How to hire a lead consultant

How to hire a lead consultant, step by step

Here's a step-by-step lead consultant hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a lead consultant job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new lead consultant
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a lead consultant do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the lead consultant you need to hire. Certain lead consultant roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A lead consultant's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, lead consultants from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   The following list breaks down different types of lead consultants and their corresponding salaries.

   Type of Lead Consultant	Description	Hourly rate
   Lead Consultant	Computer systems analysts study an organization’s current computer systems and procedures and design information systems solutions to help the organization operate more efficiently and effectively. They bring business and information technology (IT) together by understanding the needs and limitations of both.	$38-63
   Consultant/Team Lead	Consultant team leads analyze background documentation, project documents, financial reports, etc., to prepare an initial report about the projects they are working on. They gather data through interviews, research, and surveys to design proposals meant to create an inclusive environment for everyone... Show more	$34-62
   SAP Fico Consultant	A SAP Finance and Controlling (FICO) consultant designs, builds, and deploys SAP-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. The responsibilities of this professional include understanding an organization's business requirements, training end-users, and sorting out the end user's day-to-day queries... Show more	$35-60

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Customer Service
   • Digital Transformation
   • Business Process
   • Project Management
   • Architecture
   • App Development
   • CRM
   • HR
   • Client Facing
   • Java
   • ERP
   • Master Data
   • C #
   • Web Services

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Lead a team of 10 members including both onsite and offshore.
   • Create and manage financial feed from BW to Hyperion for corporate reporting and processing.
   • Manage design and development of cloud-base billing application for streamlining payroll and invoicing, as well as offering real-time business analytics.
   • Create mainframe XML parsers and XML generators using COBOL.
   • Work onsite at client's home office in Washington, DC.
   • Design and implement test cases for verifying proper behavior of a large & complex ERP project viz.

   More lead consultant duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your lead consultant job description helps attract top candidates to the position. A lead consultant salary can be affected by several factors, such as geography, experience, seniority, certifications, and the prestige of the hiring company.

   For example, the average salary for a lead consultant in Kansas may be lower than in Alaska, and an entry-level lead consultant usually earns less than a senior-level lead consultant. Additionally, a lead consultant with certifications may command a higher salary, and working for a well-known company or start-up may also impact an employee's pay.

   Average lead consultant salary

   $103,221yearly

   $49.63 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level lead consultant salary

   $80,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 14, 2025

   Average lead consultant salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$125,445	$60
   2	Washington	$114,670	$55
   3	Oregon	$106,803	$51
   4	New York	$104,460	$50
   5	New Jersey	$104,080	$50
   6	Rhode Island	$102,216	$49
   7	Massachusetts	$102,216	$49
   8	Arizona	$100,775	$48
   9	Delaware	$99,972	$48
   10	Pennsylvania	$99,783	$48
   11	Texas	$98,132	$47
   12	Connecticut	$97,758	$47
   13	Wisconsin	$96,141	$46
   14	Minnesota	$93,616	$45
   15	North Carolina	$93,439	$45
   16	Illinois	$92,523	$44
   17	Florida	$92,447	$44
   18	Georgia	$92,106	$44
   19	Colorado	$92,028	$44
   20	Ohio	$90,008	$43

   Average lead consultant salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Google	$137,619	$66.16	51
   2	Bunge	$135,408	$65.10	1
   3	Vista Equity Partners	$126,827	$60.97
   4	Amazon	$126,337	$60.74	286
   5	Cargill	$123,000	$59.13	29
   6	Microsoft	$121,088	$58.22	15
   7	Zuora	$120,825	$58.09
   8	Electronic Arts	$119,354	$57.38
   9	Epsilon	$118,022	$56.74
   10	TIBCO Software	$117,736	$56.60
   11	CyberCoders	$117,503	$56.49
   12	Workday	$117,480	$56.48	8
   13	Blue Shield of California	$117,149	$56.32	4
   14	Appirio	$117,132	$56.31
   15	Thoughtworks	$116,946	$56.22
   16	FireEye	$116,349	$55.94
   17	TEKsystems	$116,263	$55.90	6
   18	Legacy International	$114,734	$55.16	1
   19	Insight Enterprises	$114,183	$54.90	3
   20	Eclaro	$113,821	$54.72

4. Writing a lead consultant job description

   A lead consultant job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. To help get you started, here's an example of a lead consultant job description:

   Lead consultant job description example

   Job DescriptionPosition

   P2 is looking for a talented Lead Consultant to lead software development teams alongside our Agile Project Managers and Engineers. This is a remote (work from home) position for US based candidates.

