Sales / Growth Director - Chemical Risk

Location: London / Harwell / Shoreham / Manchester / Bristol / Glasgow / Hybrid

Job ID:

Ricardo is looking for a passionate and experienced Growth and Sales Director who will run our Sales and Customer teams, and lead on the strategic growth of our Chemical Risk business area.

Ricardo has a strong pedigree within the chemical sector. A c. GBP11M business area with over 50 years legacy through operating the National Chemical Emergency Centre (NCEC), we have a suite of emergency response, chemical safety and compliance solutions.

The core objective of this role is to provide strategic growth support to the technical areas within the team and lead our existing new business and account management sales team, and our developing Customer Experience capability. Growth is the primary focus, and ensuring the business achieves its annual orders intake targets through securing a high value, profitable and deliverable book of work.

This role will form part of Ricardo's wider Chemical Risk Leadership team, reporting to our Head of Chemical Risk, and supporting the wider Clean Energy and Environmental Solutions.

Key accountabilities

1. Sales Leadership – Full management and leadership of our existing sales team of 10 Sales and Account Management professionals, and the combined target for the function. Leading the team and inspiring high performance by providing strong mentorship, coaching and guidance.
2. Customer Centricity – Alongside the sales and account management team, the role is also responsible for our Customer Experience team. Driving proactive interactions with our 650 customers, collating key market insights and identifying opportunities to upsell.
3. Strategic Growth – Work with the Regulatory and Response capability leads to develop and execute sales strategies to drive revenue growth and achieve sales targets.
4. Marketing – Co–ordinating with the marketing function and technical area to design and implement high impact marketing campaigns.
5. Leadership – Supporting the 'Head of Chemical Risk' and functional leadership with the overall sales leadership and work collaboratively with other business leaders within the practice supporting synergetic growth of the business as required.
6. Stakeholder Management – Work with a variety of stakeholders across sales, finance, marketing, development, operations, and customer success to ensure plans and projects are communicated accordingly.

Key competencies and experience

The successful candidate should be able to demonstrate the below criteria:

• Leadership experience of sales, account management, customer engagement and strategic growth.
• Track record of over–performance and a growth trajectory within an established business / sales function.
• Ability to make independent course–corrective interventions to improve overall team performance.
• Demonstrable experience of quickly entering a business and understanding the sales strategy and go-to-market, and making significant impact in the growth trajectory.
• An exceptional people–leader, who can inspire and implement change.
• A professional, organised and disciplined individual who has a proven track record of effectively and efficiently managing an existing team.
• An awareness of how to make effective decisions in a complex delivery environment, balancing the business development objectives with the clients' requirements.
• Experience in using sales performance data to develop and implement strategies for improvement.
• Experience of working within a consultative sales environment, for example within a consultancy, software, or similar environment.
• Experience in working within a sustainability, risk management, chemical response, regulatory or safety business area.

Skills and behaviours

• You are a team player that thrives in helping others succeed.
• An organised, commercially aware, target-focused professional who appreciates excellent customer service and client relationships are critical to achieving this.
• A team player able to work with a wide range of stakeholders both inside and outside of the organisation.
• Committed to continuous improvement of the business, the service delivery, and the clients' risk management.
• Enthusiastic about sharing knowledge and expertise with the team to encourage improvement in the function of the team as a whole.
• Comfortable working in a dynamic operational environment, occasionally involving elements of quick decision-making.
• Willing to embrace Ricardo's values and aim to lead others towards high standards of behaviour and performance.

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 to achieve their full potential.

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.

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 proactively with all our employees and to ensure an inclusive culture, we are 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 if you require any adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process.