Tech Principal Consultant

Salary: £85,000 - £105,000 (depending on experience)

Location: United Kingdom (Hybrid – with regular in-person client meetings. Some travel, including international travel, may be required depending on project needs)

Job Type: Permanent

Working pattern: Full time

We’re open to exploring other working patterns on a case-by-case basis, where possible and in line with business needs.

Closing date: 21/ 07/ 2025 - We encourage early applications as we reserve the right, if required, to close this role ahead of the date advertised.

Could this be you?

We’re looking for technologists from all kinds of backgrounds to join us.

You might be a Cloud Infrastructure Manager, Senior Developer, Engineering Manager, Technical Team Lead or someone who’s led a community of practice. Titles aren’t everything, we care most about people who’ve worked hands-on in technology and who understand what good digital delivery looks like.

At Public Digital, you’ll use your practical experience to help leading institutions around the world adapt for the internet era. You’ll bring deep expertise in at least one technical area, as well as a healthy curiosity for the broader digital landscape. Just as importantly, you’ll be motivated by making things better for users and turning your own experiences into useful insights for clients.

If you want to support meaningful transformation and help others do their best work, we’d love to hear from you.

About the role

As a Tech Principal Consultant at Public Digital, you’ll bring hands-on experience to help clients assess their current digital and technical capabilities. You’ll work with them to identify blockers, improve delivery, and build sustainable, modern technology practices.

You’ll join multidisciplinary teams, supporting a range of clients facing different challenges, from designing and delivering better public services, to shaping large-scale organisational change and digital transformation.

You’ll also support the growth of technical skills across our consulting team, helping to build confidence and capability in digital delivery.

Who we are

We are Public Digital, a digital transformation consultancy. We help global institutions that matter thrive in the digital era. We apply the culture, processes, business models and technologies of modern delivery to help teams build and run excellent services. Working with the leaders doing strategy, and the teams doing delivery, we operate globally, advising large organisations and governments on six continents.

We're values-driven and we articulate them in our positions on the Public Digital website.

Attitude as much as skill is critically important to us as a team and we look for entrepreneurialism, initiative, kindness, and a willingness to pitch in. We fundamentally believe transformation is about people, and that change comes from creating great teams and the conditions to successfully empower them.

How you’ll make an impact

• Help clients understand where they are in their digital and technology journeys, and where to focus their transformation efforts
• Review programmes and projects to identify risks, blockers or unintended consequences, and offer practical ways to improve
• Work with delivery teams to spot gaps in trust, internally or externally and suggest realistic interventions to build confidence and transparency
• Use your hands-on experience to help organisations improve how they work, from technical practices to team structures
• Act as a coach and trusted advisor, translating complex technical issues into clear, actionable plans
• Use your specialist knowledge directly with teams—leading by example, helping them learn by doing
• Support the team to produce clear, high-quality outputs, such as reports and presentations
• Build and maintain strong client relationships, ensuring your technical insight is applied at the right moments to influence decisions and drive progress
  
  

We know that great digital delivery takes more than good technology. You’ll bring depth in your area of technical expertise, but also be comfortable navigating the broader organisational challenges that shape delivery, from culture and capability to governance and funding.

Requirements

What we're looking for

We know that lists like this can sometimes put people off from applying. Research shows that men are more likely to apply for jobs when they meet around 60% of the criteria, while women and other marginalised groups often feel they need to meet every single requirement.

We don’t want that to happen here.

If you’re excited by the role and think you could be a good fit, but don’t meet every point listed below, we’d still love to hear from you. You might have skills or experience we’ve not considered.

Here’s what we think could make someone well-suited to this role:

• Experience leading technical work in the public sector or in large, complex organisations
• A strong understanding of how digital products are built, from strategy through to delivery
• Familiarity with modern software practices, cloud platforms (such as AWS, Azure or GCP), systems integration, or data architecture
• Great communication skills, with the ability to engage and influence people across a range of technical and non-technical backgrounds
• Confidence in explaining technical ideas in clear, accessible language
• A collaborative and supportive approach to leading and empowering teams
• Comfort working in complex or ambiguous environments, with the judgment to navigate tricky stakeholder situations
• A proactive and pragmatic mindset, with strong skills in organisation, delivery and relationship management

How you will be assessed:

We want to understand your background, experiences, perspective, and what motivates you to work with us.

