About the RoleModern's mission is to partner with the world's leading organizations to reimagine and implement a modern approach to leadership and talent. We connect the development of leaders and leadership teams with the culture and organizational conditions that enable them to succeed.
As a Managing Director in our Consulting Practice, you will lead work spanning leadership assessment, leadership development, team effectiveness, and culture. Leadership development will be your primary focus, with assessment providing insight to inform development priorities, coaching, and broader talent decisions.
Your work will encompass both tailored client consulting engagements and the ongoing development and expansion of Modern's leadership academies. Across these settings, you will translate business and leadership challenges into practical solutions and development experiences that strengthen capability and support sustained behavior change.
Your primary accountability will be leading high-quality engagements and developing trusted executive relationships through the work. You will shape solutions, lead consulting teams, manage delivery and engagement economics, and ensure our work creates measurable value. Through that impact, you will strengthen client loyalty, support retention, and identify opportunities to deepen and expand our partnerships.
Working alongside our Partners, you will contribute subject matter expertise to business development, including client discussions, solution design, proposals, scoping, and pricing. Partners will lead sales pursuits, with your contribution bringing specialist insight and delivery credibility.
This role suits a hands-on consulting leader who combines thoughtful client counsel with disciplined engagement management, develops colleagues, and takes ownership of the client and participant experience.
What You'll DoEngagement Management and Leadership Consulting- Lead engagements spanning leadership assessment, development, team effectiveness, and culture, integrating these disciplines where they strengthen client outcomes.
- Translate client priorities into clear outcomes, solution designs, workplans, and measures of impact.
- Design and deliver tailored leadership assessment and development programs, executive workshops, and leadership team engagements.
- Facilitate senior groups confidently, helping participants generate insight, build alignment, and commit to practical action.
- Help clients connect leadership expectations and behaviors with their desired culture and business strategy.
- Incorporate assessment, feedback, coaching, and workplace application into coherent development journeys, contributing directly to assessment delivery within your expertise.
- Coordinate consulting colleagues and specialists into an integrated solution with clear responsibilities and consistent delivery standards.
- Manage scope, timelines, budgets, resources, and profitability, anticipating risks and resolving issues early.
Leadership Academies- Support the ongoing development and expansion of Modern's leadership academies through program design, content development, facilitation, and continuous improvement.
- Work with colleagues, faculty, coaches, and executive contributors to create relevant, connected development experiences.
- Connect assessment insights, individual development priorities, cohort learning, and practical application throughout the participant journey.
- Contribute learning from client consulting to academy programming and apply relevant academy insights to client work.
- Evaluate participant feedback and development outcomes to strengthen program quality, relevance, and impact.
Executive Relationships, Retention and Expansion- Develop trusted relationships with executive sponsors, senior stakeholders, and participants through the quality of your counsel and delivery.
- Maintain a clear understanding of stakeholder expectations, business priorities, and how client needs evolve during the work.
- Lead ongoing client dialogue on progress, insights, outcomes, and emerging needs, addressing concerns directly and constructively.
- Build continuity beyond individual deliverables through meaningful follow-through, review of results, and discussion of future priorities.
- Identify opportunities to extend or broaden the work based on demonstrated value and client needs, partnering with the relevant Partner to shape next steps.
- Strengthen retention and advocacy by ensuring clients experience Modern as an insightful, responsive, and dependable partner.
Business Development Support- Participate as a subject matter expert in Partner-led sales discussions, bringing relevant experience, insight, and delivery credibility.
- Help diagnose prospective client needs and translate them into practical solution designs.
- Contribute to proposals, presentations, scope development, resource estimates, and pricing.
- Ensure proposed approaches are deliverable, appropriately resourced, and commercially sound.
- Support a smooth transition from sales into delivery, maintaining clarity on commitments, expectations, and intended outcomes.
Quality, Team Leadership and Practice Development- Take accountability for the rigor, relevance, and quality of work delivered under your leadership.
- Build solutions around each client's business context and existing frameworks, drawing on Modern's intellectual property where it adds value.
- Lead consulting teams with clear expectations, effective delegation, and timely, developmental feedback.
- Coach colleagues and strengthen their consulting judgment, facilitation skills, and client management capability.
- Turn engagement learning into stronger methodologies, tools, offerings, and shared knowledge.
- Bring fresh thinking on leadership and culture, including thoughtful use of technology and AI to improve insight, delivery, and client value.
Knowledge- Leadership Consulting: Applied understanding of advanced leadership science and practices including; measurement, leadership behavior change, executive development, and the design of learning experiences that translate into sustained workplace application.
