Heat Decarbonisation - Business Development Manager

Role: Heat Decarbonisation - Business Development Manager

Location: London, Harwell, Glasgow, Shoreham, Bristol, Manchester - Hybrid

Role ID: 2024-2405

Our vision is to create a safe and sustainable world

At Ricardo, we believe in fostering an environment where you can thrive and make a meaningful impact. We are committed to empowering our employees, providing opportunities for growth and professional development as well as cultivating a supportive and inclusive work environment.

Energy Decarbonisation

We work with organisations serious about transitioning to a low carbon future, implementing their decarbonisation plans and managing resources effectively. We help our clients to understand their current position, create plans, understand the feasibility of different technology options, procure and then implement these actions. Our clients really value our support in solving the most complex and dynamic challenges, the technical and policy insights we bring which impact their organisations to future proof investments and our impartiality which helps ensure best value and a delivered solution which will meet their needs.

Purpose

The purpose of this role is to lead the Business Development growth of our Heat Decarbonisation services in the UK and beyond, reporting to the Head of Heat Decarbonisation and working closely with our technical consultant team. Ultimately, the role is about helping our clients to decarbonise their buildings and operations, as they transition to net zero and helping them create sustainable businesses for the future.

Position

We are seeking a Business Development professional with proven experience in:

* Developing and winning consultancy opportunities through developing new services for current clients and expanding the offer of current services to new clients.
* Delivering year on year improvements in order intake / revenue in a consultancy with a focus on value based selling.
* Working collaboratively with our client base to shape and develop new opportunities such that we are co-creating to meet their needs.
* Understanding the impacts of evolving changes in the energy and carbon markets, and reacting to market needs in our target geographies.
* Working with a delivery team to ensure continued delivery of best-in-class service, and that we are staying ahead in terms of skills needed for future market direction.

You will be responsible for leading the growth of our Heat decarbonisation business growth activity across the public and private sector, leveraging the experience and expertise across our core services:

1 Heat and Buildings (including Heat Networks)
2 Industrial Heat Decarbonisation and CCUS (this may also include Ricardo’s innovative bioenergy CCUS solution; and
3 Renewable energy programmes and policy

You will lead and be involved in networking, developing leads, winning new business and farming existing client accounts. The role will involve creating and supporting campaigns and marketing initiatives, developing propositions and tailoring these for specific clients. As well as identifying requirements for new services within the market, the individual will be responsible for their own direct sales to new and existing customers, identifying opportunities, writing proposals and developing senior level customer relations with a Heat Decarbonisation focus. You need to be an end-to-end sales expert able to excel at this role.

You will be well networked, ideally known in the sector with potential clients and partners and want to drive strong growth, working with our team across the UK but also supporting future growth areas which may include Europe, Middle East, Australia and North America.

Key accountabilities

The successful candidate will have a proven track record of identifying and converting market opportunities in the Heat sector to profitable sales of consulting services or the ability to demonstrate they have sufficient transferable skills to adapt to this challenge. The candidate will have the ability to understand and explain our services to key decision makers and stakeholders, and co-creating services to meet client needs.

* Design and implement a sales plan, fill your gross funnel and convert with high Lead to Opp and Opp to close success rates and strong funnel integrity.
* Establish and maintain existing relationships at senior levels within the target customer base.
* Establish internal relationships with consultants across Ricardo. Work closely with the Business Areas to ensure clear communication of customer requirements and match this to implementation capacity.
* Contribute to identifying new offerings and market requirements that the business can develop and sell to existing or new customers through established or new channels.
* Develop partner relationships with organisations who can support our service delivery and wider client needs and act as channels to help secure clients.
* Maintain the Ricardo premium brand and strong track record of delivering customer excellence.
* Identifying and communicating intelligence on market requirements and opportunities.
* Creating profitable customer solutions.
* Proactive management of sales funnel and activity.

This is an exciting opportunity for a professional and consultative Business Development individual looking to enhance their skills further within a rewarding and fast paced environmental consultancy business.

The behaviours we are looking for in our team members are:

* Drive and energy– you’ll need this to grow our business area - leveraging the excellent links, relationships and work we do. You have the drive to succeed and the humility to understand you are part of a team and require the skills and expertise of colleagues.
* Customer focused – your natural home is with the end customer and bring value by helping others place themselves in the customers shoes.You will love supporting our clients on their decarbonisation agenda and in creating lasting partnerships. You listen really hard to client needs and communicate these effectively to internal stakeholders.
* Sales integrity – you understand the importance of keeping our CRM system updated and use CRM as an expert to help you manage your activity and client relationships.
* Curiosity – you enjoy exploring new areas and subjects, asking questions that help to dig deeper into each subject area, and not being afraid to ask the ‘simple’ questions that many are too afraid to ask.
* Balanced – creating ‘win – win’ outcomes are your superpower, being comfortable when trading off competing perspectives for customer need, financial viability, and technical feasibility.
* Simplicity – you are constantly translating complex problems and solutions into simple language, pictures, and concepts, ensuring everyone from the technical engineer to the CEO is on the same page.
* Risk taker – you are not afraid of trying, failing and learning, demonstrating to others that failure is an outcome to be celebrated and nurtured. You understand you cannot succeed unless you have failed and learnt in the process.
* Caring – being kind to one another and expecting this in return is part of your core. You understand that everyone has the potential to be great and nurturing this growth by caring for each other is a part of your DNA. You will have strong emotional intelligence which you will apply to all your work.

Working here

You will be warmly welcomed into our workplace where every voice matters. We are diverse thinkers and doers, coming together to create a culture of inclusion. We will support you to find your place.

We will encourage you to use your passion and expertise to make a positive impact through the projects you work on. Your knowledge and desire to bring about change will be invaluable in helping deliver innovative solutions that support communities across the globe in becoming safer and more sustainable.

We also recognise that life is not static but is varied and flexible. For this reason, we also think that your work life should reflect this and have an open approach to how, where and when you work.

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 to ensure an inclusive culture, we are a recognised as a 'disability confident' employer.

Benefits

We want you to know how much you are valued. Your remuneration and benefits package will reflect that. You will receive a range of benefits which include support for your physical and mental health.

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 if you require any adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process.
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