Principal

Firm-building and project outcomes

Overview

As a Principal, you balance project leadership with business development. Sitting just below Partner, you are expected to show readiness for partnership over time by originating work, delivering high-impact projects and building trusted senior client relationships.

Principals play a critical leadership role at Oxbow Partners, guiding teams, shaping client strategy, managing key accounts and supporting the firm’s commercial agenda. You are accountable for outcomes and are relied on as a senior voice internally and externally. 

Key responsibilities

Project delivery

  • Take full accountability for delivery, ensuring clear direction, strong outputs and meaningful client impact
  • Structure complex problems and oversee teams to maintain pace, quality and delivery discipline 


Client leadership

  • Act as the senior client lead, building trusted relationships, managing expectations and reducing Partner involvement where appropriate
  • Lead senior meetings and resolve issues early, keeping clients aligned, confident and focused on decisions


Business development and sales 

  • Generate follow-on work and new opportunities through trusted relationships, clear expertise and strong delivery 
  • Develop propositions, thought leadership and content that support your focus areas
  • Convert conversations into commercial opportunities, leading the sales process with Partner support where needed 


Firm leadership

  • Lead internal initiatives that improve how the firm works
  • Support resourcing, portfolio management and consulting excellence across projects 


Talent development and mentorship

  • Coach and mentor Managers and Consultants, supporting career progression and future leadership 

What success looks like as a Principal

  • You build commercial pipelines across new and existing clients
  • You deliver high quality projects with limited Partner involvement
  • You are trusted as the senior client point of contact
  • You contribute across sales, delivery, people leadership and firm building 

Other levels

Intern

Learn about the world of consulting

Our eight-week summer internship programme in our London office gives ambitious students the opportunity to learn about consulting through hands-on experience. Interns support real client projects in a consultant-style role, giving you the chance to build confidence, develop core skills and see what consulting is really like.

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Consultant

Learning the fundamentals

You'll build core consulting skills including problem structuring, data analysis and clear communication. Working in a team, you'll contribute to specific parts of a project, taking on more responsibility as you grow in confidence and capability.

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Senior Consultant

Owning workstreams

You'll own a workstream, supported by your manager, and may manage a consultant for the first time. You'll likely be the main point of contact for clients in this area of the project, allowing you to develop your client management and communication skills.

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Manager

Leading project delivery

You'll be responsible for delivering a project or workstream on a large engagement, supported by a team of consultants. Most of your time will be focused on structuring the work, coaching junior team members and reviewing their output. You will work closely with the senior Oxbow Partners team, discussing how best to progress the project and advise the client. You will also work directly with clients, using their feedback to sharpen your insights.

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Senior Manager

Senior client leadership

This is the inflection point to senior leadership. You'll oversee one major, complex project or two smaller ones. Your job is to mentor the manager, bringing your experience to bear on project direction and problem solving. You may be an acknowledged expert in a particular subject area, allowing you to play the 'guru' role on certain projects. You will take your leadership skills to the next level and begin building your own client network. 

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Ready to get started?

Explore our current opportunities and see how to apply.

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