Role: Senior Consultant – Energy Policy

Location: London, Harwell (Didcot), Manchester, Glasgow, Madrid, Italy, Flexible, Home-based

Role ID: 2023-1870

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.

The opportunity

Ricardo Energy & Environment is a leading sustainability consultancy combining energy, climate change, environmental and chemical risk expertise with strong IT and economics capability. Operating across the world, we work in partnership with our customers to help transform the way they work, empowering business leaders with award winning consultancy advice. With unrivalled sector insight and a reputation for producing innovative solutions, we offer a stimulating and rewarding environment in which to work.

We have an opportunity for a Senior or Principal energy policies specialist to support project delivery and business development within our Policy, Strategy and Economics Practice. We are one of Europe’s leading consultancies supporting the UK Government, the European Commission, overseas governments and multilateral development agencies in the development, implementation and appraisal of climate change policy.

The team within which you will work

You will work within a team that wins and delivers a wide range of policy projects covering policy option development, design, impact assessment, evaluation and carries out a wide range of capacity building and stakeholder engagement activities including workshop delivery and guidance production. The majority of your work will be for the European Commission; however, you will also work on projects for national government or developments banks.

In this specific role you will support the delivery of current projects related to energy communities, prosumer aspects and, in broader term, the REPowerEU strategy, the EU electricity market directive as well as the Renewable Energy Directive. You will work in close collaboration with energy and policy experts, and you will contribute to bid writing and business development activities to expand our presence and team in this area. 

Your role

Your work will involve technical delivery of policy, research projects and technical assistance. This could include the management of large sized projects (up to £2 million) including leadership of tasks and overall procedure. Technical work will include analysis, stakeholder engagement, capacity building (workshops, training, guidance production) and report writing.

You will also undertake business development activities which will include competitive bidding, client and partner relationship management and participation in promotional events. You will have experience of competitive bidding in a consultancy environment and be capable of managing medium/large sized consortium bids. You will have a strong commercial awareness and energy and enthusiasm for growing the business in your technical area. Ideally, you will have experience in leading or working on proposals and projects for clients such as the European Commission, national governments and development banks.

Key responsibilities:

• Monitoring market developments and inputting to company business development activities to take advantage of emerging opportunities.
• Development and maintenance of close client and partner relationships to support the winning of new business.
• Leading and contributing to complex proposals as well as simpler ones.
• Leading large sized projects, tasks and overall process.
• Supporting the delivery of projects. This involves working within teams to achieve client satisfaction, timely delivery, strong project financial performance and high quality technical outputs.
• Participating in capacity building activities including workshop facilitation and presentation delivery.
• Presenting Ricardo Energy & Environment’s work at client meetings.

Key competencies and experience:

• Educated to at least Master’s degree level specializing in scientific, engineering, environmental, legal or economic fields.
• At least 5 years’ experience in the field
• Experience contributing to business development and/or competitive bid writing in a consultancy environment is essential.
• Experience working within multidisciplinary teams is essential, and experience managing project teams would be an advantage.
• Previous experience working within projects for clients such as the European Commission, World Bank, GIZ, EBRD, Asian Development Bank and UK Government.
• Good understanding of the energy and climate change policy landscape, gained during studies or work experience, in one or more of the following areas:
  • EU energy and climate change policy especially the measures implemented under the Renewable Energy Directive, Electricity Market Directive, the REPowerEU plan, etc.
  • Understanding of the barriers faced by energy communities, the benefits that they can bring and how these can be fostered
  • Understanding of policies for consumer empowerment, including energy communities, prosumers, energy sharing, peer to peer trading, and data interoperability and protection.
  • Expert in policy and regulation to renewable energy and smart grid technology implementation at national and EU level.
  • Experience in citizen engagement, electro-mobility, energy poverty, retail market price regulation and liberalization

Skills and behaviours:

• Strong project delivery skills with track record in contributing towards large and/or complex projects.
• Experience leading projects or tasks within large projects is essential.
• Excellent written and spoken English essential; fluency in other European languages will be an advantage. Strong Italian or French language skills proven in a consultancy environment will be considered a particular strength.
• Strong oral and written communication essential, including concise and precise report writing.
• Strong analytical skills essential.
• Good team worker.
• Strong level of commercial awareness and appreciation for project financial management principles would be an advantage.

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

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.

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.

Please complete your application in English.