- Team effectiveness and culture: Understanding of leadership team dynamics, organizational culture, and how leadership behaviors enable or constrain strategy execution.
- Talent and organizational context: Understanding of how leadership development connects with leadership measurement, talent management, succession, performance, and organizational change.
- Assessment and coaching: Knowledge of leadership assessment, psychometrics, feedback, and coaching, including their appropriate use and limitations in development and talent decisions.
- Engagement management and economics: Understanding of scoping, work planning, resourcing, budget management, change control, and profitability.
- Client relationship development: Understanding of executive stakeholder management, client experience, and how demonstrated impact supports retention and account expansion.
Skills- Leadership development design: Creates coherent development journeys that connect individual insight, shared learning, workplace application, and measurement.
- Executive facilitation: Leads senior groups, manages challenging dynamics, and helps participants reach decisions and commit to action.
- Engagement management: Converts objectives into an executable plan and manages quality, scope, resources, timelines, and economics.
- Executive relationship development: Builds credibility through insight, sound judgment, responsiveness, and reliable delivery; navigates stakeholder dynamics and handles difficult conversations constructively.
- Communication and synthesis: Translates complex evidence into clear narratives, practical recommendations, and useful executive discussions.
- Assessment and developmental feedback: Interprets assessment evidence and translates it into constructive feedback and actionable development priorities.
- Solution design and commercial support: Contributes specialist expertise to sales discussions and develops practical approaches, scopes, resource estimates, and pricing recommendations.
- Team leadership: Sets clear expectations, delegates effectively, and provides feedback that strengthens delivery and develops colleagues.
Experience- Progressive consulting or professional services experience, with substantial accountability for leading complete client engagements.
- A strong record of designing and delivering leadership development programs, executive workshops, and leadership team effectiveness engagements.
- Experience connecting leadership development with culture, organizational change, or broader talent priorities.
- Accountability for engagement delivery, teams, budgets, resources, and profitability.
- Experience building trusted relationships with executive sponsors and senior stakeholders across functions.
- Evidence of sustained client relationships, repeat engagements, or expansion arising from successful delivery.
- Experience contributing as a subject matter expert to sales discussions, solution design, proposals, scoping, and pricing.
- Experience leading and developing consulting colleagues and coordinating specialist contributors.
- Experience incorporating assessment and feedback into leadership development; direct executive assessment experience is an advantage.
- Experience across at least two industries, ideally including large or global organizations.
- Experience developing cohort-based leadership programs or executive academies is an advantage.
Competencies- Earns Trust: Builds credibility through integrity, transparency, and consistent follow-through, demonstrating reliability in commitments and creating confidence in their intent and actions.
- Accelerates Performance: Drives consistent execution against goals by setting clear expectations, aligning resources, monitoring progress, and ensuring accountability for measurable outcomes.
- Navigates Complexity: Structures ambiguous, multifaceted, or poorly defined problems into clear components, identifies key drivers and interdependencies, and creates clarity where none exists.
- Situational Agility: Adjusts interpersonal approach, communication style, and leadership behaviors in response to differing people, contexts, and situational demands to maintain effectiveness and alignment.
- Develops People: Builds capability in others through coaching, feedback, delegation of stretch opportunities, and intentional development planning that strengthens performance and readiness for future roles.
- Seeks Diverse Perspectives: Actively solicits, listens to, and integrates input from individuals with varied experiences, expertise, and viewpoints to improve thinking, challenge assumptions, and strengthen decisions.
Attributes- Learning Orientation: A tendency to seek out perspectives that challenge existing assumptions, explore new ideas and methods, and use those insights to improve performance and address emerging problems.
- Confidence: A stable belief in one's ability to lead effectively, reflected in assured decision-making, self-trust, and comfort taking responsibility.
- Resilience: An underlying capacity to recover quickly from setbacks and maintain emotional steadiness and optimism through uncertainty.
- Integrity: An internalized commitment to aligning values and actions in service of others' genuine well-being.
- Humility: A tendency to view oneself with grounded perspective, acknowledging limitations and valuing others' contributions. Reflects an inclination to share credit, stay open to being wrong, and prioritize learning and collective success over personal ego.
- Compassion: A tendency to understand others' experiences while maintaining enough emotional clarity to offer grounded support. Reflects an inclination toward care paired with appropriate boundaries, accountability, and effective action.
Education and Professional Qualifications- Relevant degree or equivalent professional experience.
- An advanced degree in organizational psychology, industrial-organizational psychology, organizational development, or a related field is preferred.
- Relevant coaching qualifications and assessment certifications are valued, with appropriate accreditation required for any specialist tools or services delivered.
