Senior Consultant - Water

Overview

Role: Senior Consultant – Middle East Water

Location: Abu Dhabi or Dubai

Role ID: 2024-2619

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.

Clean Energy and Environmental Solutions (CE&ES) is one of Ricardo plc’s five operating business units. The Global Air, Land and Water Practice (GALWP) has been established within CE&ES, with staff based in the Middle East, UK, Europe and Australia. The GALWP seeks to grow a leading water advisory team in the Middle East, expanding our current project footprint and enhancing our ability to provide the highest levels of service to our clients in the region.

Role Purpose

We are seeking an experienced project management specialist to join the GALWP (with a focus on the water sector) as a Senior Consultant. You’ll be part of a team supporting our Middle East Water Director to deliver high-profile projects for government and utility clients in the region. Our work covers a broad range of topics including water strategy, policy and governance; water infrastructure economics and asset management; water security and climate adaptation; catchment management and environmental assessment; corporate water risk and reporting; and water pricing and economic regulation. Our customers include national and local governments, utilities, regulators, developers and corporates. You will also have the opportunity to support projects in other parts of Ricardo’s business, including on topics spanning sustainability, air quality, waste and resource management, climate change, and energy.

Key Responsibilities

• Effectively manage the whole project life-cycle, from bid/proposal development through to project execution and close-out.
• Manage project budgets, teams and delivery schedules to ensure timely and appropriate delivery of outputs to clients and accurate internal resource and revenue tracking and forecasting.
• Communicate clearly and effectively with clients and stakeholders that have varying technical understanding.
• Conduct research and analysis, and undertake drafting of project outputs (including reviewing the work of others), across multiple projects as needed.
• Ensure the quality and timely delivery of your work, collaborating with other members of the Ricardo team and sub-contractors as needed.
• Track and meet time, cost, and quality requirements to ensure client satisfaction.

Key Competencies and Experience

• University degree in engineering, economics, project management, science, geography or another field related to water management and services provision.
• Ability to manage technically complex water projects for government and utility clients.
• Strong project management skills to ensure a high level of service.
• Ability to manage and prioritise workload and assist others to do so.
• Effective stakeholder liaison and management skills, including to keep clients and internal project staff up to date with progress, programme changes and tasks.
• Excellent numeracy, analytical, and writing skills.
• Good collaborative team working and communication skills.
• Ability to manage and work to tight project deadlines and under pressure.
• Proactive approach with a commitment to high-quality work.
• Experience in water resource management and/or utility services provision.
• Ability to manage and support technical input into proposals.
• Fluency in English and native Arabic speaker.
• Strong computer skills, particularly in MS Excel and Word.

Desirable Competencies and Experience

• Understanding of international water policy and regulatory issues.
• Knowledge of Middle Eastern water sector legislative frameworks and regulations.
• Qualifications and/or certifications in project management.
• Experience in consultancy or customer-facing commercial roles.
• Willingness to travel internationally for projects.

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 of our culture, allowing employees to flourish and achieve their full potential.

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.

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. 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.

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@ricardo.com if you require any adjustments to support you through the recruitment process.