Role: Principal Waste Procurement Consultant

Location: Harwell / London / Manchester/ Bristol (Office or Home based)

Role ID: 2022-1650

 

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 a Principal Waste Procurement Consultant to join our Waste team.

 

Our team is actively delivering a range of contracts, including supporting contract negotiations, tender submissions and specification development for waste collection contracts, grounds maintenance and street cleansing contracts, infrastructure development projects, developing waste and circular economy policies, strategies and business models, data management and business case development for a diverse client base across the public and private sector in the UK.

 

Purpose:

We are looking for a Principal Consultant with proven experience and knowledge of the waste or local authority public realm sectors to provide procurement support, and to support where appropriate, and manage waste service projects. You will gain experience in:

Managing procurement strategies, drafting procurement documentation, leading dialogue or negotiation with bidders, evaluating tenders, and providing advice throughout the procurement process.
Supporting a diverse range of projects covering waste and public realm services from waste collection services, street cleansing, grounds maintenance, HWRCs, recyclate off-take contracts, waste treatment off-take contracts (residual, biowaste, MRFs).
Providing support to both local authority and waste management company clients.
Helping to develop new business through, for example, client relationships and responding to invitations to tender.
Engaging with clients to understand their needs and help identify and qualify opportunities.
Acting as technical support or project manager on waste procurement projects from feasibility stage through to contract award and mobilisation.
Responsible for the quality of your own work and, in the role of project manager, the quality of project deliverables and outputs on procurement and other waste management projects.
Opportunities to work on growing international portfolio, particularly in the Middle East. Recent international projects the team has supported on on include waste collection procurement support to the Abu Dhabi Waste Management Authority, collection system delivery route advise to a major municipality and design of collection systems for several communities.

Key accountabilities:

Responsible for the quality of own work and that of the project delivery team.
Project Director for smaller projects.
Technical lead or project manager for larger or more complex projects.
Mentoring and development of less experienced staff.
Expected to win new business through leading bids and networking.

Key competencies and experience:

 

Essential:

Waste services and/or public realm procurement experience covering some or all of the services mentioned above.
Ability to lead or prepare proposals and tenders.
Effective project management skills.
Ability to write clear, concise and accurate technical reports and tender specifications and manage data confidently.
Excellent interpersonal skills, attention to detail and desire to deliver influential consultancy support to the highest standards with new and current clients.

Desirable:

Good client networks and willingness to travel within the UK and internationally.
Consultancy experience, including project management and bidding.
Experience with negotiation and dialogue.
Proven client management skills.
Member of a relevant professional institution e.g. CIWM.
Qualified to a bachelor’s degree level in a relevant discipline or proven industry experience.

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 to 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