Consulting Manager
Artefact · London
Consulting Manager
Who we are
Artefact is a new generation of data and AI consultancy, and one of the fastest growing. We've grown to 2000 people, now serving over 3,000 clients across 36 offices in 26 countries. Founded in 2014 and backed by Cinven, we're Europe's largest pureplay consultancy in data and AI, and we're not slowing down.
We don't just offer strategies. We frame problems, design solutions, build the technology, and operate what we deliver, the distinction between those who propose and those who implement is central to how we work. We're technology-agnostic but technology-deep, with premium partnerships across Google, Anthropic, OpenAI, Databricks, and AWS, giving our consultants direct access to the newest capabilities before they reach the mainstream.
Progression here is earned, not timed. We don't run on tenure. We run on impact, and strong performers move fast. If you want to build things that matter, at a pace that matches your ambition, this is where you do it.
What we do
Our UK office is at an inflection point. We've built the foundations of a category-defining consultancy, and now we're scaling, fast. Join now, and you're building the office before Artefact becomes a name every top consultant already knows.
We work across Retail Banking, Insurance, Private Equity, Energy & Utilities, Retail & E-commerce, CPG & FMCG, and Automotive, giving consultants the space to build real depth in one or two areas while staying genuinely exposed to others.
Our engagements run end to end, from strategy and governance through to delivery of high value data & AI solutions, on problems organisations are genuinely wrestling with right now: Data Platform Strategy and Build, Generative AI Strategy, Agentic AI Strategy & Deployment, AI Governance and Assurance, Digital Transformation, and AI Adoption and Change.
If that's the kind of work you want to be doing, we'd love to hear from you.
What you will do
As a Consulting Manager at Artefact UK, you will take ownership of client engagements end-to-end, leading project teams and acting as the principal point of accountability for delivery quality, client relationships, and team performance. This is the level at which individual contribution gives way to team performance: your job is to create the conditions in which the people around you do their best work, while maintaining the strategic and commercial thread that connects daily delivery to long-term client value.
Project ownership and delivery governance: You will lead the full project lifecycle across one or more concurrent engagements (scoping, planning, executing, and closing) while managing timelines, budgets, and quality to a high standard. You will set projects up for success from the outset, identify risks before they become problems, and be the person your team and your clients turn to when things need resolving. Project governance is yours to run, not delegate.
- Client relationship management: You will own relationships with senior client stakeholders at Director level or above, acting as a trusted adviser across the arc of an engagement rather than just within individual workstreams. This means running steering committees and executive workshops, translating complex technical progress into clear business terms, and helping clients make better decisions with data, even when that means telling them something they don't want to hear.
- Team leadership and people development: You will manage a team consisting of Consultants & Technical Profiles (e.g. Data Engineers, Data Scientists), taking genuine responsibility for their development, not just their output. That means structuring work so people are stretched without being overwhelmed, giving feedback that is specific and timely, and spotting when someone is struggling before they have to say so. You will contribute actively to performance reviews and work with the practice to support career progression.
- Commercial contribution and account growth: You will maintain a sharp commercial awareness across your accounts, identifying opportunities to deepen or extend engagements and building the relationships that enable future work. You will contribute to proposals, pitch materials, and RFP responses, and play an active role in scoping new opportunities within existing accounts. While full commercial targets sit at higher levels, the commercial role is built here.
- Quality, knowledge, and practice contribution: You will hold a high bar for everything that leaves your project team: reviewing deliverables, challenging assumptions, and ensuring that what reaches a client is genuinely strong. Beyond client work, you will contribute to internal knowledge-sharing, bring back what you learn on engagements, and help shape the methodologies and tools that make Artefact better at what it does.
The kind of person this works for
The Consulting Manager role sits at a genuine inflection point: from doing excellent work yourself to being accountable for the work of a team. The transition is rewarding, but it asks something different of you. What we’re looking for:
- Around 4-6 years of experience in consulting, analytics, or a client-facing data role, including at least 1-2 years where you have led teams or managed client relationships with real accountability, not just contributed to them.
- Minimum academic requirement: Bachelor's degree
- A track record of project delivery you can speak to with specificity. Engagements where you owned the outcome, not just a workstream within it.
- Comfortable managing up and across; you know how to hold a relationship with a Director-level client, give a clear steer to a junior consultant, and navigate the organisational dynamics that determine whether transformation actually happens.
- Commercially curious: you pay attention to how your work connects to the business you are helping, you contribute ideas in account planning conversations, and you are building the instincts that will eventually translate into commercial ownership.
- Drawn to delivery, not just strategy: you are energised by seeing something get built and work, not just by writing the recommendation. You hold yourself and your team to a high standard of output without being rigid about how to get there.
- Self-aware about what you don't know: you ask for input when you need it, escalate problems early rather than late, and treat client feedback as useful data.
We do not require a specific academic background, big-four pedigree, or a particular set of certifications. We hire for judgement, curiosity, and evidence that you have made things better for the clients or teams you have worked with.
Why you should join Artefact
- Genuinely diverse work and people: On any given week you might work alongside a data scientist, a C-level executive, directors and more, across sectors you wouldn't encounter anywhere else.
- Real ownership, early: You lead client relationships from your first engagement. No years of shadowing before you get a seat at the table.
- A genuine culture of learning: From tool-specific training to testing the latest AI models to running client workshops on what you've found, you have the liberty to pursue what interests you and share it with the team.
- Transparent progression: A clear skill framework from Junior Consultant to Director, with half-year reviews, honest feedback, and active coaching.
- A culture that makes the day-to-day good: Socials, coffee groups, sweepstakes, after-work drinks, an environment where people genuinely get along, and it shows in the work.
- Global without the travel grind: Multi-market projects and a 2,500-person global network, London-based, & hybrid working.
Working Conditions
- Hybrid work arrangement: two-three days per week working from the office