Strategic Management Consultant - (PCACP, PMP)

Stantec • Minneapolis, MN

3d • Hybrid

About The Position

Stantec's Management & Technology Consulting team is seeking a Strategic Management Consultant to help utilities and other infrastructure-focused organizations solve complex business, operational, organizational, data, assets, financial, policy, regulatory, and technology challenges. This external client-facing role combines management consulting, data strategy and analytics, process optimization, project delivery, stakeholder engagement, risk mitigation, organizational change management, technology transformation, and practical implementation. The successful candidate will work with project teams and subject matter experts to assess current-state operations, facilitate collaborative discovery, design fit-for-purpose future states, develop governance frameworks, implement change roadmaps, and translate business needs into actionable solutions, recommendations and guidance. The Strategic Management Consultant will primarily support local governments, water and wastewater utilities, infrastructure owners, developers, industrial organizations, and other capital-intensive stakeholders across North America. Assignments may include strategic and technology planning, organizational and staffing assessments, business process improvement, data governance and quality, business intelligence, asset management, enterprise system planning and implementation, financial and economic analysis, and change management and adoption support. The ideal candidate is a collaborative, strategically minded self-starter who can connect people, process, technology, and data considerations; communicate clearly with executives, technical teams, and end users; and help clients achieve measurable improvements in service delivery, data accessibility, operational efficiency, and user adoption. In addition, the candidate values learning new industries and is open to other linear asset industries such as power, telecommunications, natural gas, transportation as needed.

Requirements

• Experience contributing to management consulting, professional services, engineering consulting, utility advisory, or a related client-facing environment.
• Ability to understand client organizations, business objectives, operating environments, challenges, and long-term priorities.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to connect technical, operational, financial, policy, regulatory, and technology considerations.
• Experience preparing clear, accurate, decision-ready analyses, presentations, reports, recommendations, roadmaps, and other client deliverables.
• Strong written and verbal communication, presentation, facilitation, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to communicate complex concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Highly collaborative approach, strong team orientation, and ability to build trust and consensus within cross-functional teams.
• Creative and innovative thinking, with a willingness to consider nontraditional approaches in pursuit of client value and service excellence.
• Ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced consulting environment while maintaining quality, responsiveness, and attention to detail.
• Strong organization, initiative, judgment, and comfort working with limited direct supervision.
• Working knowledge of municipal water and wastewater utility operations and infrastructure needs, including one or more of the following areas: organizational and staffing assessment; business process improvement; asset management; data governance and quality; business intelligence; capital and financial planning; enterprise technology strategy; or systems implementation.
• Familiarity with project management fundamentals, including scope, schedule, budget, risk, resource, stakeholder, and document management.
• Experience supporting multidisciplinary projects and engaging with internal or external stakeholders.
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Accounting, Engineering, Economics, Public Policy, Finance, Information Technology, Management Information Systems, Data Science, Data Analytics, or a related discipline.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification is required; candidates who do not hold the certification at the time of appointment must demonstrate the ability and commitment to obtain it within a reasonable period following appointment.
• Prosci Certified Change Practitioner credential is required; candidates who do not hold the credential at the time of appointment must demonstrate the ability and commitment to obtain it within a reasonable period following appointment.
• Willingness to travel as needed to support client relationships, project delivery, industry events, and team collaboration.

Nice To Haves

• Analytical capability with commonly used tools and methods such as Excel, Power BI, SQL, Python, data modeling, and extract-transform-load procedures is preferred.
• Experience with organizational change management, requirements elicitation, process mapping and reengineering, reporting and KPI development, data analytics, enterprise application implementation, systems integration, or technology modernization is preferred.
• Experience creating executive-ready communications and presentations and developing practical tools, dashboards, training, and documentation that enable implementation and sustained adoption.
• Five or more years of relevant experience in management consulting, professional services, project delivery, infrastructure, government, or the utilities sector is preferred.
• Experience with utilities, water, infrastructure, energy, industrial, transportation, government, or other capital-intensive organizations is preferred.
• Project management, asset management, change management, data analytics, policy, economics, or related professional certification is an asset.

