Senior Principal - People Performance (Talent)

About this role

The purpose of the role is to lead the delivery of high-impact engagements in the people performance space, spanning across culture transformation, talent strategy and execution, team effectiveness, leadership development and broader capability development. The individual is expected to also contribute materially to the growth and evolution of Q5’s People Performance Service. This role combines senior client delivery, trusted-advisor relationships, and commercial contribution, with a focus on expanding and augmenting existing accounts, supporting new business, connecting people performance to other Q5 services (strategy, design, transformation) and helping to scale the service through proposition development and thought leadership.
This is a senior leadership role combining project delivery, intellectual leadership, and business development. The postholder will input into the People Performance’s strategic direction, build market-leading propositions across the full breadth of the service.
This role is suited to a senior organisational development practitioner who combines deep technical expertise across areas in talent, culture, leadership development and team effectiveness with strong client credibility and commercial awareness. A specialism and deep experience in talent strategy and execution is important as this has been identified as a focus growth area for the People Performance Service.

Balance of activities: ~70% client delivery; ~30% proposition and business development
There are three core focus areas for this role:

• Project/Client Account Leadership and Delivery

• Business Development & Commercial Contribution

• Proposition & Thought Leadership across Q5’s People Performance Service

Success Measures
The success of this role will be measured by:

• Delivery of high-quality, high-impact engagements with strong client advocacy

• Tangible contribution to growing the People Performance Service revenue

• Development of propositions (and enhancing existing solutions) that connect people performance to the other Q5 services

• Expansion of existing client accounts and repeat business

• Recognised internally and by clients for contribution to propositions and thought leadership

• Feedback on leadership, collaboration, and capability building

Responsibilities
Project/Client Account Leadership and Delivery

• Lead the design and delivery of complex client engagements

• Lead engagements in the space of talent strategy and execution, culture transformation, talent, team effectiveness, leadership development and broader capability development initiatives, where required

• Act as the senior day-to-day client lead on major projects, building trusted-advisor relationships with senior HR and business leaders

• Ensure programmes deliver measurable impact, align to client strategy, and meet high standards of quality

• Lead and coordinate delivery teams (consultants, associates, and clients), setting clear direction and ensuring delivery excellence.

• Provide SME and QA support to a portfolio of projects where you are not the lead practitioner

• Contribute to building a scalable delivery capability in line with client demand, including technical tools and partnerships

• Mentor and coach consultants and associates working on people performance engagements. Support onboarding and upskilling of new team members within the People Performance service (and beyond)

• Ensure consistent application of diagnostics, assessments, measurement tools, and evaluation approaches

• Contribute to continuous improvement of delivery processes, tools, and client experience

Business Development & Commercial Contribution

• Contribute to solution design, proposals and closing of major opportunities, shaping insight-led, commercially robust solutions

• Collaborate with Q5rs in key accounts to drive cross-selling and integrated client solutions, including working with Q5 Sector Leads to support origination

• Take shared responsibility for revenue contribution, utilisation, and margin for accounts

• Support the growth of the People Performance Service by expanding existing client accounts and identifying follow-on opportunities across our portfolio of expertise.

• Apply sound commercial judgement to scoping, resourcing, and delivery decisions

Proposition & Thought Leadership

• Contribute to the ongoing development and refinement of the firm’s People Performance propositions, tools, and methodologies, particularly in the space of talent strategy.

• Use external insight (research, market trends, client learning) and form external partnerships for proposition evolution

• Support thought leadership through case studies, articles, events, and internal knowledge sharing

• Work closely with the other Service Leads (design, transformation, strategy) to ensure propositions remain differentiated and integrated with other Q5 services

Requirements

Experience

• Significant experience in talent, culture transformation, talent, leadership and team effectiveness work – delivering engagements through consultancy

• Experience working with C-suite leaders on talent, culture, performance, talent and leadership challenges

• Exposure to commercial environments, including account growth or revenue contribution

Skills & Capabilities

• Deep expertise in talent (including development of capability frameworks, people and talent strategies, leadership assessments), organisational culture (including diagnostic, activation, and measurement approaches), leadership and team development (including effective measurement of impact and facilitation for senior audiences)

• Excellent facilitation and consulting skills, building credibility through insight, judgement, and delivery

• Ability to connect organisational development work to business strategy and performance outcomes

• Analytical and evidence-led, comfortable using data to inform insight and measure impact

• Collaborative leader with the ability to develop…