Associate Director - Electromobility and EV Charging

Overview

Role: Associate Director - Electromobility and EV Charging

Location: We have offices across the UK and Europe including London, Manchester, Glasgow and Madrid. We can also consider homeworking.

Role ID: 2022-1544

Our vision is to create a safe and sustainable world

Ricardo plc is a global strategic, environmental, and engineering consulting company, listed on the London Stock Exchange. With over 100 years of engineering excellence and employing close to 3,000 employees in more than 20 countries, we provide exceptional levels of expertise in delivering leading-edge and innovative cross-sector sustainable products and solutions. Every day, we enable our customers to solve the most complex and dynamic challenges to help achieve a safe and sustainable world.

Energy & Environment, one of Ricardo plc’s five operating business units, is a leader in sustainability consultancy, solving complex environmental challenges through industry-leading analysis, advice and data. With more than 40 years of heritage in addressing air quality, environmental and sustainability issues, our customers value us for our deep understanding and breadth of services covering the entire value chain from evidence, policy & strategy to implementation.

We are currently looking for an Associate Director to play a leading role in the delivery and growth of Ricardo Energy & Environment’s portfolio of projects on electric vehicles, alternative fuels and other sustainable transport technologies. The successful candidate will have a strong track record of winning and delivering work related to modelling of EV uptake, charging infrastructure demand and developing strategies and plans for charging infrastructure deployment.

Key responsibilities

This role will cover consultancy projects for corporate clients, local authorities, national Government organisations, the European Commission and international clients. The successful candidate will work with the senior team in sustainable transport, to oversee work on consultancy projects to help clients deploy electric vehicles and/or alternative transport fuels in their own vehicle fleets as well as providing strategic advice (e.g. to local/national government organisations) on how to accelerate the deployment of these types of vehicles and fuels in the wider market. Existing knowledge of the electric vehicle and charging infrastructure markets and how they are evolving is essential (including an understanding of the interplay between the transport and energy sectors).  Excellent verbal and written communication skills are also essential as this is very much a customer-facing role, along with very strong numerical analysis skills and/or model development skills.

This is an important role within the team and will require working closely together with the Sustainable Transport Business Area Manager and other Ricardo experts and specialists to continue growing our EV charging related work, through developing new business opportunities and overseeing the delivery of high profile and/or complex projects in the team. You will work flexibly within Ricardo, collaborating with specialists in fields such as energy systems, engineering, alternative fuels and climate change.

Your work will involve a combination of identifying new opportunities and leading bids, and collaboraqting on the delivery of projects, for a mixture of private sector organisations and industry associations, the European Commission and other clients.  You will work with other colleagues in Ricardo to identify key partners and build effective project delivery teams. Your role will include a mixture of project directorship, technical delivery and other business development activities, including competitive bidding, client and partner relationship management and participation in promotional events. You will also play a leading role in providing technical leadership and supporting the development of more junior staff within the team.

You will have the capability to work across the project life cycle, from early stage prospecting through bidding and the successful delivery of projects. You will have a strong commercial awareness and energy and enthusiasm for growing the business in your technical area.

The role is a high-level position with responsibility for:

·         Monitoring market developments and leading company business development activities related to EV charging consultancy, to take advantage of emerging opportunities;

·         Development and maintenance of close client and partner relationships to enable the winning of new business;

·         Playing a leading role in managing and contributing to multi-disciplinary proposals;

·         Taking responsibility, as a project director for the delivery of large, complex projects. Responsibility for client satisfaction, and ensuring high-quality outputs;

·         Leading and mentoring other staff in their involvement in bids and projects;

·         Collaborating on and where necessary carrying out, detailed technical work to contribute to high quality project delivery;

·         Presenting Ricardo’s work at client meetings and international conferences;

·         Effectively working as part of a team to win and deliver projects.

Key competencies and experience:

·         Educated to at least Bachelor’s degree level specialising in scientific, engineering, environmental or economic fields.

·         Candidates must demonstrate  extensive consultancy experience on transport policy and technology topics related to EV charging, including experience of working with both, public and private sector clients;

·         Strong business development skills as demonstrated through a track record of identifying and securing new consultancy work in related to EV charging and sustainable transport technologies;

·         Preparing proposals in response to formal invitations to tender received from a wide range of clients,  including corporates, trade associations, local authorities, European Commission and UK government departments;

·         Leading and providing written content for the preparation of reports, as well as contributing to the development of proposals for new work;

·         Taking responsibility for ensuring high quality of outputs from other experts and more junior team members on bids and projects;

·         Working effectively as a team member on a range of projects;

·         Monitoring market developments and leading business development activities to take advantage of emerging opportunities;

·         Development and maintenance of close client and partner relationships;

·         Maintaining a detailed and up to date knowledge of transport-related environmental/energy policies, especially with regard to transport emissions, electric vehicles, low-emission transport technologies and alternative transport fuels;

Skills and behaviours:

·         A passion for delivering high quality work, identifying and securing new opportunities and bringing new ideas to the table for successfully growing the business;

·         Strong project management skills with track record in leading complex proposals and projects;

·         Excellent written and spoken English is essential; fluency in other European languages will be an advantage;

·         Strong oral and written communication is essential, including concise and precise report writing;

·         Strong analytical skills are essential;

·         Good team worker and experienced delegator;

·         Strong level of commercial awareness and appreciation for project financial management principles;

·         Strong stakeholder engagement skills and an ability to build consensus amongst groups of often very different stakeholders;

Working here

Ricardo is an exciting and rewarding place to work and you have the opportunity to make a difference. You will work with teams of talented, dedicated, and supportive individuals. Alongside having a fantastic opportunity to develop your career with us through our broad range of projects, mentoring opportunities and a personalised approach to your learning and development. We are always keen to hear from people who have driven, ambition and a flair for innovative thinking.

Wellbeing and work life balance

We offer flexible approaches to work, whether that's 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. Our People are important to us, and we take pride in our wellbeing programmes and policies that support individuals including flexible working, carers policy, mental health first aiders and readily available support through our extensive Employee Assistance programme.

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion statement

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, we believe in each person's potential, and we'll help you reach yours. We have an ambitious diversity, equality, and inclusion approach as explained here. We value diversity; recognising that a more diverse workforce creates a richer and more varied working environment. Diversity also drives innovation, by allowing us to offer our clients the best consultancy service that we can. As part of our commitment to engage positively and pro-actively with all our employees and ensure a culture of inclusivity, we are a recognised as a 'disability confident' employer.

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.