Innovative Consultant -SMB Business Operations / Management (Jan 2026)

Key Responsibilities:

• Deliver quantifiable and sustainable value for clients, impacting income statements, balance sheets, cash flow, and overall quality of life.
• Lead the development, implementation, training, and evaluation of business solutions that address specific client challenges.
• Identify, oversee, and clearly communicate the scope of work, timelines, and deliverables in coordination with the assigned Assistant Director or Senior Project Director.
• Manage the full client relationship, from opportunity origination through project completion and review.
• Ensure administrative duties, including invoicing and reporting, are completed accurately and on time.

Essential Qualifications:

• Minimum 7-10 years of consulting or equivalent experience (such as business ownership, executive leadership, or multi-unit management), with a proven track record of delivering measurable results and driving operational and financial improvement.
• Demonstrated experience managing projects and client relationships with strategic, financial, and operational accountability.
• Strong financial literacy, including the ability to analyze and improve performance across P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow.
• Ability to travel Sunday through Friday to client sites across the U.S.
• Authorized to work in the United States.
• Advanced computer proficiency, including Microsoft Office, financial software, dashboards, CRMs, and project management tools.
• Valid driver’s license and current auto insurance.
• Preferred: Experience managing budgets of $10M+ and/or previous business ownership.

Skills & Competencies Required:

• Project Management and Client Engagement: The ability to utilize internal Project Management tools while integrating proper strategy with client management
• Problem Solving – Quickly identifies root causes; offers practical and effective solutions; uses reason even when dealing with emotional topics
• Change Management – Communicates changes effectively and builds broad consensus; monitors transition and evaluates results
• Team Leadership – Proven experience leading teams and multi-departmental management; exhibits confidence in self and others; inspires trust and motivates others to perform well; embraces feedback
• Coaching & Development: Skilled at identifying skill gaps, running role plays, coaching role plays, and driving urgency; displays willingness to make decisions; supports and explains reasoning for decisions.
• Metrics Accountability: Obsessed with dashboards, reports, and KPIs, leveraging them to manage up, down, and across.
• Financial Acumen: Ability to evaluate the health of the business through the balance sheet and company performance through P&L.
• Improve Client Liquidity: Develop a proper Debt Reduction Strategy and improve the overall profitability of the business.
• People-Oriented – Possess a high EQ and readily able to connect and build relationships with clients, their staff, and Cogent team members.
• Peer Collaboration: Works well with other Project Directors, Performance Analysts, Project Administrator, ProServ (Abacus, Marketing, Business Development, Recruiting).
• Conflict Management – Empathetic and able to see all perspectives; graciously communicates differing points of view to build understanding; finds agreeable, forward-looking, and policy-aligned solutions to resolve conflicts others would see as irreconcilable.

Cultural Expectations: Given the unique nature of the company and our strong focus on integrity and values, these cultural components of how we operate will be expected:

• Cogent Analytics strives always to put our clients first, choosing to do what is in their best interest even if that choice may not be the easy or popular path.
• Cogent Analytics maintains the highest professional standards and pledges to operate with integrity and honesty in all that we endeavor to do.
• We believe in a collaborative environment between the administrative staff, Leadership (AD and MD), and Project Directors.
• We understand and embrace the “Obligation to Challenge”, realizing that the status quo can be improved upon based on our unique and diverse capabilities and insights.
• We embrace diversity, realizing the benefit of working together and sharing individual exceptional insights with the group. Through these insights discovered in the pursuit of solving problems, we will improve results both for our clients and ourselves.