Principal Consultant

About Armakuni:

We are a team of highly experienced product and software practitioners who help complex organisations create high-performing software teams, allowing them to accelerate the delivery of business outcomes whilst driving behavioural change through coaching, training and pair programming.

We work to identify the gaps in an organisation’s engineering capability and then transfer our skills, knowledge and experience by providing repeatable patterns and behaviours to create sustainable change and build a culture of continuous improvement.  

We embed our engineers into our client teams to understand their problems, accelerate their delivery and show them different ways of working.  Alongside offering technical solutions, we teach them how to use XP practices like Pair Programming, Test-Driven Development and Everything as Code to improve communication and collaboration, reducing single points of failure, and ultimately increasing the quality and speed of delivery. 

Armakuni is a test-first and agile environment, with a keen focus on the quality of the software that we develop, and how we can support our Engineers to continue their learning and career journey. 

About the role:

The Principal Consultant role at Armakuni will lead the delivery and growth of a client account or accounts, leveraging their creativity and experience to facilitate exceptional outcomes.

As an expert in at least one of several domains, you’ll be responsible for achieving business goals and revenue targets while developing the client strategy and leading execution and engagement.

As part of this, you will be responsible for and measured on:

Client Discovery & Success

• Rapidly understanding complex client stakeholder landscapes, drivers and success criteria
• Partnering with our clients and providing robust feedback, when required, to guide them towards the best possible outcomes
• Providing a clear and measurable vision for the delivery teams whilst clearly communicating successes and challenges back to our clients

Client Engagement Growth

• Long-term growth strategy, building sustainable revenue and maximising the positive impact that engaging with Armakuni generates  for our clients
• Building a network of relationships within the client organisation
• Strategic and consultative selling, communicating and pitching Armakuni’s offerings to client stakeholders, including senior executives.

AK Team Effectiveness

• Ensuring the team is effective and delivering value, which in turn will lead to happy client, you’ll be an active coach and mentor to all members of the delivery team, enabling their success

• Ensuring the team is prioritising its time and resources in the right way and facilitating the development of the team where necessary to hone their client management and consultancy skills

• Managing the use of Armakuni’s partner network to deliver outcomes which extend beyond our value proposition

• Play an active role in the evolution of the Armakuni Value Proposition, working alongside strategic direction and implementation representatives.

Account Delivery

• Accountable for all aspects of the team’s delivery and the client’s journey, from the development of business cases, to effective delivery, right through to the publication of success stories
• Responsible for removing blockages across multiple delivery streams, enabling AK teams to be at their best

Account Strategy Development:

• The Client Principal will work with the Executive & Senior leadership teams to develop and deliver long term account strategies & relationships.

New Client Development

• You will be an active contributor to Armakuni’s new business development strategy. This will include insight to market developments and possible opportunities, as well as supporting bid writing and proposals for new clients.

What you’ll bring to the role: 

The Principal Consultant is the foundation of Armakuni’s interactions with our clients. You are experienced at building and nurturing relationships to identify, develop, and secure growth opportunities and are comfortable influencing at all levels in an organisation.

The successful candidate can clearly demonstrate their ability to think strategically about business, product, and technical challenges, and convey compelling value propositions. Their highly technical or domain specific background will enable them to easily interact and engage with clients and stakeholders of all levels.

As a trusted advisor you will drive the strategic direction of engagements by facilitating creative client solutions. You will develop long lasting relationships and be a focal point for delivery, escalation, and growth.

• Be a trusted advisor to our clients, building long-lasting valuable relationships with key accounts

• Define a shared vision for the engagement with the client and their stakeholders

• Set the success criteria and define the measurable outcomes, selling in the AK value proposition and ensuring we are set up for success

• Identify and mitigate risks impacting both delivery and engagement growth

You will secure growth opportunities by nurturing client relationships and identifying opportunities to align with Armakuni’s growth targets.

You will be comfortable:

• Identifying opportunities and risks and suggesting appropriate solutions

• Managing contract negotiations and keeping track of progress

• Identifying opportunities to drive revenue growth within client portfolios

• Keeping a strong commercial focus on delivery and success

• Growing and developing relationships across client engagements and being the focal point for value delivery, escalation and growth

• Coaching and developing client leadership teams throughout our engagements

• Maintaining client satisfaction by delivering excellence and demonstrating impact

The skills and experience you’ll need to be successful:

• You’ll ideally come from a highly technical background, using your well honed cloud, engineering and DevOps experience to demonstrate the value we create across a broad spectrum of our clients and sectors

• You’ll have domain expertise in at least one subject related to Software Engineering & Cloud Native eg. Software Engineering, Organisational Change, Data & AI, Product Management, Infrastructure

• Experienced in building strong relationships at all levels within clients and out into their broader eco-systems

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to write and present technical documents and compelling proposals to senior leadership teams

• Experience in proactively growing client relationships within an account while expanding your understanding of the client’s business and acting as a mentor and facilitator to the internal team

• Technology-related sales or business development experience in an account development and bid writing capacity would be beneficial

• Experience in interpreting client needs and positioning solutions that hit the mark for them and  enable us to grow our client network

• Excellent leadership and stakeholder management skills in organisations of all scales from startups to global enterprises

• Proven track record in identifying, developing, negotiating and closing technology and/or professional services deals

• Adaptable, with an enthusiasm to explore and respond positively to new ways of working

Armakuni is a remote-first organisation, so where in the UK you are based will primarily be up to you. We are also a customer-focused organisation, so there will be a need to travel to client offices occasionally. 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are priorities for us –  Diversity of thought and representation helps us understand our clients’ concerns and create better solutions for them.  We are an inclusive employer and aim to create an environment that supports and includes everyone.  We assess all candidates based on skills so please let us know if we can offer any support.  We will look to offer adjustments to our recruitment and work practices to help those who apply for our jobs and work within our organisation to have a better experience. This is not just a legal obligation to provide reasonable adjustments but an opportunity to offer the best experience possible for all.

Life at Armakuni

We are proud of our open, transparent and inclusive environment and continuous learning culture.  We host company wide events every Friday to share knowledge and build our internal community.

We believe that a strong work-life balance helps our team to work to the best of their ability and be able to switch off and enjoy the fruits of their labour in their time off. We are happy to offer full or part time hours, and we will work with you to enable flexibility.

What you will get in return:

In addition to working with a highly motivated team of dedicated co-workers who are passionate about technology, you’ll also receive some great benefits;

• A highly competitive salary, commensurate with the skills that you bring to the role
• We are a remote first organisation, so we also give you an allowance to set your home office up - and a Mac to go with it
• We really care about our people, so we offer a host of health and wellbeing related benefits, including; Wellbeing allowance, BUPA private health cover, critical illness cover, access to SPILL therapy, GP24 and various others
• We also want to make sure that you get the right balance, so we offer 25 days holiday plus 3 days Christmas shutdown. You can buy more or sell these days too.
• For those thinking about a family, we offer enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave and pay, as well as a return to work bonus
• Our employer pension contribution is 5% of annual salary
• We have some great company and team events that will help you to engage with your colleagues, and to grow with a visionary company