Associate Director - Land Policy

Overview

Role: Associate Director - Land Policy

Location: UK / London / Harwell / Shoreham / Manchester / Bristol / Glasgow / Spain – Hybrid

Role ID: 2024-2535

Our vision is to create a safe and sustainable world.

Ricardo plc is a global strategic, environmental, and engineering consulting company. 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.

Key Accountabilities

Client management and sales

• Proactively develop new client relationships and expand existing ones, targeting key sectors and emerging opportunities. Actively contribute to business development by identifying and pursuing new market opportunities, particularly through networks and partnerships.
• Leverage existing networks and frameworks and build new partnerships to increase visibility and drive business development. Take a lead role in identifying and converting opportunities for new service offerings that align with market needs/
• Accountable for new orders and delivering sustainable growth. Working as part of the Land Practice leadership team to define Business Development strategy, marketing strategy, and developing new capabilities and efficient delivery.
  
  

Financial performance

• Participate in budget setting management of performance against agreed areas of focus and responsibility.
• Work closely with the leadership team to identify and capitalize on business growth opportunities. Drive financial success by aligning the team’s capabilities with market demands and delivering tailored solutions that increase client engagement and satisfaction.
  
  

Operational performance

• Ensure that defined project portfolio is managed.
• Ensure that all project activities and outputs are of a quality consistent with required standards and that any activities and processes that are defined meet all requirements , ensuring that all areas of responsibility operate safely, ethically and in line with all statutory and corporate requirements.
  
  

Capability building

• Develop the team's capability not only in technical skills but also in market knowledge and client engagement, ensuring they contribute to business growth.
  
  

Market knowledge and profile raising

• Expand external presence through active participation in industry forums, conferences, and thought leadership initiatives, positioning Ricardo as a key player in the Land based sector. Build relationships with influential stakeholders, including industry bodies, government agencies, and private-sector leaders.
• Lead the research and analysis of land use policies, ensuring alignment with current trends and best practices.
• Develop comprehensive policy recommendations that balance economic, environmental, and social factors.
• Evaluate existing policies for effectiveness and propose modifications based on evidence and stakeholder feedback.
• Contribute to the organization’s strategic planning process by providing insights into land use trends and policy implications.
• Monitor and report on national and international developments in land and agricultural policy, identifying potential impacts and opportunities.
• Lead efforts to increase the team profile through targeted marketing and communication efforts, including publishing insights, participating in panels, and engaging with key stakeholders through industry networks.
• M aintain deep market knowledge, detailed awareness of regional competitor landscape, funding opportunities and work with the Global Lead to identify new opportunities to expand our services.
• Develop strong, collaborative & supportive internal relationships with leaders across the organisation (region, Practice, Group). Lead and coach direct reports and other team members to do the same.
  
  

Resourcing and people management

• Define the resourcing needs within delivery area and contribute to the overall strategy, ensuring a balance of cost and flexibility, identify opportunities to create external partnerships in line with the Practice strategy.
• Enable people development, coaching and mentoring direct reports and key individuals, and holding others to account with regard to their own and their team’s development.
• Encourage team members to engage more directly with clients and external stakeholders, promoting a client-first mindset. Foster a culture of business development within the team by mentoring staff in sales and client relationship management.
• Build succession for key roles within their team (including own) and drive talent attraction and retention within the business.
• Support changes in operating model and ways of working to enable a move towards more consistent, efficient and, where possible, digitally enabled processes and systems. A dapt to new market, geographies and growth opportunities.
  
  

Key Competencies And Experience

We are not specific regarding exact qualifications or years of experience, the right person will bring the energy and capability to drive significant growth, performance and engagement, with the following background experiences:

Essential

• Proven experience in client relationship management, with a strong network within policy, the Land sector or related industries.
• A track record of winning new business through active engagement with industry stakeholders, collaboration with partners and leveraging networks to identify and win successful projects.
• Proven strong people leadership, including development, mentoring and coaching of individuals and being an inspirational presence for the wider business.
• Proficiency in project management and strategic planning, with a results-oriented approach.
• Appropriate industry and market knowledge relevant to the Practice (Land sector and associated environmental policy and regulation)
• Used to working with business systems and analysing financial/operational data and utilising these to make decisions and continuous improvements.
  
  

Desirable

• Technically relevant degree level or above academic qualifications and experience.
• A passionate advocate for sustainable land use and agricultural practices.
• Ability to think critically and creatively to address complex policy challenges.
• Commitment to professional development and continuous learning.
• Working across business areas and capabilities to create differentiated solutions and develop new business.
• Appreciation of and receptiveness to digital enablement and systems implementation.
• Experience of working in a complex / matrix global organisation.
  
  

Skills And Behaviours

• Proactive and outward-facing with strong networking and relationship-building abilities, able to drive new business opportunities and expand the organisation’s market presence.
• Excellent relationship building, communication and interpersonal skills.
• Commercially focused with an entrepreneurial mindset, capable of identifying and pursuing opportunities for growth, and aligning business objectives with market trends and client needs.
• Able to provide a consistent, resilient leadership shadow that promotes global inclusivity, a growth mindset and collaboration across the organisation, and embodies the Ricardo values, to create a supportive, engaging and challenging environment for our people.
• Strong client-centric focus, able to build and maintain high-impact client relationships, resulting in increased market share and business growth.
• Analytical, with the ability to make connections across a complex organisation.
• Positive minded, pragmatic and outcome focused, with the ability to deliver tangible results.
  
  

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.

Work life balance

We offer flexible approaches to work, whether that is 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.

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

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.

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.

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 [email protected] if you require any adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process.