VHA Healthcare Senior Consultant and Strategic Advisor

COMMONWEALTH STRATEGIC SOLUTIONS LLC•Arlington, WI

2d•$105,000 - $120,000•Onsite

About The Position

As a Senior Consultant for Commonwealth, this role serves as a client-facing workstream lead supporting federal clients in solving complex operational, programmatic, and strategic challenges. This role is responsible for leading defined workstreams, structuring ambiguous problems, developing practical solutions and recommendations, and serving as a trusted advisor to client stakeholders. The Senior Consultant operates with a high degree of independence in complex government environments, translating client objectives into structured workplans, analyses, and decision-ready deliverables. The role requires strong consulting judgment, analytical thinking, stakeholder management, and the ability to guide project teams from problem definition through recommendation and implementation.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree
5–8 years of consulting experience
7+ years of relevant experience
Regular interaction with working-level clients
Ability to lead workstreams
Ability to obtain Public Trust clearance

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree
Professional Certifications
Demonstrated background supporting VA programs or environments
Proficiency with Smartsheet

Responsibilities

Lead client-facing workstreams, including defining objectives, developing workplans, coordinating activities, managing dependencies, and driving work toward established outcomes.
Translate broad or ambiguous client needs into structured approaches, activities, deliverables, and measurable outcomes.
Lead the development of high-quality client deliverables and ensure work products are accurate, cohesive, and aligned with client objectives.
Identify delivery risks, issues, and dependencies; develop mitigation approaches and elevate decisions appropriately.
Lead preparation for client meetings and briefings, ensuring discussions are focused on key decisions, risks, recommendations, and next steps.
Provide day-to-day guidance to consultants, analysts, and other team members supporting assigned workstreams.
Structure complex business, operational, and programmatic problems into clear questions, hypotheses, analyses, and solution options.
Conduct and oversee qualitative and quantitative analysis to identify trends, root causes, risks, gaps, and improvement opportunities.
Develop practical, evidence-based solutions and recommendations that address client needs and can be implemented within the realities of the federal environment.
Synthesize information from multiple sources into clear findings, options, implications, and decision-ready recommendations.
Lead market research, benchmarking, current-state assessments, options analyses, and other discovery activities as needed.
Develop implementation approaches, roadmaps, business cases, prioritization frameworks, and other decision-support products.
Serve as a trusted advisor to working-level and mid-to-senior client stakeholders, providing informed recommendations and helping clients navigate complex decisions.
Lead stakeholder engagement across clinical, technical, operational, policy, and program teams, as applicable.
Facilitate working sessions, interviews, workshops, and decision-making discussions to clarify needs, develop solutions, and build stakeholder alignment.
Anticipate client questions and concerns and proactively identify opportunities to improve outcomes, delivery, or stakeholder adoption.
Communicate complex findings and recommendations clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Build credibility through strong judgment, responsiveness, subject-matter understanding, and consistent delivery of high-quality work.
Translate recommendations into actionable implementation plans, including activities, ownership, sequencing, dependencies, risks, and success measures.
Guide stakeholders through the implementation and adoption of new processes, tools, and ways of working.
Develop and oversee SOPs, implementation guides, training materials, and other resources needed to support adoption and sustainment.
Facilitate training sessions, workshops, and stakeholder communications as appropriate.
Identify barriers to adoption and work with client stakeholders to develop practical mitigation strategies.
Lead the development and maintenance of program dashboards, trackers, and reporting products that provide leadership with visibility into performance, project health, risks, schedules, and key metrics.
Use tools such as Smartsheet, Salesforce, Jira, Microsoft platforms, and other systems required by the client environment to support effective program management and decision-making.
Define meaningful metrics and reporting requirements and translate program information into clear management and executive-level insights.
Lead recurring reporting activities and ensure program information is accurate, timely, and appropriately documented.
Develop and review executive briefings, presentations, reports, communications products, and other client-facing materials.
Translate complex analysis into clear narratives that communicate key findings, implications, and recommended actions.
Review team deliverables for analytical rigor, consistency, clarity, and alignment with client and contract requirements.
Ensure deliverables meet applicable federal standards, including Section 508 accessibility and documentation requirements where applicable.
Maintain accurate, traceable, and audit-ready documentation consistent with client and contract requirements.
Lead proposal sections as part of the proposal writing process.
Identify growth adjacent to workstream, project, or contract.