Aviation Sustainability Lead

Overview

Role: Aviation Sustainability Lead

Location: UK Flexible

Role ID: 2023-1952

Ricardo plc is a global strategic, environmental, and engineering consulting company. Our company vision is to create a safe and sustainable world, which is the driver behind everything we do as a business. Ricardo’s shared values – create together, be innovative, aim high and be mindful - actively guide our behaviours and reflect how we work together. Putting our values into action is what binds us together and makes Ricardo not only a great place to work but a company with which our customers want to do business.

We are seeking a passionate and experienced professional to develop and grow client relationships with a suite of sustainability, net zero and scope 3, energy management, waste management and circular economy solutions within the airport sector.  The environmental impacts of aviation are far reaching, so this role is an excellent opportunity for someone who understands airport operations and the various stakeholders in and around an airport to have a real impact on driving change across the aviation sector.

We work with airports, airlines, ground handlers and aircraft manufacturers to develop strategies to minimise their environmental impact and importantly, to then help implement those strategies. As the aviation sector is under significant change, we have opportunities to support many clients help influence and adapt to that change.

We’d love to hear from you if you have the following competencies and experience:

• In-depth understanding of the airport sector, at an operational level and strategic level, and the sustainability challenges facing airport organisations.

• Proven track record of managing and delivering sustainabilty projects in the airport sector. Previous experience of working with or for airport operators on sustainability issues is essential.

• Experience of liaising with regulatory and supply chain stakeholders.

• Higher education qualification in an environmental discipline, or otherwise to have a good track record working in an environmental role, so that you can demonstrate your knowledge.

• Experience of identifying and developing business opportunities, including establishing and maintaining relationships at senior levels.

• Experience of working on international projects is desirable and a willingness to support international projects is essential, including our priority regions of Europe, Middle East, North America and Asia.

Your main responsibilities would be:

• Build and maintain partner and client relationships to maximise sustainability related opportunities, working in collaboration with our technical specialists.

• Identify and develop client focused, technical sustainability solutions, and maintain and expand existing offerings, to optimise advantage in airport sector and enhance Ricardo’s reputation as an industry leader.

• Act as client lead for key projects and manage client expectations.

• Demonstrate insight of the key sustainability challenges (net zero, scope 3 and supply chain emissions etc.) facing the sector and how these challenges may impact airport operations.

• Understand the strategies that can be adopted to reduce the impacts of these sustainability challenges.

• Work with a wider business development team to support new opportunities across different business areas and international markets, including leading and inputting technical expertise to tenders.

• Liaise across Ricardo’s technical experts to help shape solutions to the challenges our clients are facing. Ricardo’s technical experts in areas such as climate change adaptation, air quality, carbon modelling, water management and more are global leaders, so you will be working alongside the best of the best.

• Utilise existing sector contacts and provide thought leadership in the creation of marketing materials to ensure successful and appropriate profile raising and marketing of Ricardo’s services and capabilities.

You need to have the following skills and behaviours:

• Aviation projects almost always involve multiple internal and external stakeholders, so you will have experience working collaboratively and influencing others to achieve the optimal client outcomes.

• Self-motivated, willing and able to take responsibility for identifying and co-creating new business opportunities with airport

• Strong team-working skills. The successful candidate will be expected to collaborate closely with our technical consultants to win new projects together.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills combined with strong influencing skills.

• Ability to build trust-based relationships with clients and potential partners.

• Highly effective at building strong personal relationships across the business and keeping an up-to-date understanding of existing capabilities.

• A flexible approach – able to see where help is needed and support colleagues as necessary.

• Willing to travel on a regular basis in the UK but also to be able to travel internationally.

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

We want you to know how much you are valued. Your remuneration and benefits package will reflect that. You will receive a range of benefits which include support for your physical and mental health.

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.

Next steps

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.

Ricardo is a Disability confident employer please advise the recruitment team via recruit.ee@ricardo.com if you require any adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process.