Co-Lab
Senior / Principal Consultant

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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)
- Support organisations to define priorities, direction, and delivery pathways
- Lead or contribute to evidence-based appraisal, optioneering, and decision analysis
- Develop clear strategies, operating models, and governance structures grounded in evidence
Reasons to use Rodeo
I’m in my final year doing Economics and I don’t know whether to apply for grad schemes now or do a masters first. What do you think?
Honest answer — it depends on where you want to end up. A lot of top grad schemes (Big 4, civil service, banking) don’t need a masters. Let’s look at the ones you’d be competitive for now, and we can decide if a masters actually adds anything.
Also worth knowing: most autumn 2026 applications are open now. Timing matters more than you think.
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Graduate Consultant — 2026 Scheme
Why you're a good match
StrongYour economics background and your summer at a regional bank line up with what PwC looks for on the consulting scheme. Applications close in four weeks.
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Why you're a good match
You’ve got the grades and the economics background, and your bank internship is exactly the experience this scheme looks for. Apply soon — deadlines close within the month.
Experience fit
Your summer at the bank plus your econometrics coursework map directly to the day-one responsibilities on this scheme — client modelling, market briefings, and deal support.
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Delivery & Performance Management (Deliver)
- Own delivery of defined workstreams or engagements, translating objectives into outcomes
- Establish delivery controls, reporting cadence, and risk and issue management
- Ensure delivery meets agreed scope, quality, cost, time, and assurance expectations
Capability, Benefits & Improvement (Realise / Improve)
- Design and embed performance and benefits frameworks
- Support learning, evaluation, and continuous improvement
- Ensure outcomes are evidenced, reviewed, and sustained beyond project closure
Accountability & Scope
At Senior Consultant Level, You Will
- Own delivery of defined workstreams or small engagements
- Operate independently within agreed remit
- Manage routine client and stakeholder relationships
- Contribute to opportunity shaping and follow-on work
At Principal Consultant Level, You Will Additionally
- Be accountable for engagement-level delivery across multiple workstreams
- Act as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders
- Shape scope, pricing, and delivery approach
- Secure repeat and expanded work with existing clients
- Coach and develop others, strengthening capability and succession
Essential Requirements
- Must either hold, or be able to obtain, SC Clearance
- Proven experience delivering work in regulated or safety-critical environments
- Ability to own delivery outcomes, including governance, risk, and assurance
- Strong stakeholder engagement and communication skills
- Willingness and ability to work in-person from Whitehaven
Desirable Experience
- Previous experience working with or alongside Sellafield Ltd or within the nuclear sector
- An engineering or technical background
- Experience across strategy, delivery, performance, or assurance roles
- Familiarity with public sector, infrastructure, or complex programme environments


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Professional Standards & Development
Project Management
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:
APM PMQ (Senior and Principal)
Programme Management
MSP Foundation (Senior)
MSP Practitioner (Principal)
Change Management
Change Management Foundation (Senior)
Change Management Practitioner (Principal)
Continuous Improvement
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (Senior)
Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (Principal)
Professional Registration
Working towards Chartered status (Senior)
Chartered professional status (Principal)
Development is supported through structured reviews, mentoring, and defined progression criteria aligned to the role matrix.
Why Co-Lab
- Work on complex, meaningful challenges with real-world impact
- Operate with clear accountability and professional trust
- Be part of a growing consultancy rooted in Cumbria’s engineering and innovation ecosystem
- Develop within a transparent, standards-led capability framework
- 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.
Apply Now
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