The Role
Lead complex, multi-phase implementation engagements: set strategy, manage cross-functional teams and workstreams, drive measurable client outcomes, oversee engagement economics, develop teams, and contribute to firm growth and methodologies.
Summary Generated by Built In
About McChrystal Group:
McChrystal Group is a leadership and management consulting firm that partners with executive teams to solve their most complex performance and coordination challenges. Founded in 2011 by General (Ret.) Stanley McChrystal, we help organizations operate with the speed, alignment, and cohesion required to succeed in dynamic environments.
Our work is rooted in the Team of Teams® framework - a leadership system developed from General McChrystal’s transformation of the Joint Special Operations Command. We believe that enduring performance depends not just on strategy, but on how effectively leaders, teams, and systems work together under pressure.
McChrystal Group consultants work on small, high-impact teams tackling challenges that matter. You’ll work shoulder to shoulder with senior executives, world-class advisors, and teammates who take pride in the quality, integrity, and purpose of their work. The pace is demanding, the problems are complex, and the impact is tangible. People join McChrystal Group because they want to grow as leaders and do work that makes a difference.
Role Overview:
The Principal is a leader within McChrystal Group’s Implementation Practice, the team that partners with senior executives to lead long-term, transformational engagements that blend leadership advisory, process improvement, and the design of systems that enable coordinated performance at scale. Implementation teams help clients translate strategy into action by building the capabilities that sustain results long after our engagement ends.
As a Principal, you will lead entire client engagements, shaping strategy, defining success, and guiding cross-functional teams from diagnosis through sustained execution. You’ll serve as a trusted advisor to senior leaders while ensuring delivery excellence across multiple workstreams. Principals operate with significant autonomy and influence - owning relationships, shaping the firm’s approach, and driving both client and commercial outcomes.
Our work blends consulting discipline with operational execution. In one engagement, you might help a Fortune 100 company design and drive a global leadership and operating model transformation; in another, you might embed with a state government to rewire how critical services are delivered across a complex network of stakeholders. Every project is high-impact, hands-on, and built around measurable results.
Client Delivery and Impact
- Lead complex, multi-phase engagements from launch through execution, defining scope, deliverables, and success measures.
- Drive measurable outcomes that tie directly to client performance and strategic value.
- Oversee multiple workstreams and ensure coordinated execution across teams and stakeholder groups.
- Establish and maintain disciplined project management structures that enable transparency, accountability, and adaptability.
- Anticipate and mitigate risks, resolve issues proactively, and adjust delivery to evolving client needs.
- Monitor engagement economics (staffing, utilization, realization) to balance commercial health with client success.
Client Engagement and Business Development
- Serve as a trusted advisor to senior client executives; lead relationship strategy across major accounts.
- Identify and pursue new opportunities within existing portfolios; shape proposals and statements of work.
- Build and deliver executive-level presentations and pitches; coach teams on compelling storytelling and strategic communication.
- Represent McChrystal Group’s distinctive value proposition with clarity, confidence, and credibility.
Leadership and Team Development
- Lead and develop engagement teams, delegating with intention and providing consistent coaching and feedback.
- Champion firm values across engagements - embedding Ship / Shipmate / Self and Client First principles into team norms and decision-making.
- Foster innovation in delivery by encouraging experimentation, sharing learnings, and scaling what works.
Knowledge Management and Continuous Improvement
- Capture lessons learned and codify successful practices to strengthen the firm’s collective knowledge base.
- Lead efforts to refine delivery frameworks, methodologies, and measurement tools.
- Contribute to the development of new intellectual property and approaches that advance McChrystal Group’s thought leadership.
Firm Growth and Culture
- Contribute to firm growth through recruiting, industry engagement, and thought leadership.
- Pursue ongoing personal and professional development through mentorship, client exposure, and continuous learning.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or similar advanced degree preferred.
- 10+ years of professional experience, ideally including consulting or relevant private-sector leadership.
- Proven ability to lead large, complex programs and manage cross-functional teams.
- Exceptional client relationship skills, with executive presence and strategic communication capability.
- Demonstrated success developing and mentoring high-performing team members.
- Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving abilities with attention to detail.
- Proficiency in MS Office and comfort with data-driven storytelling.
- Ability and desire to travel up to 75%.
McChrystal Group is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our goal is to embody and embrace a diverse workforce that is representative, at all levels, of the customers we serve. We are committed to cultivating an environment of mutual respect and all employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need. We seek to recruit, develop, and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool and encourage applications of all backgrounds without regard to race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, non-disqualifying physical disability, national origin, veteran status or any other basis covered by appropriate law.
If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process, or need an alternative method for applying, you may contact [email protected] for assistance.
Top Skills
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The Company
What We Do
McChrystal Group helps you drive the results that matter by unleashing the power of your teams. That's why we’ve been helping organizations get their teams working better, smarter, and faster for over a decade. Forged in combat and proven across industries, we use our Team of Teams® framework to help you get the most out of your teams, turning them into powerful engines of meaningful change.
