational development with practical, context-specific recommendations tailored to each client’s unique needs.

• Partner closely with clients to understand their culture, goals, and challenges, developing thoughtful customized solutions rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach.

• Own the financial performance of assigned client engagements by managing budgets, monitoring margins, and forecasting utilization.

• Cultivate long-term client partnerships by anticipating needs, identifying opportunities for expanded engagement, and owning satisfaction, retention, and renewal outcomes.

• Partner with the CEO and fellow Principals to shape strategy, offerings, and internal systems.

• Model and foster a collaborative, equitable, and growth-oriented team culture.

• Contribute to firm decision-making, capacity planning, and organizational priorities.

• Build and steward a healthy pipeline; qualify opportunities that align with our values and strengths.

• Lead discovery, shape scopes, and steward proposals that are practical, outcomes-anchored, and right-sized.

• Contribute to thought leadership and visibility through webinars, writing, and speaking.

• Manage and mentor consultants by providing coaching, feedback, and support for professional growth, while contributing to hiring and staffing decisions.

• Identify opportunities to transform client work into reusable methodologies, tools, templates, and other intellectual property that strengthens DevelopWell's consulting practice.

• Continuously improve DevelopWell's consulting approaches by incorporating lessons learned from client engagements into future delivery.

• Partner with consulting and operations leadership to strengthen delivery systems, quality assurance practices, and knowledge management, ensuring offerings remain equity-first, human-centered, and scalable.

• Share resources, tools, and insights across the team to elevate collective practice.

• Participate in learning initiatives and contribute to DevelopWell’s equity-first culture.

• Complete internal operational responsibilities—including timekeeping, expense reporting, documentation, compliance, and other firm processes—in a timely and accurate manner.

• Contribute to firm meetings, cross-functional initiatives, and continuous improvement efforts that strengthen organizational effectiveness.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of consulting experience, including at least 5 years focused on people operations, HR, organizational development and/ or change management, with experience advising organizational leaders.

• Proven track record leading complex client engagements and delivering strategic solutions.

• Business acumen with experience managing consulting engagement financials, including budgets, margins, and resource or utilization forecasting.

• Strong people leadership skills, including coaching, mentoring and supporting the growth of consultants.

• Proven ability to cultivate and grow client partnerships by leading renewals, expanding existing engagements, and generating new business through personal and DevelopWell networks.

• Experience developing and strengthening consulting methodologies, tools, templates or other intellectual property.

• Excellent facilitation, interpersonal, and communication skills.

• Deep commitment to equity-first, human-centered and systems-smart consulting practices.

Bonus Qualifications

• Expertise in executive coaching, organizational diagnostics, and/or training development.

• Experience participating in a collaborative, relationship-based business development or sales function within a consulting or professional services firm.

• Established network within progressive organizations, nonprofits, labor, philanthropy, or other mission-driven sectors.

• Experience representing an organization through writing, speaking engagements, webinars, or other thought leadership activities.