How to hire a project consultant

How to hire a project consultant, step by step

Here's a step-by-step project 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 project consultant job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new project consultant
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a project consultant do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the project consultant you need to hire. Certain project 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

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a project consultant to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a project consultant that fits the bill.

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

   Type of Project Consultant	Description	Hourly rate
   Project Consultant	Management analysts, often called management consultants, propose ways to improve the efficiency of an organization. They advise managers on how to make organizations more profitable through reduced costs and increased revenues.	$28-60
   Project Officer	A project officer provides vital support to a project by monitoring deadlines for each project task and closely monitors the project schedule. They work with the project manager and other team members to reach the project target... Show more	$19-40
   Implementation Consultant	An implementation consultant is a professional who travels to various job sites to help clients with the installation of different software and hardware solutions. Implementation consultants must be knowledgeable of the software application so that they can conduct training sessions for internal and external customers... Show more	$28-51

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Customer Service
   • Project Management
   • Client Facing
   • Project Scope
   • Process Improvement
   • Healthcare
   • Data Collection
   • Financial Statements
   • Business Process
   • SharePoint
   • Windows
   • Strategic Plan
   • Sigma
   • R

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Lead a pilot project to introduce strong document management features to support document repositories in SharePoint.
   • Manage a team responsible for designing service-orient application architecture, standards and best practices guidelines, security and data access frameworks.
   • Create SQL scripts to implement test unit cases and ensure data quality.
   • Gather all systems, applications and processes documentation into one repository on SharePoint to enable incoming vendor education.
   • Implement strategic initiatives for operational transformation, including SDLC processes, role specialization, order tracking and labor tracking.
   • Develop amendment projection and confirmations user interfaces using JavaScript and XML and develop PL/SQL procedures and packages to handle business logic.

   More project consultant duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the project consultant job description is a good way to get more applicants. A project consultant salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a project consultant in North Dakota may be lower than in New Jersey, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level project consultant. Additionally, a project consultant with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average project consultant salary

   $86,654yearly

   $41.66 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level project consultant salary

   $59,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 20, 2025

   Average project consultant salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	New Jersey	$116,752	$56
   2	California	$113,732	$55
   3	District of Columbia	$105,877	$51
   4	North Carolina	$96,831	$47
   5	Arizona	$94,891	$46
   6	New York	$92,988	$45
   7	Pennsylvania	$90,002	$43
   8	Massachusetts	$89,536	$43
   9	Texas	$88,963	$43
   10	Oregon	$88,321	$42
   11	Virginia	$88,298	$42
   12	Colorado	$85,384	$41
   13	Michigan	$77,549	$37
   14	Minnesota	$76,271	$37
   15	Illinois	$75,349	$36
   16	Ohio	$73,713	$35
   17	Delaware	$73,477	$35
   18	Missouri	$73,018	$35
   19	Indiana	$71,586	$34
   20	Oklahoma	$67,438	$32

   Average project consultant salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Dell	$114,992	$55.28	15
   2	CVS Health	$114,644	$55.12	505
   3	SAP	$112,297	$53.99	29
   4	GROM	$108,053	$51.95
   5	Hess	$107,590	$51.73
   6	State Street	$105,219	$50.59	2
   7	Medidata	$101,544	$48.82	7
   8	Florida Power and Light	$100,142	$48.15	4
   9	USC Consulting Group	$99,594	$47.88
   10	Zurich	$97,721	$46.98	89
   11	Turner & Townsend	$97,514	$46.88	28
   12	Dassault Systèmes	$94,497	$45.43
   13	Analog Devices	$94,028	$45.21
   14	Highmark	$93,890	$45.14	341
   15	Loup Logistics	$93,843	$45.12
   16	HCSC	$93,705	$45.05	46
   17	Navis	$93,477	$44.94
   18	Bank of America	$93,167	$44.79	21
   19	Lurie	$93,040	$44.73
   20	Deloitte	$91,204	$43.85	3,666

4. Writing a project consultant job description

   A project 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 project consultant job description:

   Project consultant job description example

   Support complex customer implementations involving multiple new Avalara products including challenging enterprise level ERP, POS, and ecommerce platform solutions.
   
   Provide leadership and guidance to customers on best practices and use cases to support a variety of business needs.
   
   Develop implementation approach, documentation, and training material to support the launch of new products with Avalara Product Management, Sales, and other Customer Success teams.
   
   Clearly articulate and manage the scope of work for client-initiated projects related to software and data services.
   Monitor client projects and solve problems to keep projects moving forward. Drive practice improvements such as documenting business processes and proposing best practices for sales and use tax automation initiatives to streamline the customer onboarding experience. Develop and document business requirements related to business processes, data transformation and reporting. Assist clients with developing and executing testing plans and procedures. Support the sales and account management teams in selling additional tax and professional services. Perform other tasks as assigned.
   
   Qualifications:
   
   Eight or more years of software delivery, preferably within the B2B sector. Strong ability to articulate process logic and technical architecture including building and delivery of functional/technical presentations. Strong ability to understand and conceptualize accounting and tax processes and procedures. Experience working with clients at all organizational levels with a high degree of professionalism and business acumen. Experience with multiple ERP and e-commerce solutions with a focus on sales order/invoicing processes. Excellent written and oral communication skills are required with a demonstrated ability to work with cross-functional teams. Ability to support cross-functional internal initiatives across the sales, product management and engineering organizations Teamwork-oriented with a strong focus on customer satisfaction and business development. Ability to think strategically, solve problems effectively and tenaciously follow-through to ensure client success. Results-oriented with strong people and time management skills, highly organized, motivated and driven to succeed.
   Preferred Qualifications:
   
   Strong ability to understand and conceptualize accounting and tax processes and procedures. Experience working with clients at all organizational levels with a high degree of professionalism and business acumen Experience implementing Avalara products including AvaTax, CertCapture and Returns Experience with multiple ERP and e-commerce solutions with a focus on sales order/invoicing processes. Proven dedication and loyalty to Avalara. Demonstration of the Avalara Success Traits. Excellent references from management, team members and cross-functional employees at Avalara. Avalara is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, age, gender, national orientation, disability, sexual orientation, US Veteran status, or any other factor protected by law.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right project consultant for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with project consultants they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit project consultants who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your project consultant job on Zippia to find and recruit project consultant candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit project 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.

   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 project consultant

   Once you've found the project consultant candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new project consultant. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

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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How much does it cost to hire a project consultant?