Senior / Principal Consultant
Strategy, Transformation & Delivery
📍 Location: Whitehaven, Cumbria (In-Person, Office-Based)
🔒 Security Clearance: SC Clearance – Mandatory
💷 Salary: £48,000 – £69,500 (dependent on experience and level)
👍 Benefits: 6% employer pension contribution, 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays
About Co-Lab
Co-Lab exists to make progress clear. We work with public bodies, industry, and communities to connect evidence, decisions, and delivery, ensuring that outcomes are visible, measurable, and endure.
Our work spans the full lifecycle from defining strategic direction, through decision intelligence and assurance, into delivery systems, performance management, and benefits realisation. We operate where thinking meets doing, ensuring analysis leads to action and ideas become outcomes.
Our engagements are structured around a clear lifecycle: Define, Decide, Deliver, Realise, Improve, supporting clients to move from complexity to clarity and from insight to impact Co-Lab.
The Role
We are seeking a Senior or Principal Consultant to strengthen our delivery and advisory capability. This role is suited to an experienced consultant or delivery leader who is comfortable owning outcomes, working in complex and regulated environments, and engaging directly with senior stakeholders.
You will lead defined workstreams or whole engagements, depending on experience, taking responsibility for delivery performance, technical integrity, and stakeholder confidence. The role is hands-on and in-person, based from our Whitehaven offices, with regular engagement across West Cumbria and client sites.
What You Will Do
Your work will span Co-Lab’s core engagement types:
Strategy, Clarity & Decision Support (Define / Decide)
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Support organisations to define priorities, direction, and delivery pathways
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Lead or contribute to evidence-based appraisal, optioneering, and decision analysis
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Develop clear strategies, operating models, and governance structures grounded in evidence
Delivery & Performance Management (Deliver)
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Own delivery of defined workstreams or engagements, translating objectives into outcomes
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Establish delivery controls, reporting cadence, and risk and issue management
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Ensure delivery meets agreed scope, quality, cost, time, and assurance expectations
Capability, Benefits & Improvement (Realise / Improve)
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Design and embed performance and benefits frameworks
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Support learning, evaluation, and continuous improvement
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Ensure outcomes are evidenced, reviewed, and sustained beyond project closure
Accountability & Scope
At Senior Consultant level, you will:
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Own delivery of defined workstreams or small engagements
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Operate independently within agreed remit
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Manage routine client and stakeholder relationships
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Contribute to opportunity shaping and follow-on work
At Principal Consultant level, you will additionally:
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Be accountable for engagement-level delivery across multiple workstreams
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Act as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders
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Shape scope, pricing, and delivery approach
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Secure repeat and expanded work with existing clients
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Coach and develop others, strengthening capability and succession
Essential Requirements
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Must either hold, or be able to obtain, SC Clearance
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Proven experience delivering work in regulated or safety-critical environments
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Ability to own delivery outcomes, including governance, risk, and assurance
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Strong stakeholder engagement and communication skills
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Willingness and ability to work in-person from Whitehaven
Desirable Experience
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Previous experience working with or alongside Sellafield Ltd or within the nuclear sector
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An engineering or technical background
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Experience across strategy, delivery, performance, or assurance roles
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Familiarity with public sector, infrastructure, or complex programme environments
Professional Standards & Development
Co-Lab operates a structured capability framework aligned to SFIA and ISO people and competence management principles. Professional development expectations align to role level and may include:
Project Management:
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APM PMQ (Senior and Principal)
Programme Management:
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MSP Foundation (Senior)
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MSP Practitioner (Principal)
Change Management:
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Change Management Foundation (Senior)
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Change Management Practitioner (Principal)
Continuous Improvement:
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Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (Senior)
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Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (Principal)
Professional Registration:
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Working towards Chartered status (Senior)
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Chartered professional status (Principal)
Development is supported through structured reviews, mentoring, and defined progression criteria aligned to the role matrix.
Why Co-Lab
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Work on complex, meaningful challenges with real-world impact
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Operate with clear accountability and professional trust
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Be part of a growing consultancy rooted in Cumbria’s engineering and innovation ecosystem
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Develop within a transparent, standards-led capability framework
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Deliver work that leaves organisations stronger, not dependent
How to Apply
Send us your CV and a short note telling us why this role interests you.
Click below to apply or email us at [careers@co-lab.studio].
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Didn’t see a role that fits? We’re always keen to meet thoughtful, motivated people.