Commercial Operations Team Lead in Bristol

Our market leading power purchase agreement (PPA) platform has been changing how renewable energy is sold in the UK for 10 years and we’re just as ambitious now as we were in 2016. Our locally led segment covers everything from a single small asset through to small portfolios and community energy schemes, with account values typically between £350 and £100,000.

This role has two halves. The first is licence exempt supply, or LES. You own it as a commercial line: making it worth more to the generator, making it worth more to us, and building the operational machinery that lets it scale beyond a handful of deals. The second is supporting the Head of Client Success on commercial operations across the renewals cycle.

You will also lead a small team of two: an Account Manager focused on retaining and growing our existing locally led clients, and a Junior Sales Executive focused on winning new ones.

Tasks

• Delivering for clients: Own a portfolio of key accounts end to end, including running tenders. This is a hands-on role and the majority of the week is spent delivering for your own clients. Manage those accounts strategically: deepen existing relationships, build new ones across the client organisation, and make sure no account depends on a single contact. Identify and convert growth opportunities within accounts, both in client value delivered and in revenue retained and won. Act as the escalation point for the team's accounts and set the standard for how account management is done here, through call coaching, account reviews and shared best practice.
• Licence exempt supply, commercial: Own the LES proposition end to end for locally led generators: what we offer, to whom, at what price, and why a generator should choose it. Build and maintain the value case. Generators need to compare an LES route alongside a standard utility PPA on a like for like basis, with honest assumptions and objective insights. Work with offtakers and supply partners on LES products and commercial terms, including matching, fees and value distribution. Own the margin. Price so that value is shared fairly between the generator and Renewable Exchange, and so the economics still work at volume. Track the regulatory, levy and market developments that move the value of exempt supply, and translate them into a commercial position the team can actually use. Escalate contractual and regulatory questions to the right internal owner rather than improvising.
• Licence exempt supply, operations and systems: Design the operating process: eligibility screening, onboarding, data flows, settlement and reconciliation, invoicing, reporting. Build it into our systems, working with the platform, product and finance teams. Manual workarounds are a starting point, not a destination. Write the playbooks, templates and checklists so the process is people agnostic. Report on LES volume, revenue and pipeline to the Head of Client Success and to the wider leadership team.
• Commercial operations across the renewals cycle: Support the Head of Client Success on renewals forecasting, tender scheduling and pipeline hygiene across the client base. Own the reporting that tells us how the renewals cycle is actually performing, not how we hoped it would. Find and fix the friction. Where the renewals process leaks time, value or clients, propose the change and then deliver it. Hold the line on CRM data quality, because every pipeline forecast downstream depends on it.
• Leading the team: Line manage two people: an Account Manager and a Junior Sales Executive. One to ones, objectives, development and performance for both. Run two different motions well. Retaining and growing existing accounts is a different job from winning new ones, with different rhythms, different metrics and different coaching needs. Do not manage them as if they are the same. Own the new business number for the locally led segment alongside the retention number, and hold the Junior Sales Executive to a clear activity and pipeline standard. Develop a junior hire properly. This is likely to be someone earlier in their career who needs structure, feedback and real time in front of clients. Coach on commercial conversations, not just process. Set the standard for how we talk to community energy boards and small generators. Plan capacity across the renewals calendar so the peaks are covered.

Requirements

What good looks like after six months: Targets to be agreed with the Head of Client Success in month one, against a baseline set at the same time. LES is a defined, documented and repeatable service rather than a series of one off deals. LES volume and margin have grown against the agreed baseline. Time to process an LES arrangement has fallen measurably. Renewal rates in the locally led segment have held at above 90%. New business into the locally led segment is running to an agreed and predictable rate, with a pipeline that supports the following year. Both direct reports are performing, developing and forecasting reliably.

Skills and experience

• Essential: Strong commercial numeracy. Comfortable building and stress testing a pricing or value model and defending the assumptions. Formal line management experience. Demonstrable process design experience. You have taken something messy and made it simple and repeatable, and can talk through how. Confident with contracts and regulation at a commercial level. You do not need to be a lawyer, but you need to know what you are reading and when to escalate. Experience managing or mentoring others, formally or informally. You will be developing a junior hire, not just directing one. Enough new business experience to coach it credibly. You do not need to have carried a large quota, but you need to know what good prospecting and pipeline discipline look like. Credible in front of clients, from a volunteer community energy board to an institutional asset manager. Fluent with CRM and reporting tools.
• Desirable: Working knowledge of the UK power market and routes to market for renewable generation, including PPAs and export arrangements. Direct experience of licence exempt supply, private wire or sleeved supply arrangements. Experience in the community energy sector. HubSpot.

Benefits: Competitive Bonus scheme alongside flexible working that fits around school drop offs, pick ups and other life activities. 25 days' annual leave plus bank holidays, with the option to buy up to 5 extra days a year. 1 extra day of annual leave for every year of service after 5 years, up to a maximum of 5 extra days. Private health insurance provided by Vitality. A positive and supportive culture with regular team events, incentives and social activities. A 3 month sabbatical after 4 years of service. Enhanced parental leave. Maternity and adoption at 12 weeks full pay followed by SMP, paternity and partner leave at 6 weeks full pay to take any time in your child's first year, plus shared parental leave. Salary sacrifice scheme for electric cars, and cycle to work. An annual allowance of £100 towards your professional development, plus access to other development resources. Group pension scheme. Central Bristol office with bike storage and shower facilities.

At Renewable Exchange we are committed to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. We encourage people from every diverse background to apply; even if you aren’t sure if you meet all of the criteria we would love to hear from you! Want a place where you can grow, make a real impact and be part of a great team? At Renewable Exchange we’re a small, passionate team with a culture that values people as much as performance. We collaborate, we celebrate difference and we back each other. Everyone here has room to shine, innovate and contribute directly to the company’s success. You won’t be another cog in the machine. You’ll be part of a mission-driven team working to make the renewable energy sector more transparent, efficient and accessible. Together we’re driving the transition to net zero and leaving a lasting mark on our industry and the environment.