Hiring: Consultant - The Spark Mill
Position Title: Consultant
Reports to: CEO, Senior Consultant
Position Status: Exempt, Salaried; 40 hours/week. Some weekends and evenings required.
Hiring Range: $68-85,000 with benefits
Location: Position is based in Richmond, VA with travel expected. Three days in the office or with clients a week is expected.
To apply: This position will remain posted until the job is filled. The preferred application deadline is September 30th. Target start is mid-November.
Submit the following along with filling out the form located at the bottom of the application.
Cover letter
Résumé
Three references (We will not contact references until later in the hiring process.)
The Space Where Strategy, Creativity, and Action Meet
The Spark Mill is a values-based change management consulting firm headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. Founded in 2009, we're a SWaM-certified, 100% woman-owned micro-business working with nonprofits, corporations, government agencies, and coalitions on everything from strategic plans, organizational change projects, to one-day team retreats.
We believe every company or organization, regardless of size, can do amazing things — and that our clients deserve better than a boilerplate. Every project we touch moves through the same three phases: Gather, Soak, and Radiate. Equity isn't a separate initiative here; it's baked into how we show up for clients and for each other, in every phase.
We're a small, but mighty team. Our consultants facilitate, write, analyze, and project manage — there's no hiding behind a title here. If you like order, consistency, and a fully mapped-out lane, this probably isn't the place. If you want real ownership of client relationships and the chance to shape how we work, keep reading.
Making Change Possible — That's the Job
We're hiring a Consultant to take on greater ownership of client relationships and project delivery. You'll lead pieces of engagements front to back: designing the approach, guiding clients through consensus and conversations, and writing the plans and reports that carry the work into completion.
If you thrive on relationships, can translate a messy room full of stakeholder opinions into a clear plan, and want a job where your growth is genuinely tied to the growth of the firm, we'd love to hear from you.
What This Looks Like, Phase by Phase
Data Gathering
Serving as a primary point of contact for clients — responding within 24 hours and making sure they feel heard, informed, and well cared for.
Leading kickoff meetings and driving our data gathering process: designing stakeholder questions, coordinating surveys and interviews.
Building trust quickly with stakeholders across industries, board rooms, and organizational cultures.
Bringing an equity lens to who's in the room and whose voices are actually being heard.
Facilitation and Navigation
Facilitating sessions and retreats, often as lead facilitator or co-facilitator.
Synthesizing qualitative and quantitative data into real, client-ready findings and themes.
Presenting preliminary findings and testing interpretations directly with clients.
Considering how feedback is framed so it lands the way it's meant to.
Reports and Deliverables
Writing drafts of reports, plans, and deliverables that meet TSM's brand and quality standards.
Coordinating project timelines, milestones, and Asana boards so nothing falls through the cracks.
Guiding clients through implementation planning so the work outlives the engagement.
Growing Our Team, and the Craft
Supporting and giving constructive feedback to all members of the team as an active collaborator on drafts, surveys, and client communication.
Participating in theming meetings and sharing what you're learning across projects.
Bringing ideas for how our process, tools, and templates could work better — and volunteering to help build them.
Rolling with the punches when a project needs a custom solution instead of the standard playbook.
What Makes You a Fit
What you bring
Have at least 5 years of relevant experience in consulting, project management, facilitation, nonprofit or organizational management, HR, or a closely related field.
Can translate a pile of qualitative and quantitative data into clear, client-ready themes and recommendations.
Write cleanly and confidently — you can take a report from a rough first pass to something client-ready.
Have facilitated meetings, retreats, or workshops, or are ready to grow quickly into that muscle.
Bonus points for experience in change management, government/nonprofit/corporate strategy, and Human Resources
How You Show Up
Have a personal commitment to equity that shows up in how you work, not just what you say.
Build rapport quickly with diverse groups of stakeholders — board members, frontline staff, executives, funders.
Are comfortable holding several client relationships (up to 10 at a time) without losing the details.
Think on your feet and don't need every process fully mapped before you start moving.
Give and receive direct feedback well — you can coach a newer teammate and take coaching yourself.
Are energized, not drained, by a job that changes shape from one project to the next.
Our Values, In Practice
Joy Infused Change — Change is hard, and we believe it can still have moments of lightness. We look for ways to make the experience engaging, starting with how we show up.
Strategic Guidance Is Our Best Role — We're a guide, not the expert with all the answers. We bring humble confidence, evidence, and options — clients make the decisions.
Momentum: Forward Is the Goal — Healthy, intentional progress matters more than speed. We celebrate movement forward, even when it's incremental.
Relationships Matter — This is our biggest asset, internally and with clients. Integrity means doing what you say you're going to do.
How We Take Care of Our People
Employer-paid health insurance.
An unlimited PTO policy — with a built-in minimum so you actually take it.
A 401(k) plan open to you from day one.
An annual budget for professional development — conferences, trainings, and continued learning.
A hybrid schedule: up to two home days a week once you're past onboarding.
A firm that closes for a full week at the end of December, on top of your PTO.
A genuinely small team where your voice shapes how we work, not just what we deliver.
The Details
This is a full-time position based in Richmond, Virginia, with a salary range of $68,000 – $85,000, commensurate with experience. Compensation and benefits are outlined above and detailed further during the interview process.
Our Systems
It's helpful to have experience with tools like these, or something similar: Claude, Zoom, Asana, HubSpot, Survey Monkey, Acuity, Google Workspace, and Canva.
A Note on Who Should Apply
Research shows that women and people of color are less likely to apply to a role unless they meet every single qualification. We don't want that to keep good people out of our process. If this role excites you and you bring most of what we're looking for, please apply — we'd rather meet you and find out than never know.
To Apply
Please submit your resume, cover letter, and references by filling out the application:
We ask that interested candidates not reach out by phone or email during the hiring process.