Responsibilities

• Serve in an external client-facing consulting role and contribute to trusted relationships with utility, government, infrastructure, developer, and industrial clients.
• Work with project teams and subject matter experts to identify best-fit solutions to complex business, operational, asset, analytics, technology, policy, regulatory, and infrastructure challenges.
• Support strategic planning, organizational assessment, process improvement, asset management, risk assessments, financial and economic analysis, infrastructure funding, and technology planning engagements.
• Plan and facilitate client meetings, stakeholder interviews, discovery sessions, cross-functional workshops, and working sessions to elicit requirements, build alignment, and support collaborative decision-making.
• Conduct current-state assessments, gap analyses, process mapping, and future-state workflow design; translate findings into practical recommendations, governance frameworks, implementation roadmaps, dashboards, and clear business value for technical and non-technical audiences.
• Advise clients on data governance, data quality, ownership and stewardship, analytics enablement, and data architecture to improve trust in information and support data-based decision-making.
• Apply people-first change management practices to strengthen stakeholder engagement, prepare users for new processes and systems, minimize disruption, and promote sustainable adoption.
• Produce high-quality consulting deliverables that can withstand review by senior executives, governing bodies, investors, regulators, agencies, and other stakeholders.
• Support or lead projects and discrete workstreams from discovery and current-state assessment through recommendation development, roadmap design, implementation, training, go-live support, and closeout.
• Assist with defining project scope, objectives, deliverables, schedules, budgets, governance, success criteria, and resource requirements.
• Coordinate with multidisciplinary teams of management consultants, engineers, economists, financial specialists, data professionals, technology specialists, policy advisors, and other subject matter experts.
• Identify and proactively communicate project risks, issues, dependencies, scope changes, and decisions requiring escalation.
• Maintain clear client and internal communication and report regularly in accordance with Stantec's Project Delivery protocols and project management fundamentals.
• Support internal and external document management and help ensure consistent quality across project deliverables.
• Develop or support testing plans, requirements documentation, training materials, eLearning content, system test scripts, and post-implementation support for enterprise technology initiatives.
• Integrate organizational change management into project and program delivery strategies, applying a structured change methodology throughout the lifecycle to align stakeholders, assess impacts, manage resistance, and support readiness, adoption, and sustained outcomes.
• Support client discovery and opportunity development by helping translate business challenges into potential consulting solutions.
• Contribute to requests for qualifications, requests for proposals, presentations, demonstrations, statements of work, scopes, business planning, budgets, and other pursuit materials.
• Collaborate with business leaders and technical teams to develop compelling, commercially viable solutions aligned with client objectives.
• Identify opportunities to expand existing client relationships by connecting client needs with MTC and broader Stantec capabilities.
• Support account planning, pipeline development, cross-selling, market outreach, and other activities that contribute to sustainable business growth.
• Represent Stantec at client meetings, industry events, conferences, speaking engagements, and other business development or industry stewardship activities, as appropriate.
• Conduct market, policy, regulatory, jurisdictional, technology, and benchmarking research using credible public and client-provided information sources.
• Interpret research findings and help assess their implications for utility operations, infrastructure programs, investment decisions, technology adoption, and organizational strategy.
• Remain current on industry policy, regulatory, market, technology, funding, and competitor developments to help align service offerings with current and future client needs.
• Advise or support advisory work related to program and framework development, digital transformation, data management strategy, business intelligence, enterprise data architecture, process optimization, capital planning, infrastructure resilience, automation, cybersecurity, systems integration, and technology modernization.
• Assess enterprise applications and supporting data, including EAM, ERP, CIS, workforce management, and related platforms; help define requirements, evaluate alternatives, support vendor selection, and plan implementation.
• Work with subject matter experts to evaluate alternatives and develop recommendations that are technically sound, implementable, and aligned with client objectives.
• Contribute to a collaborative team culture and willingly take on additional responsibility when needed for the success of the team and its clients.
• Share knowledge, research, tools, and lessons learned across the MTC team and support the integration of complementary capabilities across practice areas.
• Contribute to the development and refinement of consulting methodologies, tools and templates, value propositions, service offerings, marketing campaigns, and go-to-market strategies.
• Work effectively as part of a distributed team of business and technical professionals across multiple offices and geographies.

Benefits

• Stantec offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes health, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with company match, paid time off, and professional development opportunities.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level