The role

We are seeking to recruit an experienced principal consultant to develop and implement net zero, and energy and carbon management strategies. Your ability to identify and develop opportunities which will raise the profile of the team and the services we provide is important, as is the ability to hold strategic conversations at a senior level including assessing needs, developing technical propositions and taking clients on their sustainability journey. As a result, you will most likely be working in a consultancy environment, possibly with experience working within a public or private sector organisation, a FTSE 250 company or a local authority and you will be well networked in the sustainability arena.

This is an exciting opportunity for the right person to really help to drive our business forward, building on an already highly successful delivery team.  We are looking for a professional and consultative individual looking to enhance their skills further within a rewarding and fast paced environmental consultancy business with the opportunity for excellent career growth.

The successful candidate will:

• Be capable of overseeing, managing and delivering net zero, and energy and carbon management projects.
• Be the client lead for key projects, demonstrating experience of working face-to-face with clients and managing their expectations.
• Undertake a project management role, controlling budgets and timings, and allocating tasks to colleagues as required.
• Liaise with specialist sub-contractors and build relationships internally and externally.
• Input technical expertise to lead energy and carbon management, net zero, and supply chain and scope 3 emissions bids.
• Ensure appropriate profile raising and marketing of Ricardo’s services and capabilities.

Ricardo operates a parallel ‘team leader’ system for pastoral staff management, meaning that you will not initially have any direct line management responsibilities. However, if such line management is of interest to you, we can help you to demonstrate and develop that capability.

Key competencies and experience

• Have practical career experience and be able to demonstrate relevant technical capability, effective project management and excellent communication skills.
• Have a higher education qualification (Bachelor’s Degree) in an environmental or engineering discipline, or otherwise to have a good track record working in an environmental role, so that you can demonstrate your knowledge.
• Ideally have experience of working in the consultancy sector, or organisational responsibility for the outputs from contracted consultants, to demonstrate that you have the necessary commercial awareness. We are also interested to talk to candidates currently performing environmental roles directly within industry especially where they have a strong commercial awareness.
• Demonstrate technical expertise and ability to lead across several of the following technical areas:
  • Energy and carbon management planning and strategy
  • Net Zero strategy development
  • Scope 3
  • Carbon footprinting and verification
  • Energy data analysis
  • Energy auditing and identification of energy saving and decarbonisation measures
  • Knowledge of technical areas such as energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable transport, carbon sequestration and offsetting
  • Knowledge of building energy performance / industrial processes
  • Regulatory compliance, knowledge of both current and future environmental and energy related legislation
• Have demonstrated experience of working face-to-face with clients and managing their expectations.
• Experience of identifying and developing business opportunities.

Skills and behaviours

• Analytical skills with ability to identify, develop and implement solutions.
• Excellent writing skills to communicate clearly and without errors – accuracy and attention to detail are vital.
• Ability to review the work of more junior team members, providing constructive feedback and supporting development.
• Strong client and stakeholder communication skills (e.g. influencing, negotiation, presentation and relationship management skills).
• Ability to develop client propositions (e.g. understanding of client challenges and develop and propose suitable solutions).
• Project management skills that demonstrate ability to manage and account for time spent, and to deliver work on time and budget.
• Ability to build and lead teams; ability to coordinate and prioritise activities to ensure delivery of agreed targets.
• Ability to work autonomously and pro-actively.
• High level of computer literacy, including familiarity with the full Microsoft Office software suite.
• A flexible approach – able to see where help is needed and support colleagues as necessary.
• Be comfortable juggling a variety of tasks in a sometimes fast-paced operational environment.

Working here

You will be warmly welcomed into our workplace where every voice matters. We are diverse thinkers and doers, coming together to create a culture of inclusion. We will support you to find your place.

We will encourage you to use your passion and expertise to make a positive impact through the projects you work on.  Your knowledge and desire to bring about change will be invaluable in helping deliver innovative solutions that support communities across the globe in becoming safer and more sustainable.

Work life balance  

We offer flexible approaches to work, whether that is working from home, being in the office, or as a hybrid worker. We’re happy to discuss flexible working arrangements. Wellbeing is at the core to our culture, allowing employees to flourish and to achieve their full potential.

Benefits 

Our core benefits include 25 days’ annual leave, plus 8 flexible bank holidays, a competitive company pension scheme, life assurance and professional subscriptions reimbursement. We also offer a wide range of flexible benefits to suit your lifestyle.

Once you have submitted your application a member of our Recruitment Team will be in touch. Please be aware that the timing can vary dependent on the volume of applications that we receive for each role and in some cases, we may start to review applications prior to the closing date.

How to apply?

Ricardo: Principal Consultant Energy & Carbon Management