Role: Principal Environmental Consultant – Environmental Assessment

Location: Flexible – Hybrid. Bristol/ London/ Harwell/ Manchester/ Sheffield/ Glasgow

Salary range: £44,000 - £66,000 plus benefits

Role ID: 1812

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 Environmental Consultant to join our Water & Environment Team.

Our excellent track record in supporting the water industry is resulting in substantial and exciting growth of our Water & Environment Team. We have established long-term relationships with many of the UKs water companies. Consequently, we are servicing multiple environmental frameworks and some sizeable capital water and wastewater projects. Our growing focus on water and environmental solutions, alongside a wider array of consultancy services, means we are seeking to appoint an experienced Principal Environmental Consultant with both a strong technical background and the ability to manage projects technically and provide a reviewing role throughout their lifecycle.

Key responsibilities

• We are seeking to appoint a specialist to take a lead role in Environmental Assessment. You will be responsible for carrying out and reviewing environmental assessments such as Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA) with a focus on assessing Water Industry related plans and programmes.
• Together with strong technical and reviewing skills, you will have an ambition to help drive our business forward by delivering excellent services and winning new work.
• The role will require strong organisation skills and ability to communicate with colleagues and clients to deliver projects to budget and programme.
• Maintaining quality of service provision is essential, whilst balancing client needs and environmental regulatory requirements within the confines of contractual terms.
• You will work collaboratively as part of a wider team of multi-disciplinary water and environmental experts that include specialists in the fields of EIA, HRA, water resources, hydro-ecology, ground and surface water hydrology, flood risk, geomorphology, water quality, aquatic and terrestrial ecology and natural capital.

Key competencies and experience

• We are looking to appoint a Principal Environmental Consultant who has extensive and relevant experience in undertaking and reviewing environmental assessments, particularly SEA, within the UK water industry. This should include a strong understanding of, and experience in undertaking environmental assessments associated with Water Resource Management Plans, Drought Plans, and Strategic Resource Options.
• We also require the following key competencies and experience:
  • A first degree in a relevant environmental discipline ideally with a post graduate degree.
  • Chartered or working towards chartership via IEMA, CIWEM, or other relevant professional body.
  • Expert knowledge of regulatory context in terms of SEA and environmental assessment in general.
  • Ability and keenness to both mentor junior team members and support them technically.
  • Demonstrable experience of leading technical inputs and teams for successful project delivery.
  • Proven experience in leading bids, including the management of bid teams, proposal writing and winning work.
  • Ability to manage multiple projects/proposals concurrently.

Skills and behaviours 

• Excellent organisational, communication and presentation skills upholding client and stakeholder relationships.
• Proven technical reviewing skills.
• Collaborative team working skills.
• A proactive self-motivated thinker.
• The ability to manage and support technical input into proposals.
• The ability to manage and prioritise workload and assist others in doing so.
• The ability to be flexible around business needs.

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.