Principal Consultant, Carbon Management / Net Zero & Scope 3

Overview

Role: Principal Consultant, Carbon Management / Net Zero & Scope 3

Location: UK Flexible

Role ID: 2022-1473

Our vision is to create a safe and sustainable world

Ricardo plc is a world-class environmental, engineering and strategic consulting company listed on the London Stock Exchange. With over 100 years of engineering excellence, we provide exceptional levels of expertise in delivering leading edge and innovative cross sector sustainable products and solutions, helping our global customers increase efficiencies, achieve growth and create a cleaner and safer future.

Our Energy and Environment business unit combines energy, climate change, environmental and chemical risk expertise with strong IT and economics capability.

We are currently looking for a Principal Consultant to join our Sustainability team.

Growth and Opportunity

The success we are having as a business means there are significant opportunities to expand our services and delivery, so we are seeking to recruit an experienced principal level consultant to develop and implement net zero, energy and carbon management strategies. To support our clients, improve the sustainability of their supply chains and deliver a range of projects to help organisations tackle their scope 3 emissions. The role will have a mix of delivery and business development activities, subject to the experience of the successful candidate.

Sitting in our established Sustainability business area, part of a 200 person strong ‘Sustainable Infrastructure & Operations’ business unit and the 650 person Ricardo Energy & Environment division, you will be an expert in identifying and engaging with sustainability professionals across the private and public sectors, working with them to deliver the range of sustainability and carbon management services we offer.

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; assess needs and develop technical propositions and take the 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 FTSE250 company or a local authority and you'll 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.

Key Responsibilities

• Within a collaborative and supportive team of consultants, you will be responsible for winning and delivering projects (mainly with clients in the private sector) on energy and carbon management, net zero, supply chain improvements and reducing scope 3 emissions. Client liaison, project management and technical delivery will be required from initial client engagement through to provision of final reports. To assist our team, the successful candidate will:
• Be capable of taking over, managing and delivering existing and new net zero, 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 across the following areas:
• Energy and carbon management planning and strategy
• Net Zero strategy development and associated Science Based Targets
• Carbon accounting, compliance, and measurement techniques and calculation methods for scopes 1 and 2 and CR reporting software, including in-depth understanding of scope 3 emissions sources and how to mitigate them
• Carbon footprinting, verification and assurance
• Carbon data analysis and modelling
• Knowledge of sustainability reporting would be advantageous (e.g. CDP, GRI, SECR FTSE4Good etc.)
• Regulatory compliance - knowledge of both current and future environmental and energy related legislation.
• Experience of identifying and developing business opportunities is desirable.
• You will need to hold a Full UK Driving licence for this position.

Essential skills

• 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.
• Strong client and stakeholder communication skills e.g. influencing, negotiation, presentation and relationship management skills.
• Project management skills that demonstrate ability to manage and account for time spent, and to deliver work on time and budget.
• Team working and leadership and ability to coordinate and prioritise activities to ensure delivery of agreed targets.
• Ability to work autonomously and proactively.
• High level of computer literacy, including familiarity with the full Microsoft Office software suite and potentially industry analysis tools.
• 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.
• High levels of drive and commitment; a self-starter, problem solver with the ability to turn ideas into reality.

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 an inclusive culture, 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.