Engagement Manager with The State of Illinois DCFS Experience (Remote Position)

Artemis Connection is a strategic management consultancy working across the for-profit, public and social sectors.  We help clients around the world identify their most pressing strategic issues and we staff teams of strategy consultants to roll up their sleeves and deliver impact.  We are passionate about helping innovative and entrepreneurial leaders reach their goals through a customized project-based approach, typically focused around:

• Bespoke Innovation, Sales, and Marketing Strategy
• Purpose-driven Transformation
• Embedded Strategy and Operations roles

Our founder is Christy Johnson, an entrepreneur, educator, and former McKinsey Engagement Manager. Our advisors include HR officers, executive coaches, academics, entrepreneurs, and neuroscientists. Our team is made up of seasoned consultants, trained at organizations such as McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Bain, Big 4 Strategy, and elite educational institutions. 

Given our flexible structure and smaller size, we tend to bring on new team members in a “trial-to-hire” capacity. In other words, we initially hire individuals as independent contractors for discrete client projects, and then, after successful projects completion and mutual determination of “fit”, we may move towards a more permanent employment arrangement.

To learn more about Artemis Connection, visit http://artemisconnection.com/.  

Position: Engagement Manager Position with Medicaid and child and family services (DCFS) experience for the State of Illinois

We’re looking for a strategy consultant who has experience with Illinois's DCFS and Medicaid to serve as an Engagement Manager on our team. 

She/He is a strategic thinker, structured communicator, and excellent project manager who can navigate between managing client teams and more junior Artemis Connection team members. (As such, we’re also open to candidates with in-house strategy/operations experience, if that experience has built this consulting “toolkit” of skills). 

Responsibilities

The role of the Engagement Manager is to own the entire life cycle of a consulting engagement, leading the day-to-day work, managing teams of 1-6, managing upwards to engage ‘Principals’ or Senior Advisors on the team, and excellent at managing client relationships.

Pre-project preparation
Please note that pre-project activities are not compensated, as they are intended to prepare you to lead the project. It is seen as an investment you will make to start building the client trust and have more control over the scope and direction of the project.

• Support in proposal development for a potential project you may lead if it translates into an active project
• Participate in final business development meetings with clients to ensure that the project is scoped well and that you are able to build a strong relationship with the client from the start

Own end-to-end project delivery 

• Identify the client’s most pressing strategic issues, develop hypotheses to prove during client engagement, and communicate (then re-communicate) these issues/hypotheses to both clients and case team members as the case evolves
• Create and maintain a project team work plan to diagnose and resolve the client’s strategic issues, including data-driven analyses, client engagements, and delivery of recommendations
• Ensure all client deliverables are aligned with the client, and executed in a high-quality and timely way

Team Management

• Manage teams of 1-6, providing regular coaching and input on their workstreams
• Ensuring that team members are assigned to the highest value work, resulting in an on-budget, on-time project 
• Lead the day-to-day work of team members (e.g., structuring their analyses, reviewing their deliverables, providing on-the-job coaching)

Manage client relationships

• Build trustworthy, transparent, and collaborative relationships with senior executives and other key contacts at client organizations
• Facilitate client engagement in case team work, including organising client meetings and workshops, making decisions with clients at key points during case, and transitioning end-of-case recommendations or implementation plan
• Identify opportunities for additional client work, either through follow-on work with existing clients or through potential engagements with new clients

Qualifications

• Minimum 3 years Consulting experience, ideally from a top-tier firm (e.g., McKinsey, BCG, Bain), though in-house strategy/operations experience also considered
• Track record of coaching clients to measurable outcomes required
• Track record of coaching case teams (or sideways managing / informally influencing others) to measurable outcomes also required
• Demonstrated skills in project management required, ideally in a “case team” or “client service” type of environment
• Demonstrated skills in effective communication, including ability to build senior client relationships and effective case team relationships, required
• Commitment to producing high-quality, client-ready work, on tight timelines, required
• Orientation toward being a proactive, curious team member
• Advanced proficiency in PowerPoint and Excel required, in order to coach other team members on these tools
• Bachelor's and/or Master's Degree preferred

Other expectations

• Ability to thrive in a remote work environment, leading team members to collaborate in a way that ensures the best client and team experience
• Minimum time commitment of 20 hours per week
• Willing to travel: client travel requests are typically light, as needed for client interactions