Role Title: Environmental Economist - Senior Consultant

Location: UK / London / Harwell / Shoreham / Manchester / Bristol / Glasgow / Spain / Madrid / Greece / Athens - Hybrid 

Job ID: 2024-2559

Our vision is to create a safe and sustainable world.

Ricardo is a leading sustainability consultancy combining energy, transport, environmental, climate change and chemical risk expertise with strong data science and economics capability. Ricardo is held in high regard by our clients for the in-depth insight we demonstrate, our passion for delivering quality, and our reputation for producing innovative solutions. We are acutely aware of the importance of our role in safeguarding and enhancing our environment and fully believe in our mission to create a world fit for the future.

The Environmental Policy team at Ricardo works with clients operating at the heart of environmental policymaking who need impartial evidence on the development, implementation and evaluation of policies, strategies and plans. Economic analysis is a critical component of the services we provide.

The team predominately supports public sector clients such as national governments, the European Commission and international bodies (e.g. the World Bank), as well as working for private sector clients. We deliver high-profile studies in areas that include industrial pollution control, air quality, chemicals and green finance. Our economists also collaborate with other teams covering climate change mitigation and adaptation, sustainable transport, circular economy, agriculture and nature.

Working in international, multi-disciplinary teams, you will help to win, manage and deliver high profile projects that play an integral role in driving regulatory approaches in Europe and worldwide. With support, you will write high quality proposals for customers, and contribute to other business development. You will play a central role in shaping projects, potentially extending to project management responsibility. You will also have opportunity to support the development of more junior colleagues.

You will use your economics skills to provide insights to inform policy decisions. You will be involved in policy impact assessments and evaluation, requiring skills in cost-benefit analysis, socio-economic analysis and feasibility assessment. We expect you to understand the processes for development of public policy and the methods for assessing the economic, environmental and social impacts of policies, programmes and measures, in accordance with UK HMT Green & Magenta Book or EU Better Regulation Guidelines.

Required competencies and experience

• Qualified to degree level, or equivalent, in economics.
• Relevant experience within consultancy, or potentially in government, research or industry.
• Experience and/or an interest to work as an applied economist in climate and environmental policy.
• Demonstrable understanding of environmental issues and UK/ EU/ international policy.
• The capacity and interest to work flexibly across multiple projects simultaneously and successfully manage competing priorities.
• Highly numerate, with a track record in carrying out complex quantitative analysis.
• Experience in some of the following:
  • Economic theory and policy cycle (ex ante impact assessment of policies and regulations; policy development and implementation, ex post evaluation of policies and programmes)
  • Tools and methods for: economic and/or financial modelling, data collection, validation and analysis, qualitative economic analysis, multi-criteria analysis.
• Confidence to effectively lead tasks, setting technical direction and effectively delegating to junior and senior colleagues as appropriate to deliver work effectively and efficiently
• Fluency in English (and Spanish if based in Spain) and excellent report writing skills

Desirable competencies and experience

• Knowledge of how to value health and ecosystem impacts of pollution.
• Experience in Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) strategy or assessment, supply chain analysis and/or employment impacts.
• Knowledge of business models, investment and/or financing for environment.
• Proficiency in using statistical or mathematical software.
• Understanding of structural economic modelling, Input – Output analysis, and international trade theory.
• Experience in preparing proposals and projects for international organisations and/or European Commission and/or national governments.
• Project management experience.
• Fluency in other European languages.

Skills and behaviours

• Demonstrate a passion to create a more sustainable world, and a clear motivation to work for Ricardo and align with its values.
• Enjoy solving complex analytical problems that feature economic analysis, and actively enjoy working on a wide range of topics that may initially be unfamiliar to them.
• Demonstrate exceptional critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills.
• Have excellent communication skills, both written and oral.
• Come to work with flexibility, resilience and enthusiasm.
• Be accurate and attentive to detail.
• Be an effective and proactive team worker.

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.

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 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.

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.