Principal Consultant - Digital Foundations

About Channel 3

At Channel 3, we are united by a clear sense of purpose: we exist to help the health and care sector improve lives by using digital and data. We help our clients use technology to transform patient care, provide better experiences for the public and improve conditions for the workforce.

This is an incredibly exciting time for us at Channel 3 as we continue in a period of significant growth. We are on a journey to becoming the most sought-after consultancy for talented individuals who want to build their careers in digital health and care. There is no doubt that our continued success will be underpinned by the exceptional talent and passion of our people.

We work hard to create an environment where everyone feels supported to learn, develop, and have fun! We care deeply about making a difference and building a team who are passionate about driving change. We offer colleagues the freedom to play an active role in their own personal development and the opportunity to help shape our wider business and how we deliver our work.

Digital Foundations at Channel 3

Digital Foundations are the technology, infrastructure, and operating models that underpin all digital health and care systems. They include the devices, platforms, networks, people, and processes that support day-to-day operations and enable digitally driven transformation. At Channel 3, our Digital Foundations work covers:

• Infrastructure strategy & operating models – resilient, scalable IT backbones.
• Cyber security & risk management – safeguarding patient data and ensuring compliance.
• Enterprise architecture & interoperability – enabling seamless flow of information across organisations.
• ICT / digital service reviews & service management – driving quality, value for money, and user satisfaction.
• Strategic procurement & commercial support – maximising value and innovation through supply chains.

Digital Foundations are the building blocks of digital maturity, with wider transformation initiatives (EPR, ICS consolidation, digital-first care models) relying on it to succeed.

The Role

As a Principal Consultant, you will lead the delivery of complex, strategically significant engagements focused on digital foundations across health and care organisations.

You will operate as a trusted advisor to senior client stakeholders, helping them shape and deliver improvements across infrastructure, architecture, service management, data, integration, and applications. You will bring the ability to connect these domains into a coherent whole, ensuring that foundational capabilities enable wider digitally enabled transformation.

This role is first and foremost a consulting and delivery leadership role. You will bring strong technical credibility, but your value lies in how you apply that knowledge to shape direction, align stakeholders, and deliver outcomes.

What would be expected of me as a principal consultant?

Consulting and advisory leadership

• Leading senior‑level consulting engagements, shaping ambiguous problems into clear, actionable approaches.
• Working confidently with CIO, CDIO, CFO and operational leaders, building trusted relationships and influencing decision‑making at the highest levels.
• Moving seamlessly between strategy and delivery, ensuring recommendations are grounded, practical, and aligned to organisational context.

Delivery leadership across digital foundations

• Leading complex programmes or multiple concurrent projects across digital foundation domains.

Broad technical and domain understanding

• Bringing strong working knowledge across core digital foundation components, with depth in one or two areas and credible breadth across the rest.
• Applying understanding across areas such as infrastructure and cloud (e.g., Azure, AWS), architecture (e.g., TOGAF), service management (e.g., ITIL), data and analytics foundations, integration and interoperability (e.g., APIs, middleware, FHIR), and applications and platforms.
• Engaging credibly with technical specialists and translating complexity into clear direction for clients.

Operating model and service design

• Shaping or improving digital operating models to ensure organisations are set up to deliver and sustain change.
• Defining roles, governance, processes, and performance measures, and designing intelligent client functions that manage suppliers effectively and align services to organisational priorities.

Change, engagement and adoption

• Leading change in complex environments, bringing together clinical, operational, and technical stakeholders.
• Facilitating workshops, aligning senior stakeholders, and ensuring solutions are understood, adopted, and embedded.
• Recognising that successful transformation depends on behaviour, culture, and capability as much as technology.

Commercial and value focus

• Understanding the commercial context of consulting delivery and client decision‑making.
• Contributing to business cases, articulating costs and benefits, and ensuring delivery remains focused on outcomes and value.

Business Development

• Exploring new sales leads and supporting their conversion into opportunities.
• Supporting the senior leadership team with key accounts and contributing to the development of new client relationships.
• Making significant contributions to new business proposals, grounded in a strong understanding of client needs.

Who would we like to hear from?

The ideal candidate will have proven people management skills and have a passion for developing colleagues across the Channel 3 business. They will provide ongoing coaching and mentoring and will support our team’s learning and development and general wellbeing.

Desired

• Significant experience in consulting, or a blend of consulting and senior in-house roles with clear advisory exposure.
• Experience leading delivery across digital, IT, or technology enabled transformation programmes.
• Exposure to multiple domains within digital foundations, with the ability to connect them into a coherent whole.
• Experience working in complex, multi stakeholder environments such as healthcare, public sector, or similarly regulated industries.

Essential

• Expertise of the digital health and care market, the interconnectivities within it and the ways the market engages with consultancy services.
• Deep expertise in one or more Digital Foundations domains (infrastructure, cyber security, interoperability, architecture, service management, procurement, etc.), and ability to translate these into tangible improvements for health and care organisations.
• Strong understanding of NHS and/or Local Authority structures and business processes, and how digital foundations underpin wider transformation initiatives (eg EPR, ICS consolidation, digital-first care models)

Professional Development

The ongoing professional development of our employees is important to us, and we empower our teams to build learning and development experiences into their everyday rhythm. Whether this is on the job learning, working alongside some of the most talented individuals in the industry or access to accredited training courses and internal learning programmes.

What are the Perks of working at Channel 3?

In addition to offering a competitive salary and bonus package, we also offer a wide-ranging set of employee benefits which include:

• Home-based and hybrid working
• Part-time and flexible working opportunities
• 25 days holiday allowance + bank holidays, increased up to 28 days to recognise long-service
• Private healthcare
• Contributory workplace pension
• Life insurance (death in service)
• Health cash plan
• Employee assistance programme, including counselling
• Enhanced policies for sickness absence and family leave
• Retail and lifestyle discounts
• Buy or sell holiday policy
• Electric vehicle scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Regional office locations
• Company socials and team building activities

At Channel 3, we recognise that strength lies in valuing differences. We have always and will always be committed to building a diverse team and we represent a variety of backgrounds, skills, perspectives, and life experiences. Providing equal opportunities to all our employees is our number one priority and all appointments and promotions are made based on performance and ability. You will always be treated in a fair and equal way throughout your employment with us and given every opportunity to grow, develop and realise your potential.