Strategy consultant vs principal consultant

The differences between strategy consultants and principal consultants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a principal consultant has an average salary of $116,478, which is higher than the $115,244 average annual salary of a strategy consultant.

The top three skills for a strategy consultant include healthcare, project management and develop recommendations. The most important skills for a principal consultant are cloud, business development, and C #.

Strategy consultant vs principal consultant overview

	Strategy Consultant	Principal Consultant
Yearly salary	$115,244	$116,478
Hourly rate	$55.41	$56.00
Growth rate	11%	11%
Number of jobs	70,241	143,753
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 66%	Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Average age	44	44
Years of experience	4	-

What does a strategy consultant do?

A strategy consultant specializes in examining and analyzing business processes to identify areas needing improvement, ensuring to provide strategies for optimal performance. A strategy consultant may work as a member of a company or as a freelancer. Typically, their responsibilities revolve around discussing business vision and goals with clients, assessing the workflow and the workforce of a company, observing competitors, identifying risks, and recommending strategies for profitable growth and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, as a strategy consultant, it is essential to adhere to the company's vision and mission throughout the process.

What does a principal consultant do?

A principal consultant is responsible for evaluating business' needs and opportunities, identifying potential leads to create project proposals, and maintaining strong business relationships that would generate revenues and increase the organization's profitability. Principal consultants must be up-to-date with the current market trends to ensure that the business adapts to the industry's changes. They also initiate new product development to expand its brand image, working closely with the marketing team for marketing strategies and promotions.

Strategy consultant vs principal consultant salary

Strategy consultants and principal consultants have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Strategy Consultant	Principal Consultant
Average salary	$115,244	$116,478
Salary range	Between $87,000 And $151,000	Between $90,000 And $150,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Alaska	Oregon
Best paying company	Mayo Clinic	Pure Storage
Best paying industry	Finance	Finance

Differences between strategy consultant and principal consultant education

There are a few differences between a strategy consultant and a principal consultant in terms of educational background:

	Strategy Consultant	Principal Consultant
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 66%	Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Northwestern University	Western Carolina University

Strategy consultant vs principal consultant demographics

Here are the differences between strategy consultants' and principal consultants' demographics:

	Strategy Consultant	Principal Consultant
Average age	44	44
Gender ratio	Male, 63.1% Female, 36.9%	Male, 75.8% Female, 24.2%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 7.5% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 8.5% Asian, 14.5% White, 64.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	Black or African American, 6.4% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.4% Asian, 8.8% White, 70.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage	12%	11%

Differences between strategy consultant and principal consultant duties and responsibilities

Strategy consultant example responsibilities.

Lead project to ensure integration of CMS and other regulations (HIPAA etc . )
Achieve SOX compliance requirements across organization.
Manage the remediation process using SDLC methodology.
Develop and manage all front-of-house operations / logistics including guest control planning, security, celebrity appearances and executive presentations.
Develop and manage value-based pricing strategy that maximize profitability and marketability of limited-inventory advertising portfolio.
Provide business development and growth direction to technology focuse entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Principal consultant example responsibilities.

Manage project risks and issues throughout the SDLC phases, report project/program statuses to steering committee along with financial information.
Provide PMO office support including improving governance processes to achieve expect results.
Manage numerous engagements that are either custom development or package software (ERP) implementations and integration.
Project leadership, strategy and health information management consulting services to healthcare and manage care organizations and health information technology companies.
Design database and business objects using XML schema.
Create XMLType view to generate xml output from a SQL query.

Strategy consultant vs principal consultant skills

Common strategy consultant skills

Healthcare, 7%
Project Management, 6%
Develop Recommendations, 6%
Client Facing, 5%
Market Research, 5%
Business Development, 4%

Common principal consultant skills

Cloud, 11%
Business Development, 10%
C #, 7%
Customer Satisfaction, 6%
Java, 5%
Project Management, 4%

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Strategy Consultant vs Principal Consultant

Updated January 8, 2025

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