   Responsibilities | How You’ll Spend Your Time

   A Lead Consultant at Phase 2 is responsible for driving the value, execution, and delivery of customer software solutions. From ideation to launch, the Lead Consultant is involved in multiple areas of the Software Development Lifecycle. This individual must be multi-faceted with skills around technical consultation, high-level platform architecture, business analysis, communications, software team operations, technical task identification and documentation, and technical decision making.

   The Lead Consultant fills the roles of Solutions Architect/Consultant, Account Manager, and Product Manager for a given customer or customers.

   Qualifications | What We’re Looking For

   • Excellent written and verbal communications
   • Recognize the key business problems and evaluate customer needs
   • Ideate and communicate greenfield software solutions
   • Demo team progress to the customer
   • Collaborate with accounts to intake, document, and prioritize customer needs
   • Ensure constant value of product team tasks
   • Collaborate with UI/UX designers to maximize quality of user experience
   • Set solution vision for the customer
   • Create product plans and refined product backlogs
   • Create backlog items and produce acceptance criteria
   • Lead agile ceremonies such as sprint planning and reviews

   •

   Company

   Phase 2 is a software development consultancy aimed to make a positive impact on the people with whom we interact – our clients, our coworkers and our community. We create enterprise-level custom software products, lead organizations through digital transformation, and consult on how technology can improve efficiency and solve complex business problems.

   Our elite team of engineers, architects, designers and managers thrive on challenges. We partner with our clients’ internal teams and IT departments, not compete with them. As a collective team, we discover, design, develop, deploy and direct our clients to solutions through digital transformation.

   •

   Culture & Benefits

   When you have some of the most talented developers in the world, you want them to stay. We have worked hard to create a company culture that people want to be part of for a long time. While the national average for how long someone stays at one job is around 4 years, ours is almost 10 years. Once you’re here, we want you here for the long haul of your career.

   Engaging, High-Value Projects

   We know our talent isn’t going to stick around if the work is easy. Like we said, our team thrives on challenges. We only take on work that will stretch us and make us better at our craft.

   Innovative, Collaborative Team

   When the work is challenging, having a team that will support you is paramount. At Phase 2, you’ll glean from some of the most talented, friendly and collaborative people in the industry.

   Transparent Leadership

   Phase 2 values being open and transparent with the entire company. The more in-the-know our employees, the more invested they feel.

   Remote Friendly

   While we are headquartered in Oklahoma City, we have employees across the country. You can work from the office some days and work from home the rest. What works best for your work style, works best for us.

   Flexible Work Hours

   Take care of you and your family first. If you need to handle something before 5pm and pick up your project later, we get it.

   Monthly Technology Budget

   This budget is for our employees to use for whatever will make their job better or easier. A new chair, another monitor, seminar/workshop, even improve your home office. Will it help you work more efficiently? Use your tech budget.

   Weekly Team Building

   The last hour of every Thursday, we get together to unplug (figuratively) and spend time together as a team. It’s not required fun, so if something else needs your attention – go for it.

   Monthly(ish) Social Events

   Now that the world is normalizing, we’ve been excited to get back together. Once a month, we plan social outings like happy hours, food trucks, driving range, pickleball, and more!

   Fitness Center Membership

   We believe your mind works better when your body is functioning well. Enjoy membership to Life Time Fitness to allow your body and mind to operate at their best.

   Insurance, Retirement, Vacation

   We’ll help you do things like go to the doctor and retire. We offer competitive salaries and benefits including health insurance options, 401(k) matching, and paid time off.

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5. Post your job

   There are a few common ways to find lead consultants for your business:

   • Promoting internally or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to meet candidates with the right educational background.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to recruit passive job-seekers.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your lead consultant job on Zippia to find and attract quality lead consultant candidates.
   • Use niche websites such as dice, engineering.com, stack overflow, it job pro.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit lead consultants, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   You should also ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match the ideal candidate profile you developed earlier. Candidates good enough for the next step can complete the technical interview.

   While interviews are great, you will only sometimes learn enough from a conversation with a lead consultant applicant. In those cases, having candidates complete a test project can go a long way in figuring out who's the most likely to succeed in the role. If you aren't a technical person and don't know how to design an appropriate test, you can ask someone else on the team to create it or take a look at these websites to get a few ideas:

   • TestDome
   • CodeSignal
   • Testlify
   • BarRaiser
   • Coderbyte

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new lead consultant

   Once you've selected the best lead consultant candidate for the job, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, this letter should include details about the benefits and perks you offer the candidate. Ensuring that your offer is competitive is essential, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and you should be open to discussion. After you reach an agreement, the final step is formalizing the agreement with a contract.

   It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

   To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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