How To Become A Risk Management Consultant: What It Is and Career Path

What is a risk management consultant and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Angela Grotto Ph.D.,

Tom Fullerton

Basically responsible for risk management, a Risk Management Consultant identifies potential risks and mitigates these risks. As a Risk Management Consultant, you should be knowledgeable when it comes to operational processes and the opportunities the company will benefit from.

There are important skills you need to possess as a Risk Management Consultant. Firstly, you need to have good interpersonal skills. As a Risk Management Consultant, you will be working with different people. Therefore, you should know how to deal with different types of individuals while you efficiently communicate with them. Next, time management skills are also important. You will be facing and doing a lot of things at once, so you should be able to juggle your busy schedule by putting your time to good use. Lastly, problem-solving skills are needed as a Risk Management Consultant. You should be able to easily solve problems when they arise.

You can earn around $86,020 per year on average as a Risk Management Consultant. You can also further your career depending on the path you plan to take. For example, after being a Risk Management Consultant for years, you can then become Vice President, Operations Vice President, or a Senior Vice President-Operations.

What general advice would you give to a risk management consultant?

Angela Grotto Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Management, Manhattan College

When job searching, be active and persistent - Network by setting up Zoom informational calls with professionals (alumni, people with whom your family work) to learn about jobs that you are interested in or to learn about organizations where you would like to work and then follow up with them; have someone you trust who is a professional review your resume and social media profile pages; carve out time every day to apply to jobs; use Handshake and LinkedIn as a resource; keep sending out applications; while job searching, volunteer or start your business project that showcases your skillset and then discuss it during your interviews.
When interviewing, be creative - Use experiences from your academic career to demonstrate your capabilities. There are many skills you learn in class that are transferrable to the professional world. For example, as a student, you likely had to pivot to full remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than seeing this as a disadvantage, discuss how the new learning format has prepared you to work remotely as an employee, how small group projects have primed you to collaborate on a virtual team, and how small classes have equipped you to use technology such as Zoom.
When deciding on a job offer, be open-minded - Your first job may not be the one you had imagined or hoped for upon graduation. Still, it may be a stepping stone to your ideal career or a way to build your network of professional connections. You create meaningful and valuable relationships with others who may one day help you get the job you want.
When you land the job, be flexible - Show your employer or your boss that you're willing to step outside your comfort zone and do tasks that you were not necessarily trained for or are unrelated to your degree. Also, when circumstances at work change, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, show that you are willing to step up and do a different job, do someone else's job, or work on another project or team. This flexibility will demonstrate your versatility and how you can adapt to new and unpredictable situations. Lastly, embrace the "gig" economy - be willing to start as a temporary or contract worker with a company to get your foot in the door and build more professional connections.

ScoreRisk Management ConsultantUS Average

Salary

7.2

Avg. Salary $91,520

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.8

Growth rate 11%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 14.41%

Black or African American 7.76%

Hispanic or Latino 8.68%

Unknown 4.47%

White 64.51%

Gender

female 33.92%

male 66.08%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

6.8

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

2.2

Work life balance is very poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a risk management consultant

Explore risk management consultant education requirements

Most common risk management consultant degrees

Bachelor's

64.9 %

Master's

20.5 %

Associate

6.5 %

Start to develop specific risk management consultant skills

Skills	Percentages
Project Management	8.93%
Infrastructure	8.02%
Risk Assessments	6.31%
NIST	5.34%
Internal Controls	5.13%

Complete relevant risk management consultant training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New risk management consultants learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a risk management consultant based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real risk management consultant resumes.

Research risk management consultant duties and responsibilities

Lead clients in establishing information security policies and procedures to establish SOX compliance.
Analyze and manage implementation of operational and organizational structures and technology architectures in addition to ERP package selection.
Manage a team responsible for designing service-orient application architecture, standards and best practices guidelines, security and data access frameworks.
Conduct data-mining training sessions using SAS for managers and support personnel at major financial institutions.

Get risk management consultant experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a risk management consultant. The most common roles before becoming a risk management consultant include risk manager, consultant team lead and vice president.

Prepare your risk management consultant resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your risk management consultant resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a risk management consultant resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable risk management consultant resume templates

Build a professional risk management consultant resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your risk management consultant resume.