We’re happy to have a chat about the role before you apply - get in touch with Dai Vaughan (our Consulting Chief Technology Officer) - dai.vaughan@public.digital

We start with an initial sift of all applications, assessed against the What we’re looking for criteria in the advert.

If you’re shortlisted, the selection process will include:

• A short phone interview (up to 30 minutes) with a member of our talent team. Someone from the hiring team may also join
• A 60 minute exercise to examine how you would approach a real-world scenario in your role. This will be with technical and non-technical consultants from PD. You'll receive the information regarding this task in advance, along with full details about the format if applicable
• A 45 minute panel interview. We’ll ask questions about your work, ways of working and approaches to problems.
• An informal peer chat, giving you the chance to speak with someone in a similar role at Public Digital.

Each stage is designed to be a two-way conversation, giving you the chance to get to know us too.

We’ll share more details and any materials you may need for each stage of the process with at least a week’s notice, so you can prepare.  If you require any additional accommodations, please let us know.

Please note that we have seen an increase in candidates using AI tools to complete their answers, we will reject candidates if we suspect they have used this technology.

Benefits

Why you should apply

• Opportunity to grow and progress rapidly within an engaged, supportive environment.
• Be entrepreneurial and contribute to the growth and success of Public Digital.
• Deliver high-impact work with leading institutions around the world.
• Emphasis on learning, development, and progression.
• Build and develop your expertise and profile through publishing blog posts, presenting at events, and sharing knowledge.
• Empowerment to do your best work.
• Home and remote working, with flexibility in how you deliver work.
• Buddy system and prioritised mental health.
• Generous holiday allowance of 30 days, plus an additional office closure over the Christmas period.
• Private healthcare cover.
• Flexible benefits allowance.

Be a part of our amazing work culture. To read more about it please visit our Careers page which gives more details about our culture, employees and benefits.

We're an equal opportunities employer. We're committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace where everyone can be their best. Public Digital's mission is to help institutions thrive in the internet era - to do that well, we aim to hire and empower people who reflect the diversity of the users, communities and organisations we work with. 

We actively encourage applications from under-represented and minoritised groups, including those with lived experience of the challenges we're working to address. We're keen to hear from curious, collaborative and thoughtful people regardless of gender, age, ethnic identity, religion, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, neurodiversity or physical disability.

If you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every requirement in the job description, please apply anyway, you may just be the right candidate for this or other roles in our wider team.

Things you need to know

• Salary
  We’ll offer a salary that reflects your experience and the skills you show throughout the process. We aim to be as competitive as possible based on what you bring to the role.
• Flexible working
  We support flexible working, and you can split your time between home and our London office. Most of the team comes in around once a week to collaborate, but there’s no set requirement to be in regularly.
• However, As this is a client-facing role, there will be times when you’ll need to travel to client offices or attend in-person meetings, depending on project needs. This may occasionally include working across time zones to support clients in regions such as Canada, Central and South America, and Africa. We understand that this won’t suit everyone, and we’ll always do our best to accommodate individual circumstances. While we offer flexibility wherever possible, we also value the same flexibility in return when it comes to meeting client expectations.
• Right to work
  You’ll need to already have the right to work in the UK when you start. We’re not able to sponsor visas for this role.
• Reserve list
  If you're successful at the final stage but we don’t have an immediate role available, we may place you on a reserve list for up to 6 months. This means we can get back in touch if a similar opportunity comes up within that time, and you won’t need to reapply.
• Closing date
  We encourage you to apply early, as we review applications on a rolling basis. Due to the high volume of applications we’ve been receiving, we may close the role before the advertised deadline and won’t be able to accept applications once it’s closed.

We aim to give at least 24 hours’ notice of early closure by updating the job advert where possible. Reviewing applications as they come in also helps us get back to candidates sooner, so you're not left waiting.