Operations Manager

Overview

Role: Operations Manager, Sustainable Infrastructure & Operations (SI&O)

Location: UK Flexible

Role ID: 2023-1729

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 experienced (c. 5-10 years) Project Manager to join the Operations Management team of the Sustainable Infrastructure and Operations (SI&O) business unit to support the delivery of wide range of international projects and programmes, primarily in the resource management, energy and sustainability fields.

The Operations Management team is responsible for driving a culture of excellence in project delivery and overall performance achievement.  Working with Project Managers your role will be to ensure that the delivery of SI&O projects meets customer objectives and achieves high levels of satisfaction, whilst maximising profitability and cash-flow for the business.

The SI&O business has an exciting growth trajectory and recently won a number of high-profile, large-scale contracts so we are seeking to expand our operations management team to support delivery and further expansion.

You will be part of a supportive team and provided with ongoing personal development opportunities to ensure you settle into the Company and have the ability to progress your career at Ricardo.

Key Accountabilities

The ideal candidate will be able to take on a wide range of duties in support of project managers and the senior leadership team within SI&O. These will include:

• To ensure accurate reporting and forecasts by project managers to meet business requirements and contribute to the interpretation and action planning as a result.
• Ensure that resource levels and utilisation are optimised and take timely actions as appropriate so that monthly, quarterly and annual financial forecasts are met.
• Support project managers in efficient conversion of orders to ensure projects are initiated in a timely manner, delivered to customer satisfaction, while maximising gross margin and healthy cash-flow.
• To monitor sales funnel via Microsoft Dynamics Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database integrity and, alongside Heads of Service and Business Development Leads, contribute to the interpretation and action planning as a result.
• Implementing and maintaining appropriate quality assurance and approval processes to ensure that:
  • projects are fully scoped (following the sign-off processes) such that we understand the opportunity, risk and clients’ needs and overarching objectives creating no expectation gap between service delivery and service sold.
  • work delivered within the team is of high quality, meeting or exceeding client expectations.
  • all delivery is conducted in line with business quality, safety, health and environment (QSHE) standards with any lessons learned applied to future delivery.
• Monitoring and motivating project managers to secure customer feedback upon completion of projects.
• Coaching and motivating project managers to drive continuous improvement and ensure that we are developing people and succession plans.

Qualifications & Experience

• Strong project management / project delivery experience.
• Strong organisational skills, with the ability to plan and prioritise a varied workload, balancing the needs of several projects.
• Proven ability to take ownership of tasks.
• Have an excellent working knowledge of the Microsoft Office suite of applications, in particular Excel and Power-Point.
• Be able to build effective working relationships at all levels across the business.
• Have a flexible approach to working activities.
• Experience of using Customer Relationship Management databases (CRMs) is desired.

Skills & Behaviours

• Accuracy and attention to detail are vital.
• 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.
• Strong problem solving and creative thinking skills.
• Calm under pressure.
• Excellent listening, written and verbal communication skills.
• A team player.
• Able to build effective working relationships at all levels.
• Keen to learn new systems and processes.
• Able to suggest improvements to systems and processes to improve efficiency.

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.