Sales / Growth Director - Chemical Risk

Ricardo is looking for a passionate and experienced New Business Sales Director who will run our New Business Sales team, and lead on the strategic growth of our Chemical Risk business area. Ricardo has a strong pedigree within the chemical sector. A c. £11M business area with over 50 years legacy through operation of 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 to lead our existing new business sales team. 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 Chemical Risk Leadership team, reporting to our Head of Chemical.

Key accountabilities

• Strategic Growth – work with the Regulatory and Response capability leads to develop and execute sales strategies to drive revenue growth and achieve sales targets.
• Sales Leadership – full management and leadership of our new business sales team including a stretching order intake target for the function. Leading the team and inspiring high performance by providing strong mentorship, coaching and guidance.
• Leadership – supporting the Head of Chemical Risk and functional leadership with sales leadership, working collaboratively with other business leaders in the practice, to support synergetic growth of the business to meet set targets.
• Marketing – co-ordinating with the marketing function and technical area to design and implement high impact marketing campaigns.
• Stakeholder Management – working with a variety of stakeholders across sales, finance, marketing, development, operations, and customer success to make sure plans and projects are communicated and supported accordingly.

Key competencies and experience

• An exceptional people-leader, who can inspire and implement change.
• Leadership experience of sales, 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 strategy and making significant impact in the growth trajectory.
• 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.

Desirable experience

• 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.

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.

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 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 throughout the recruitment process.