Engagement Manager

Are you experienced at leading Consulting Engagements to develop strategy and improve business performance?

We’re currently hiring for an Engagement Manager in our Sydney office, where you’ll join a small but growing team working across a diverse range of sectors in Australia.

SPP is a high-impact strategy firm, dedicated to enabling transformative, sustainable results. At SPP, you’ll work on varied and complex challenges across sectors, including education, research, government, consumer, financial services, and not-for-profits, driving impactful solutions for our clients and broader society. We are hypothesis-driven, commercially minded, and our advice is underpinned by rigorous analysis.

Why Work With SPP?

• Diverse Sectors: We deliver major outcomes across education, research, government, consumer, financial services, and not-for-profit sectors.
• Collaborative Projects: Work with senior leaders to tackle varied and complex challenges across a wide array of industries.
• Inclusive Culture: Join a supportive and talented team that values innovation, connection, and shared success. We believe diverse perspectives drive better outcomes and are committed to creating a supportive, inclusive environment where all team members can thrive.
• Excellence of output: We strive for deeply analytical, sophisticated problem resolution with a good dose of empathy for the client situation – we hope that this top-tier approach is something that you are both used to delivering and enjoy striving for.
• Working environment: We are in the business of delivering outcomes for our clients and collaborating, developing and connecting with our team. So, while we have flexible working arrangements, the role is predominantly office-based, whether at SPP’s offices or client sites, with bursts of time at home for focused activity, and flexibility for working parents.
• Excellent salary and Benefits: We offer a competitive salary, along with benefits that support your professional growth and well-being.

About the role

As an Engagement Manager with SPP, you will lead consulting teams and work closely with our clients to solve their business problems. Engagement Managers will proactively assist and guide the consultant team to design and deliver solutions that meet client needs and will be responsible for managing the consulting team's activities, outputs, and resourcing.

As the day-to-day contact point for our clients, you will effectively manage relationships with the client and key stakeholders, communicating clearly and often on status, changes in expectations, and progress. Engagement Managers at SPP concurrently lead multiple teams to deliver client projects across all business practice areas; and are expected to proactively contribute to the firm’s strategy and approach development.

You are also expected to act on opportunities to benefit the firm’s reputation, workforce, IP position, client base and financial position by:

• Taking leadership of developing effective project proposals and firm capability materials
• Identifying and growing further business development and project opportunities based on current work or professional networks
• Contributing to innovation across the business, demonstrating leadership in your area of expertise
• Leading the development of firm IP, including approaches, training materials and firm publications
• Introducing SPP to sales opportunities as they arise and as appropriate
• Supporting firm recruitment efforts through candidate identification and the interview process
• Contributing to workforce development by mentoring team members to extend their skills and responsibilities as appropriate, and providing constructive performance assessments
• Contributing to high team morale by staying engaged and participating in social events
• Sharing insights into industry trends and current events related to SPP target areas

What attributes are we looking for?

• Demonstrated success in leading teams to deliver commercial outcomes and client satisfaction to a range of sectors
• Highly refined and effective communication and leadership skills, with demonstrated ability to tailor and adapt these appropriately
• Demonstrated ability to liaise, influence, challenge effectively and build relationships at all levels both internally and within client organisations
• Professional and effective project and stakeholder management, including difficult clients or situations
• Ability to work with tight deadlines in a dynamic environment, effectively prioritising tasks for the team and delivering high quality outputs with strong attention to detail
• Ability and confidence to provide balanced, pragmatic advice
• Outstanding problem-solving skills, including ability to handle complex problems creatively and in a structured way
• Highly developed numerical and analytical skills, with strong business acumen
• Experience and insight into the client and industry challenges in our focus sectors
• Track record of delivering effective outcomes to clients
• Demonstrated capacity to adopt and develop new approaches, ideas, and work practices
• Adapts to different situations, clients, industries or processes with ease
• Proactive with a positive, flexible, assertive, can-do attitude
• Ability to work effectively and collaboratively as part of a project team
• Aptitude for supporting the professional development and upskilling of junior team members

Qualifications & Experience

• A Bachelor's degree or higher in a relevant field (e.g., Business, Commerce, Engineering, Arts, Law, Science)
• 5 + years experience as a managing consultant
• Exposure to hypothesis-driven problem solving and top-down thinking methodologies
• Strong analytical and communication skills, with comfort working with data and presenting insights
• A pragmatic, outcome-driven mindset and a collaborative approach to teamwork
• Experience in, or consulting to, one of our focus sectors (Education and Research, Government, Consumer, and Financial Services

Our Commitment to Inclusion:

We embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion in all aspects of our work. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds.

Apply today via the application form with your resume and cover letter.

Please note: Applicants must have unrestricted or long-term working rights in Australia.

More information on our firm can be found at www.spp.com.au

We endeavour to review all applications and notify applicants of the outcome. Thank you for your patience.